Smarter Chimney Sweep Software

Before Smart Service

Bill Hussel founded the Wisconsin-based Chimney Doctors in 1981 with two employees. His goal was to be the most high tech, professional chimney company in the business. The company grew rapidly and now boasts a fighting weight of 30 full time employees. Their territory now extends across state lines. Along with this rapid growth came some new challenges. Principally, Bill needed a better way to analyze the return on investment of his marketing dollars. Chimney Doctors was heavily invested in yellow pages advertising (to the tune of $120,000 a year) without any way of measuring the effectiveness of the expenditure. In addition, office staff managed scheduling using information stored in bulky, obtuse, three-ring binders. With such an obviously inefficient system, Bill knew that the way forward involved finding a better way to handle the scheduling process. Bill discovered Smart Service at a trade show. After sitting through a demo at the My Service Depot booth, he asked the sales representative, “Where have you been? I have been looking for a product like this for over five years!”

After Smart Service

Bill started using Smart Service to track his marketing expenses. By running reports monthly, Bill was able to see the ratio of dollars spent to sales coming in from each campaign. Immediately, Bill discovered that the ratio of cost to revenue from yellow page ads hovered in the 2:1 or 3:1 range. Smart Service allowed Bill to cut his full page ads to 1” column ads without a second thought. Smart Service also heralded the elimination of the three-ring binder parade. Overall, Chimney Doctors’ sales have increased 4-5% per year since the installation of Smart Service. “Smart Service has saved us enormous amounts of money, and the savings are annual,” says Bill. “It’s not a one time deal. Smart Service is a solution that every service business needs.” “As a business owner, you are always looking for those gold-plated ideas where you buy something and get a huge payback. In my 24 years in business, purchasing Smart Service ranks in the top five of the best decisions I have made." We have saved over $150,000 per year in advertising and are now channeling some of those dollars into more productive campaigns. Smart Service gets more valuable over time because we are using it more and more.”