Podcast Episode Transcript

Pay is not why your technicians leave. Your workflow is.

Welcome to Ucora's podcast for mechanical service company owners and operators. We share practical ways to lead with trust, respect, and ownership so your technicians stay motivated and committed for the long run.

Let's get started.

Today we are tackling something huge in commercial mechanical services. Technician turnover. It costs millions. It really does. And the source material we are drawing from suggests the answer is not simply pay or perks. It might actually be the software your technicians use every day, and how it is designed.

Here is the core conflict we are seeing. Owners generally know what keeps good technicians. Autonomy, feeling respected, seeing a career path. The basics of good management. Exactly. But then you look at the field service software most companies use and it often feels almost adversarial, like it is working against those goals. It treats technicians like cogs in a machine, which leads to the high turnover that everyone seems to accept as normal. Depressingly normal.

And that is where the critique from these sources really bites. They argue that the big software players claim to be people first, but they focus almost entirely on what management wants. Tracking, compliance, dispatch control. The technician's actual workflow and needs are often sidelined. It is a critical oversight. They design for control, not empowerment.

Which sets the stage for a very different approach.

Ucora, the company behind GamePlanPro, did not simply jump into software. They have more than 35 years under their belt. Since the early 1990s they have built custom workflow systems across dozens of service fields and saw firsthand what worked and what did not, on the ground.

All that custom work gave them serious insight. It led to a pivotal moment about 25 years ago when they adopted a model they called CSaaS, custom software as a service. It was cloud hosted, which was forward thinking at the time. But here is the key detail. Zero fee increases for custom improvements requested by the client.

Zero cost for custom tweaks. How did that work financially? And more importantly, what did it do to the feedback process?

This is where the model flipped the power dynamic. Usually management controls the budget, so they decide what software features get built. But when improvements are free, the technicians who use the software every day suddenly have real influence. Their voices mattered because there was no cost barrier to listening to them. Since technicians outnumber management in feedback meetings, and since they tend to be blunt about what works and what is annoying, the software evolved around their needs.

That is what the sources describe. The platform shifted from a management tool to something that helped technicians do their jobs better, faster, and with more confidence.

So did it work? The sources mention dramatic outcomes. When the software focused on technician skill development and reducing friction in their day, the business impact was significant. Some companies doubled revenue in a year without adding staff. Average growth rates across the client base exceeded 30 percent. And turnover, the issue we started with, plummeted.

It apparently reached the point where GamePlanPro companies had a lineup of technicians wanting to join because word spread that these were better places to work, partly because of the software.

That level of success created an unexpected business problem. Customers saw the software as a strategic advantage and did not want competitors to get access to it. Some told Ucora they were becoming a victim of their own success and were hesitant to refer them.

This pushed Ucora to evolve its offering. They could not rely solely on custom projects if their best clients were gatekeeping referrals. They took the common elements refined over decades and packaged them into two main plans. There is the fully custom enterprise version of GamePlanPro for complex needs, and there is GamePlanPro Flex, which is highly configurable, lower cost, and more off the shelf. Both keep the technician centered.

Now, what does this mean for a technician's day? Autonomy, empowerment, information symmetry, transparency. What does that look like on a Tuesday morning?

It means technicians have the information they need when they need it. They can see job history, parts information, and schedules. They are not constantly calling dispatch for basics. There is less friction and more flow. They can self coordinate and manage their own day. They are treated like a business within the business, not just task doers. That kind of respect leads to loyalty.

It also influences the customer experience. One anecdote describes a major buyer, a property management firm, that made using GamePlanPro a requirement for any mechanical contractor bidding on their work. Why? Because the transparency and efficiency gave them a more reliable service experience. They trusted contractors using it more.

Managers benefit too. Their role shifts from command and control to mentoring and development. They spend less time chasing paperwork because the system provides the visibility they need. Owners see fewer fires, less stress, and more predictable growth.

It also explains Ucora's guarantee. They offer a no obligation trial and state plainly that if you are not satisfied, you pay nothing. The fact that 98 percent of their customers stay for ten to twenty years supports the confidence behind that offer.

So here is the takeaway for you, the listener. The best software is not only about tracking more efficiently. It is about changing the dynamic. It turns your platform into a loyalty engine.

Which brings us to a final thought. If caring for your teams means using tools that empower them instead of monitoring them, what assumptions inside your current software might be working against your growth and pushing your best people out the door?

Something to consider.

That is the end of today's episode. Thanks for listening. Share these ideas with your colleagues and remember to visit ucora.com for more on building motivated, long lasting teams.