Franchise Trend #4: Tech in the trades

Boring businesses are the best businesses, if you ask me.?

Maybe it’s the midwesterner in me that thinks the word “change” is a curse word, but the concepts that excite me the most aren’t the faddy, flashes in the pan, next big things. It’s the steady business that taps into a consistent consumer demand with key differentiators.?

“But isn’t this series supposed to be what’s hot in franchising, not what’s old?”

Yes, but bear with me.

Tree service or garage door repair companies aren’t innovative business models, and certainly don’t fall into the category of “trends." But the modern ways that brands in the trades and home service spaces are leveling up their game via technology are game-changing

Even if you can’t get excited about painting or gutter clean out.

The truth is, most mom and pop home service businesses are stale. If you need to replace your blinds, for example, you’ll have a hard time finding an intuitive website for a local service provider, a harder time getting them on the phone, and an even harder time getting them to show up on time.?

Most houses have blinds, which inevitably break and go out of style. And the only option most people have to upgrade their blinds is to navigate through a website that was last updated when Bush was president.

Frustrating. And the same can be said for the pool cleaning, fencing, or renovation industries.

But where there's widespread consumer frustration, you’ll often find big opportunities for streamlined business operations to capture market share rapidly.?

In order to become the best provider in town for so many of these home service categories, you need:

• A functional website that shows up when you search “(blank service) near me.”
• Someone who picks up the phone when a client raises their hand for your service.
• A friendly face who shows up on time, does a decent job, and moves onto the next site.

Talk about low-hanging fruit.

This is where franchisors come in and equip local franchisees to grow in a hurry.

• They bring a built-in brand and an established website, fully loaded with a marketing department that knows how to get your page as the first option on Google via search engine optimization.
• They have in-house call centers teed up to field requests for interested customers.?
• They offer battle tested customer service training to equip team members to stand out from the competition.

From day one, solid franchise brands empower local owners to dominate their markets, just by doing the basics.?

But that’s not all.?

For owners wanting to breathe even more innovation into their service business, franchisors are bringing other unique features to the table.?

If you’d like to start up your own lawn care business, the traditional sales cycle includes an owner receiving an inquiry, driving out to the prospect’s house, taking a look around and writing up a quote later on that day.?

Before the prospect moves forward, maybe they haggle over price, which means more emails and phone calls, and less time making money.

Franchisees in the lawn care space can take advantage of AI-generated quoting mechanisms, where all a prospect has to do is type his/her address in, and AI instantly collaborates with Google maps to retrieve the square footage of his/her house and spit out a quote in seconds.?

Think of all the time an owner gets back in his/her week when they can outsource quoting to AI. This means more time forming strategic partnerships, expanding to new territory, or maybe even managing a business from the beach.?

The current homeowner is becoming more tech savvy, less inclined to talk to a live person, and much less able to fix odds and ends around the house.

As a millennial living in a home, the first thing I do if I need something beyond a weekly grass cutting, is pulling out my phone and finding who can help. Chances are, I give my business to the easiest website that pops up first on my search engine.

And I know I’m not the only one who rolls this way.?

Home service needs aren’t going anywhere, regardless of who wins the election or what’s going on in the stock market. The businesses that adapt to new consumer behavior will continue to grow.

And many of these businesses are franchises.