Faces of the Frontline: Slavko, Stephen, and Masi from ServiceMaster share their Skedulo story

Founded in 1981, ServiceMaster Clean Vancouver is a leading residential cleaning company based in Canada. They deliver a full suite of cleaning services including floor care and window and gutter cleaning to homes and residential properties.

Slavko, Stephen and Masi are part of ServiceMaster Clean in Vancouver, Canada, an independent licensed business by ServiceMaster Canada. 

Slavko has been with the company for almost a decade and progressed from field operations to Operations Manager. 

Stephen is a senior crew leader and manages a field team that provides exterior cleaning services for residential and commercial customers. 

Masi also works in the field within the floor care, carpet and exterior division.

Life on the job before Skedulo

ServiceMaster Vancouver switched to Skedulo in 2018 after struggling with several field management systems. 

David Benoit, President and Owner of ServiceMaster Clean Vancouver says, “We began with a program where we’d create a daily schedule, print it out, and email a PDF to every crew member. If a schedule didn’t get sent, the crew member didn’t receive it, or there was a change, there were problems. 

“We then moved to a mobile app where the crew had all the job details on their phones. But it was still a static schedule so we couldn’t make changes or rely on it too much. 

“When we started using Salesforce we wanted something that would integrate, so tried another platform that had that functionality. It worked OK but we couldn’t get the visibility or system of record we needed back in the office.”

Having started out in the field team, Slavko also remembers life at ServiceMaster before Skedulo. 

“We’d get emails every evening with where we needed to be the next day,” says Slavko. “It meant we could never plan our schedules, or our lives, ahead of time.”

Masi and Stephen don’t remember a time without Skedulo, but both say they would have found any other system very difficult. 

“If I was dealing with loose pages I’d probably miss some jobs and it would take a lot of time,” says Masi. “Luckily I’ve never been there!”

“A static work order would be out of my imagination,” says Stephen. “I used to work for some companies where it would be stressful waiting for the next day’s schedule to see what was going to happen and the scope of the job.”

Life on the job after Skedulo

Stephen, who was once a software engineer, loves working for ServiceMaster and using Skedulo because he enjoys having everything he needs to do great work at his fingertips. 

“Because of Skedulo, I know my schedule for the next 2 to 3 weeks in advance including all the notes, job details, contact numbers, and even customer expectations or special requests. I can plan for future jobs and how the team will work together, then use Skedulo to communicate with them and know they have all the information they need.”

“With Skedulo, everything is so smooth and straightforward. We can manage and plan our time properly. I have no worries and no stress about what needs to be done.”
Masi

Masi agrees, and says Skedulo’s unique features reduce the potential for customer issues. 

“I love meeting new people every day, and dealing with strata and property management companies. But there are challenges, and Skedulo helps us prepare for them. 

“For example, we can take pictures within Skedulo which are then attached to a job report. The pictures show the job was completed to a high standard, which helps us limit the risk if customers have concerns after the job is complete.

“We can also make notes about the job, and there is a section for customer facing notes and internal notes which help future crews meet customer expectations.”

In terms of scheduling, Slavko enjoys being able to roster crews well in advance so they know what will happen and what work is planned.

“Skedulo makes our lives easier, especially mine,” says Slavko. “We are one big, friendly team and Skedulo helps us all be on the same page, support each other, and put our customers first. 

“It reduces time spent scheduling, and improves the quality of our customer reports. I might have 100 emails and last minute changes and so on, and I go to Skedulo and it’s just done. With our previous system, finding a customer report from 6 months ago was a real problem. Now, I can find it in seconds.”

From a leadership perspective, David says Skedulo gives more control to their people, and gives everyone better visibility.  

Their field crew now has better insights into their day-to-day:

  • plan for the following day 
  • know who they’ll be working with
  • see next week’s schedule
  • view schedules from previous weeks
  • plan their lives, including time off
  • submit leave requests
“Skedulo helps us build the culture we’re working towards: more transparency and empowerment for our people in the field.”

“It’s reduced the number of touchpoints which saves so much time. Before if we had to make a change in the schedule it would have required 3 or 4 phone calls. Now we only need to speak with the client and can make the change directly in Skedulo.”

More time for family, hobbies, and work I love to do

With less time spent scheduling and more visibility across the board, ServiceMaster’s frontline workers say Skedulo contributes to their lives in many positive ways. 

“Because I can schedule jobs quickly, I get to focus on other parts of my job that I love,” says Slavko. “I can also be home earlier to be with family which is my favourite way to spend my spare time.”

For Masi, he likes to use his extra time for volunteering and to play rugby. 

“My favourite thing about Skedulo is that I carry the office in my pocket. I know when I start and finish, and I can plan my life around that. It also gives me more time to respond to customers and prepare for the next day.”

“Skedulo is a game changer. It amazes me that other companies can have 60 trucks on the road and no technology to manage their people – they’re still using spreadsheets and paper work orders. It’s so much less productive.”