An Interview with HomeOneWarranty
HomeWarrantyReviews.com caught up with Gary Serbousek, the founder of HomeOneWarranty. This is an excerpt from that interview. HomeOneWarranty (HOW) provides its software solution to home warranty companies. In this excerpt Gary discusses the company, their product and their aspirations to bring changes to the industry.
Tell Us about HomeOneWarranty and why you decided to start the company?
HomeOneWarranty is a software company focused exclusively on providing a solution for home service providers. The company was founded to provide home service providers a comprehensive solution to automate and streamline their business. We have nearly 30 years’ experience in the warranty business and are committed to providing the industry a superior solution. Virtually every industry has access to systems designed specifically for their needs, we felt that the time was right to provide home service contract providers the time and cost saving advantage of a commercially developed application.
How many clients do you have currently? Which companies use your services?
We currently have six customers and are in conversation with several other companies. We believe our rapid growth validates that the solution meets the needs of the industry. What is particularly exciting is that our customers range from companies managing 10’s of thousands of transactions a month to “start-ups” managing a few hundred transactions. The investment is structured to make the solution affordable for any size company. We plan to announce a few more customers shortly but are purposefully managing the company’s growth to ensure that all our customers get great customer service.
What features are you planning to add in the future?
Our customers and the market really dictate what additional functionality we add to the product. For example, we saw that many companies were struggling with the policy renewal process so, in our latest release, we included functionality to automate that process. The results have been fantastic. Many of our customers have doubled their renewal capture rate.
The Agency portal, a vehicle that allows Brokers and Agents to create new policy orders, was the result of our customers requesting functionality to help tighten their relationship with agents.
Currently, we are working on a Customer portal so that the end consumer can buy policies, request services, and track status of either claims or repairs. We are especially excited by this new capability as it will add further process efficiencies and, like renewals, we anticipate that it will result in increased revenues.
The ability to consistently deliver game changing capabilities “out-of-the-box” is why our customers have abandoned costly development efforts and instead rely on HOW. We offer our customers a more cost effective solution and significant time to market advantages.
What are some features of the product your customers like the most?
The HomeOne solution is a very comprehensive, end-to-end system that, we believe, provides value to every stakeholder. So, the features “liked best” is dependent on the role(s) one has within the company. The call center agents like that they have immediate access to homeowner and policy data, including history. Claims likes the ability to immediately determine coverages and entitlements. Marketing likes that they can create targeted outreach efforts, for example, notifying a customer of a pending renewal. Accounting likes that all critical financial data is captured and integrated to back-office financials. Owners and Executive Management especially like that they have immediate access to reliable information to easily measure the health of the business and what programs are performing or underperforming.
We are most proud of the fact that our customers have a single, comprehensive solution that enables them to manage their entire business enabling them to focus on providing great value to the customer. Most of the companies that we speak with are reliant on multiple systems that aren’t connected. We help companies streamline their business and to benefit from the efficiencies inherent in a well-designed solution. It is tremendously satisfying to hear our customers tell us “you have really made our lives easier.”
The Home Warranty industry doesn’t have the best reputation, why is that and can a company like HOW help?
Unfortunately, like any industry, there are the few whose goals and objectives might not align with the overall purpose of the industry, and the home service industry is no exception. Overall, we have been tremendously impressed by the integrity and honesty that the vast majority of home service providers deliver to their customers. We also believe that the complexity of the industry has caused some of the negative perception. It is extremely difficult to provide superior customer service when relying on antiquated systems or manual processes. There will also always be a few bad apples. For the vast majority of companies that truly strive to provide great product and customer support, HomeOne can help.
Where do you see the market going?
We are definitely seeing more companies expressing interest in the space outside of the traditional service contract companies. For example, utilities companies, while not new to the industry, are becoming increasingly active in offering home service contract options. This might create some concern especially with local service contract providers since utility companies have a captive market and are already communicating with, and marketing to, the home owners. Ultimately though, competition is good, It creates more product awareness and, we expect, will result in higher premiums. Generally, that should be a good thing for the local service contract providers. The challenge for the local companies is remaining competitive. A system like HomeOne will help them to reduce cost inefficiencies by streamlining their internal process while delivering a better customer experience. We think that’s how we can help ensure that all companies can compete successfully.
What’s unique about what you are doing and why should it matter?
We hope to make a difference in the industry, and the fact that we are the only company, that we are aware, exclusively focused on the home service contract business makes us unique. We have a long history in the market and have had the opportunity to meet with and speak with a countless number of business leaders. No one has ever told us “we went into the home service contract industry so that we could build software.” We believe that by enabling our customers to focus their time, effort, and people on growing their business and providing exceptional customer service, we can make a difference.
Select Screen Images of HomeOneWarranty Software
Select Screen Images of HomeOneWarranty Software
So HOW provides a benefit to the home service contract company but how does the homeowner benefit?
Providing a better solution to our customers enables them to provide better services to the home owner. Many of the complaints from homeowners are that claims and requests for service aren’t being addressed in a timely manner or to completion. Most home service contract companies don’t have solutions that give them easy visibility to a homeowners policy to determine entitlements, what claims should be covered, and the status of a service request.
With HomeOne a company can quickly determine whether a claim is covered and easily track the corresponding service request, including which company the work order has been assigned so that they can quickly follow-up to make sure that the work is performed. With the Customer Portal, we expect that many homeowners will track their service request without having to place calls to the home service company.
Anything else you would like our readers to know?
We have been very pleasantly surprised by the response that we have received. Typically, the first thing we hear when speaking with a company for the first time is “we had no idea that there was a company focusing exclusively on providing a software solution for home service providers.” Almost unanimously the comments on the system are extremely positive. Whether they end up as a customer or not, the comments after seeing the solution is that we clearly know the market and that it is reflected in the product. The best part is receiving a heartfelt “good luck, the industry has needed a solution like HomeOne.” We encourage people to take a look at the software. Even if they are not currently in the market for a new solution, we always appreciate the feedback on what we can do to deliver a better system.
About Home One Warranty
Home One Warranty software addresses the specific needs of Home Warranty providers. Founder, Gary Serbousek, has more than 15 years’ experience in the extended warranty and service market and has worked with many leading home warranty providers as well as a variety of industries that provide warranty and extended service contracts.
Email: info@homeonewarranty.com
Phone: (720) 381-2408
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