Have you ever noticed a landscaping service provider broadening its offerings and begin providing home maintenance services similar to what your company offers? The resounding “yes” tells us just how common this experience is. This move to diversify service offerings is due to the rising trend of urbanization—which shows no sign of slowing down.
By the end of 2025, the home service industry is projected to reach $500 billion. This double-edged sword brings both opportunities and additional pressure. With the rising demand and competition, customers expect to have their expectations not only met but also exceeded.
In this article, we’ll take a deeper look into every aspect. First, let’s explore the positive trend of the home service industry. Understanding the opportunity will help us draft strategies. Let’s get started.
The Rising Trend of On-demand service in Home Service:
What’s happening here?
Here is a part of the answer: It’s generational. We have a huge contingent of new customers who are constantly plugged into the Internet, are always running behind, and want their problems fixed instantly. Yes, it’s the Gen Z-ers and millennials. They are the true “digital natives”. They have been exposed to the Internet since their youth and prefer everything on demand.
With tightly packed lifestyles, they have become accustomed to having instant access to products and services. They prefer on-demand services over weekend DIY projects. Here are a few reasons WHY the new digital natives prefer “on-demand” services:
- Convenience
- Easy to access
- Speed
- Time-saving
This generational shift has played a key role in reshaping customers’ preferences and purchasing decisions.
Millennials and Gen-Z have more on-demand services than any other generation, spending two times as much. – Accenture
Another part of the answer: The technological revolution has played a key role in reshaping customer behavior and how they interact with businesses. Mobile phone accessibility has made all the difference. With the increased availability of the Internet, customers have become accustomed to their world being “on-demand.” Home service businesses are no exception.
But what lead to this shift?
Today, every customer has access to mobile phones, and they play a key role in customers’ purchasing decisions. The average individual watches videos online and reads reviews before deciding which product or service to invest their money in.
Moreover, customers today don’t just look for services to satisfy their needs. Before deciding to spend their money, customers seek out brands with good reputations for both customer service and convenience. The increasing interest in on-demand service in the home service sector has only helped to accelerate its growth.
Let’s take a look at this shift in customer preferences.
Understanding the new generation of customers
Accenture predicts that one billion new online shoppers will enter the market in the next decade. This will create significant growth opportunities for on-demand services, shifting the business’s focus from the quality of service to improving customer experience and making them feel valued.
Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha are emerging customers from eight different fast-growing countries. This generational shift mandates the need for a strategic approach to capitalize on this opportunity. (On-demand services are what we mean).
Let’s now put ourselves in the shoes of Gen Z to understand how the new generation of customers shop. Gen Z consumers are digital natives with access to information at their fingertips. This trend reflects their pragmatic approach to money and education. Other key factors influencing their decision are their affinity for technology, belief in social causes, and a strong individualistic streak.
That’s why top companies like APPLE started having a recycling policy that reflects their environmental concern—helping them position themselves with a unique streak.
As we continue to evolve, so do our customers’ behavior and preferences for their products and services. Understanding this transformation helps you to ensure that you’re not left behind. But there still prevails a bit of confusion around what they like, how they act, and what businesses need to do to appeal to them.
In general, Gen Z’ers display the following consumer behavior:
- They tend to be ‘informed consumers’ and often research options before deciding.
- They tend to be much less attached to specific brands, preferring to shop around for the best deal.
- They place high importance on brand ethics and corporate responsibility, even more so than Millennials.
- Out of all the generations, they’re the most likely to shop via social media.
While Gen Z’ers are price-conscious, they aren’t as price-centric as some previous generations. Products and brands must show value, quality, and ethical practices to tap into the Gen Z wallet.
A survey by IBM found that product choice, availability, convenience, and value are the top influencing factors for Gen Z when choosing channels to purchase. Home service businesses can tap into this potential by offering services at the customer’s convenience, which on-demand services provide.
How can home service businesses tap into this growing opportunity?
On-demand services have profoundly affected our daily lives without us realizing it. From the way we eat, shop, and even date, our lives have undergone tremendous changes because of the on-demand economy. So, why not household chores and errands?
Global on-demand home cleaning services are estimated to grow a CAGR of 60.78% between 2022 and 2026. Tapping on this opportunity can boost your business to grow at a tremendous rate. So, how can your business capitalize on this opportunity and transform into a revenue-generating machine? Before going any further, let’s take a look at what on-demand services actually mean for the home service industry.
