For snow and ice contractors, effective software can unlock new money-making potential by saving time and increasing leads.
Joe Pascaretta, chief operating officer at WorkWave and a former landscape business owner, shares how the right business software can carry your snow and ice business to the next level.
Communication is key
For Pascaretta, the biggest advantage that software can offer a snow and ice contractor is the ability to communicate not only with employees, but with customers as well.
“The ability to send reminders and notifications and to communicate with the customer is such a big deal for any seasonal event,” he says. “Customers want to know, ‘Where’s my plow driver? What’s going on?’ It’s having the ability to communicate with the customer that makes software invaluable.”
Software can also push alerts and notifications directly to drivers about potential hazards on their route. Pascaretta remembers the days of printing out MapQuest when planning out a snowplow’s route.
Now, with the help of AI algorithms built into software, that is done automatically to maximize efficiency.
“If there’s a huge 80-car pileup on I-75, the only way we had of knowing was to listen to AM news radio in the truck,” he remembers. “Now, if something does happen, (the software) can optimize the route based on those dynamic conditions and say, ‘Hey, snowplow driver, go to this property first and then that property.’”
Artificial intelligence
Pascaretta speaks excitedly about the potential of artificial intelligence to expand what business software can offer the snow and ice contractor.
“The biggest benefit is really automation right now. It’s the ability to automate what humans would be doing and have it automated within the tools,” he says. “We are shifting more towards advanced AI machine learning within all those capabilities as well. That’s where we’re going to get creative, and the customers are going to ultimately reap the benefit.”
One area where he hopes to expand AI usage is in a predictive way. His goal, he says, is to partner with IoT (Internet of Things) vendors to have sensors on snowplows to be predictive in areas that can damage a contractor’s margin.
“When those trucks are moving around the parking lots, and they have a hydraulic line break, that puts that truck out of commission,” he says. “We’re going in a direction with smart IoT sensors where we can be predictive in that and other areas that destroy snowplow margin.”
Expanded finances
Pascaretta says that he’s seen an expanded acceptance of utilizing business software on the financial side of things since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
“What I started noticing is that more contractors have started to accept Venmo or Cash App or offering financial tools to finance a project within their portfolio,” he says. “We have noticed, certainly from a financial acceptability lens, a night and day difference.”
In addition to the expanded offerings for payment collection and customer financing, Pascaretta says he expects software companies to expand their financial capabilities in the future.
“It’s about helping our customers to do more with their customers,” says Pascaretta. “We can be more of a lender, and in some cases, we go beyond that and explore solutions where our customers can help build credit in their businesses’ name.”
