When you need HVAC work done in the Columbus, Ohio area, your search invariably ends at the doors of Sears Heating & Cooling. Of course, Sears' now-massive service empire didn't take shape overnight. It took hard work, a little luck, and some Smart Service.

Of life before software, Sears' marketing manager Aaron Kemp recalls, "We didn't have any mobile system at all. Technicians would radio in to let the office know that they were done with a job and then the dispatcher would dispatch them the next job via radio."

When the company decided to try the HVAC service software Smart Service, things changed. "Smart Service helped by simplifying the job process," says Aaron. "The scheduling is a lot simpler. The abundance of reporting that you're able to do... we're able to narrow down for marketing purposes to decide what approaches are working and what's not working."

For Sears, the benefits don't stop when they leave the office walls. Lead technician Jerad Kingery describes using the Smart Service mobile app, "I always write down the model and serial number of the systems, then mark down all my notes of what I've found. That's all saved in the history. Anybody that comes to a site after I do can see exactly what I did and what I found. Being able to access the history on a certain call helps me prepare. I look at that every single time before I go to a call."

The results speak for themselves. "We've grown substantially in the last couple years," explains Aaron. "We went from about 3 million in sales to about 4.5. A great deal of that is attributed to the efficiency of Smart Service. I'd say it's definitely the best program out there."