As the name suggests, it means delivering household services “ON DEMAND.” It involves offering home services like plumbing, cleaning, HVAC, painting, and every other home fix and repair at the convenience of your customers. Home services businesses offer these services on a online platform where customers can hire professionals for their household chores with a matter of clicks.
When we look at this from the business perspective, it involves dispatching your technicians at the customer’s demand. It may sound similar to the traditional model, but trust us, it’s not the same. Traditionally, will need to manually scroll through different spreadsheets and check different dashboards, looking for a technician with relevant skills.
However, with dispatching management software, you no longer need to rely on old-school processes. Your customers can book a service appointment at their convenience using a self-service portal. With this software, you can easily identify the nearest technician, look at their skill sets, and, if appropriate, assign them the job. The most exciting part is that everything can done with a single platform.
Sounds fascinating, right? But that’s not all. With dispatching management software, you can streamline your entire field operations, from scheduling appointments to collecting payments.
Read more: 4 Powerful Ways to Improve Your Dispatch Process
Let’s take a closer look at what dispatch management is and how it can be a lifesaving tool for home service providers.
What is Dispatch Management and Why Does Your Business Need It?
Dispatch management is the process through which home service businesses can manage, allocate, and monitor their field service operations in real time. It plays a vital role in ensuring your entire field service operation runs without any disruption. Helping your business not just meet expectations but exceed them.
Dispatch management is a multi-step process that combines different aspects of field service managment into one centralized platform. By optimizing the best route to a service call, tracking technician location, providing access to historical job data, and allowing for the collection of payments on-site, you can eliminate the need to juggle between different platforms.
Here is how dispatch management software works:
Let’s understand how dispatch management software works:
For instance, let’s say your customer books a service appointment for house cleaning. Here is where the dispatch management software comes in. With software like Zuper, you can easily schedule a job with a simple drag-and-drop option. You’ll have all the customer data and technician scheduling available, allowing you to find the technician with the correct skill set and equip them with all the tools necessary.
You can even track the job status in real time and generate invoices to collect payments on-site. Here is a sneak peek into Zuper’s intelligent dispatching software:
Strategies for Streamlining Home Service Jobs Using Dispatch Management Software
Leverage smarter planning and workforce allocation:
Planning job assignments involves continuously getting on calls and tirelessly scrolling through spreadsheets, looking for an available technician. What if you never have to play the “back-and-forth call game” again? Yes, you heard it right. Dispatch management software allows dispatchers to easily locate the nearest available technicians and allocate jobs based on location, skillset, and coverage zones—eliminating the need for back-and-forth calls to schedule an appointment.
Learn how to Streamline Scheduling and Dispatching with Zuper’s Intelligent Field Service Management Solution
Let’s say your customer calls you to book a plumbing appointment. With Zuper’s Intelligent dispatch board, you get complete visibility and transparency into the entire scheduling process—from jobs and resources to technicians’ locations.
Finding a technician’s availability no longer requires getting on a call—Zuper does everything for you. It considers employee’s skills,, performance, and availability. Zuper allows you to easily schedule a job or reschedule a job with a simple drag-and-drop.
Bundle services
Bundle marketing is a great strategy to offer multiple services as a package for a single price. It combines different services and offers them as a package deal at a discount for your customers. It gives you a 1+1=3 results, i.e., it drives revenue, keeps your customers coming back, and makes marketing easier.
When done correctly, it can make your business stand out from the crowd. It offers unique solutions for specific customer needs. However, if it is not implemented correctly, this marketing strategy can actually hurt your business. By following the steps below, you can ensure that you keep your business in the black.
- Shift your focus from cost to value
- Appeal to customers with various budgets
Dispatch management software like Zuper allows you to offer different bundled services to your customers. With Zuper’s proposal feature, you can strategically bundle services into versatile packages catered to the diverse needs of your customers. You no longer have to offer multiple services—simply choose from pre-defined packages like Bronze, Silver, and Gold, or customize them further by adding or removing items for a truly personalized touch.
Click here to learn more about Zuper’s proposal feature.
Automate for Efficiency:
Automation is no longer an innovation. It has become a norm. Over 73% of your employees struggle with 50+ recurring tasks each week. What if you could cut those burdens with automation? It not only saves time and money but also reduces the effort required.
