How Kuhlman Electric Found Their Field Service ‘Game Changer’ and Doubled Revenue

From an old-school landline without additional features to a fully connected phone-and-reporting system that helped double revenue, Kuhlman Electric transformed how they run field service. 

Products Used: QuickBooks Integration | ServiceCall.ai | Scheduling & Dispatch | Estimate Creation | Customer Management | Technician Mobile App 

Industry: Residential Electrical Services 

Team Size: ~60 employees 

Customer Since: 2023 

Key Results: 2x revenue | Higher sales and conversion rates | Same-day service turnaround | Increased operational efficiency 

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In 2014, Jesse Kuhlman took over Kuhlman Electric, the business his father started in 1988. Jesse wanted to grow the now-multigenerational company into a larger, regional operation, but the business was changing faster than their systems could support. 

Outgrowing the Old Days 

One problem was keeping track of a bigger workload. Kuhlman Electric didn’t have a reliable process to measure critical business details. It was hard to find missed opportunities or areas for additional training, and they were dependent on software that made it hard to track estimates, jobs, and performance. 

“The old software wasn’t measuring those things,” says Jesse. “It didn’t have a phone system built into it.” 

Instead, the office relied on a physical phone that couldn’t provide any details on caller information or lead sources. 

Other processes created their own drag. The team used multiple calendars for scheduling that didn’t sync up. Following up on estimates required manual effort from the office, and disconnected systems made it tough to keep everyone aligned. 

Jesse began looking for a platform that could bring all of the moving pieces together. 

Finding a One-Stop Shop 

That platform was Service Fusion, a complete field software package that handles everything from estimating, invoicing, and running jobs.  

“Service Fusion is pretty much a one-stop shop software to do everything you need to run your field business,” Jesse says. 

It offered strong backend reporting, a QuickBooks integration, and the ability to sync with Kuhlman Electric’s existing phone system. Another draw was the month-to-month model, which let Jesse learn the platform without a long-term commitment. 

“A lot of software companies will try to rope you into long-term contracts. What I loved about Service Fusion was that you can sign up, and if you like it, you stick with it. There’s no risk there,” Jesse explains. 

“So when we signed up, I was able to explore the software and fully learn it without any pressure of a 12- or 36- or 24-month contract.” 

The team spent about a year configuring the platform, building reminders, documents, and templates, and training office staff and field crews before rolling it out company-wide. 

For Operations Manager Christina Hildonen, Service Fusion’s intuitive design made for easier adoption. 

“The most valuable thing about Service Fusion is that it’s intuitive,” Christina says. “It allows us to easily train our teams to use the software to its fullest capacity.” 

A Clearer Picture of the Business 

After deploying Service Fusion, Kuhlman Electric finally had a window into the numbers behind their work. The combined call tracking and reporting gave Jesse the info he needed to hold the CSR team accountable, compared to “just answering a phone on a table.” 

“Knowing how customers found us, then getting reporting on booking rates for our CSR staff was a complete game changer for us,” Jesse says. 

Meanwhile, dashboards made it easier to stay on top of estimates and ongoing jobs. With more visibility, Kuhlman found areas to boost performance by tweaking training, scripts, and processes. 

“Our sales and conversion rates went way up once we got onto Service Fusion,” Jesse says. 

Scheduling and dispatch also improved, thanks to a unified calendar. The team moved from juggling multiple disconnected schedules to having a single view, so the office had real-time visibility on where technicians are, where they’ve been, and where they’re headed next. 

Turning Information Into Connection and 2x Revenue Growth 

Those gains have translated into significant business growth: Kuhlman Electric doubled their revenue in the first three years after adopting Service Fusion, and their net profit has also scaled with that. 

Automated estimate follow-up has replaced manual office work, while technicians can access job information, update statuses, and build and present estimates while in the field. That connection between the field and the office has removed a layer of back-and-forth. Technicians can see their schedules and job details on their phones, order supplies ahead of time, and flag site status changes in real time. 

“From a technician’s perspective, it’s a great tool,” Christina says. “They’re a little less reliant on the office because everything is available to them right there in the app.” 

Jesse sees the same shift, adding that “with the new app update, the offline mode, and the updates that they’ve made this year, it’s going in an awesome direction. Everybody’s saving time from being on it.” 

The ease of use contributed to a smooth company-wide adoption. Service Fusion was well accepted by multiple teams, which Christina attributes to the platform being “very intuitive to use and simple.” 

This positive internal experience extends to Kuhlman Electric’s customer offerings. 

“Service Fusion allows us to provide same-day services to our customers,” Christina says. “It’s fantastic to provide them with upfront pricing and then do the work the same day.” 

What’s more, that same standard of care shows in Service Fusion’s own support. 

“Service Fusion has incredible customer service and support,” Christina says. “It’s not often that software companies have that level of support, and Service Fusion really knocks that out of the park.” 

Ready for Whatever Comes Next 

For all of its benefits, the long-term value of Service Fusion is that the platform doesn’t stand still. 

“There are new improvements being made to make it more efficient and more effective,” Christina says. 

Kuhlman Electric now uses the majority of Service Fusion’s features every day across their office and field operations, and recent updates like global search and offline mode make day-to-day work easier for the team. 

With the global search update, staff can pull up a customer’s history in seconds and navigate to what they need much faster. The entire office was excited about how fast the feature allows them to move—and they’re all excited about the direction the app is heading. 

“It’s been a great partnership, and I look forward to working with them more and seeing more developments and improvements,” Jesse says. 

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