On average, a home services business might take 5-7 service calls daily. Imagine the amount of documentation that comes with each of these calls. Retrieving and managing all those documents can be a nightmare.
Let the software do the heavy lifting for you! With dispatch management software like Zuper, technicians can easily upload images, submit forms, and attach notes for specific work orders. Providing them with easy-to-use tools that can access job-related information from anywhere eliminates redundancy and improves productivity.
Remember those recurring jobs we were talking about? Zuper enables you to streamline workflow by automating repetitive tasks. But it does not end there. Zuper comes with a variety of automation features, like sending alerts and notifications of job status. You can even set up custom notifications upon certain conditions tailored to your business needs.
“ Zuper excels in effective communication between staff members and customers. With Zuper, our customers can receive timely notifications and stay well-prepared for visits from field technicians. Moreover, Zuper streamlines processes, saving valuable time and enhancing logistical operations.”
– Eduardo Samayoa
Co-Founder & CEO.
Here is what you can do with Zuper:
- You can set alerts based on the job’s start and end time
- Send delayed reminders to your stakeholders.
- Create custom notifications to notify every stakeholder
- Set trigger notifications based on job status and more.
Gain Complete Visibility and Control:
The field service industry is cluttered with hidden costs due to inefficient route planning, wasted time, and mileage. These hidden expenses can quickly drain profits. Leveraging the power of Zuper, you can identify hidden costs and stay on top of your entire field service operation.
Dispatch management software brings transparency and visibility to field service and ensures nothing goes unnoticed. With the Zuper tracking feature, you can know precisely where your technician is, the time taken to complete the job, and even the parts used on a service call. This increased visibility boosts accountability among the technicians. It allows you to allocate resources appropriately, eliminating over or understocking-technician inventories.
Increased visibility brings better control of your entire field service operations and enables you to promptly address issues without the need to call around for special attention. Say your customer cancels your appointment at the last minute. You can re-assign a different job to the technician, reducing unnecessary travel and maximizing jobs resolved in a day.
Make Data-Driven Decisions for Continuous Improvement:
There is an element of risk involved in every business decision we make. But data-driven decisions reduce the risk of choosing incorrectly. Relying on data helps you to understand your business performance and the potential of your business.
A tracking technician enables you to identify key skill sets and align them with your organizational goals. Tracking team performance can give you detailed metrics to identify areas for improvement and allow you to reward high achievers.
Zuper reporting and analytics give you robust data on your workforce performance, productivity, and profitability. You can access data for any business metric you desire without feeling overwhelmed. With Zuper’s advanced filter options, you can effortlessly dive deep and extract precisely the information you need. What’s more, you have the flexibility to create customized reports tailored to different users within your organization while maintaining control over access at every level.
Zuper is designed with your convenience in mind. You can easily customize your dashboard without the need for complex coding. Just drag and drop widgets to create a more tailored and user-friendly experience.
Integrate with existing Workflows for a Cohesive System:
While many dispatch management solutions offer basic functionalities like route planning and scheduling, they often exist in silos, disconnected from your broader business operations. This isolates data, hinders efficiency, and can lead to frustrating errors.
Zuper goes beyond—integrating seamlessly with your existing ecosystem, empowering you to unlock the full potential of your field service business.
1. Billing Integration: No more creating invoices manually. Zuper integrates seamlessly with popular accounting software like QuickBooks, ensuring automatic invoice generation and payment updates, saving you time, and minimizing errors.
2. Inventory Management: Ensure your technicians have the right tools at the right time. Connect Zuper with your inventory management system to track stock levels, trigger automatic reorders, and avoid costly delays.
3. Customer Satisfaction: Keep customers informed and engaged. Zuper integrates with communication platforms to enable real-time job updates, appointment reminders, and feedback collection. Deliver exceptional service and build lasting customer relationships.
The benefits don’t stop there. Zuper also integrates with payment processing platforms, payroll software, and industry-specific applications, creating a unified ecosystem tailored to your unique needs.
Unified Solution for Your Field Operations for Seamless Management:
Imagine managing all your appointments, tracking progress, and resolving issues from a single, centralized platform. Zuper’s dispatch management software offers a unified command center, empowering you to streamline your entire field operation. Provide accurate arrival times to customers with real-time ETAs based on live traffic data, technician location, and more. Interested to learn more about Zuper? Schedule a free demo with us today.
