Stewardship Over Scale: Building A Service Company That Lasts

Peakzi Podcast: What if the real edge in home services isn’t a new gadget, but a culture that listens first and sells second? Steve Biggs, president and co-owner of Doc Dancer in Fort Wayne, IN, lifts the curtain on how an 80-year-old brand stays relevant with simple, consistent habits: educate homeowners, diagnose thoroughly, and present options that fit real budgets and real families. We dig into the team model that supports this promise—weekly training, vendor-led product sessions, and a “sports roster” approach that pairs deep technical specialists with standout communicators who handle delicate customer moments.

Steve shares why he hires for character before skills, even creating roles for the right people, and how that philosophy paved the way for a standout female technician who quickly built a devoted following. We talk frankly about barriers and opportunities for women in the trades, and how modern tools—from FaceTime to searchable manuals—mean no one works alone in the field. The conversation widens to accountability: ACCA, the BBB Torch Award for Ethics, Service Roundtable, and a peer group that conducts onsite reviews to stress-test systems, training, and customer experience.

Data becomes a force multiplier. With Peakzi's market intelligence, Steve validates instincts, discovers demand patterns, sees market share in context, and even spots top-performing technicians—one of whom he recruited over time. Those insights drove a bold shift in marketing strategy, turning guesswork into measurable moves. Through it all, Steve’s north star is stewardship: build a company that stays big enough to solve hard problems yet small enough to know customers by name, where employees can build careers, buy homes, and pass the baton to the next generation.

If you care about building a durable service business grounded in trust, ethics, and smart data, this story is a masterclass. Subscribe, share with a fellow operator, and leave a review to tell us what part of Steve’s playbook you’ll try next.

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More info at: https://ai.docdancer.com/ 

Peakzi Podcast: Home Services Success Stories

Transcript

Welcome And Steve’s Role

Julian Placino 0:00

Welcome to the Home Services Success Stories Podcast powered by Peaksy, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business. I'm Julian Placino, your host, and we have another great episode in store for you today. Because today we have Steve Biggs, who is the president and owner at Doc Dancer Plumbing Heating AC and Generators. Steve, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:24

I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

Julian Placino 0:26

Absolutely. And really excited to get to know more about you, your business, and your journey as a home services leader. So, Steve, tell us a bit about your role today as the president and owner. How do you go about leading the business today and what are you responsible for?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Um, I'm really responsible for the you know, the overall vision and culture of the company mainly. And I do see uh see uh closely to the daily operations and uh customer experience, uh, you know, looking at ahead at technology like Peaksy, you know, to help us, you know, form a better better cut customer experience and and support our our team members.

Julian Placino 1:10

So strategy, operations, tactical, innovation, all of that all wrapped into one. What do you love most about what you do, Steve?

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Um well people, you know, uh, you know, we we fix stuff and we install metal boxes and all that. But at the end of the day, uh, you know, you know, for me and uh, you know, most everybody here, you know, we talk about it all the time. We're really in the people business, you know, and that's what makes it fun.

Brand Legacy And Community Ties

Julian Placino 1:41

I love that. And you know, this podcast, of course, is about home services, but the more and more it's about just the stories of the people, be it the the home services leader or their customers, their employees. And it's really, really great to see the insights behind uh the the curtain of home services. So well, well, Doc Dancer has served Fort Wayne since 1946, so a tremendous legacy. And I'm assuming it's gone through some iterations and growth and changes. So, what do you think the brand represents today?

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Um, well, the the longevity is pretty you know humbling. And you know, I like to think that we are a part of the community and that we represent, you know, Fort Wayne. Fort Wayne is a uh is a big small town. Uh, you know, so you know being established here is important, uh, being a part of the community is important, and uh, you know, that really just sets the sets the tone, you know, for everything else that we're able to achieve.

Educating Homeowners And Options

Julian Placino 2:42

So it sounds like the real community being connected to it is a big thing about the brand. Okay. Yes, gotcha. Well, you know, your customers often mention how your team really takes the time to explain things clearly and educate homeowners, right? So why is that whole part of the process so important in the way that you deliver your service?

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Um, you know, the listening really builds uh confidence and uh doing a thorough diagnostic and uh you know, let whatever the problems are or opportunities there are to improve the customer's home uh come to light through that honest diagnosis and you know leave you know leave them the options for for them to decide what's best for their house and you know their budget, you know, their family, you know, it's up to them. You know, we're just the concierge here here are your options.

Julian Placino 3:41

So really listening to the customer, giving them honest solutions and really um doing what's best for them ultimately.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Yes. Yeah. So I always feel if we lead with the you know, lead with the customer service and and you know do a wonderful job of that, you know, then all the rest of the details will fall into place.

Team Structure And Specialized Skills

Julian Placino 4:04

Well, I think that's a great philosophy to lead with for sure. So how many team members do you have now, Steve?

SPEAKER_00 4:10

We are 32 strong.

Julian Placino 4:12

32 strong. Well, well, tell us a bit about your team. What makes them great? What makes them unique, and and what's kind of interesting about your culture that makes you stand out as a home services leader?

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Well, you know, as usual, everybody, everybody has their own personality and their own, you know, strengths and weaknesses. And so, you know, as a team, you know, if you look at it maybe from a sports perspective, you know, you have a point guard, you have a forward, you have a center, you know, we have all those, you know, key people. We have, you know, some people that can really dive into a very technical problem. And then we have other people who maybe have better soft skills, and we have a customer who might have had a bad experience, you know, with us or even another company. It's like, okay, we need to send this person out because they they know how to conduct themselves to you know get to the bottom of the that customer's concern so we can satisfy them and everything else in between, you know, technically between boilers and generators, we have very specific skill sets uh across a wide variety of of uh equipment. And so we're uh big big enough to handle everything, you know, but you know, small enough to know a lot of our real uh regular customers.

Hiring For Character And Training

Julian Placino 5:31

So it sounds like you have a great variation of skill set and expertise on the team and kind of like a good sports team, you know, sort of their strengths and weaknesses, when to plug people in. And not everyone can be a quarterback, right? You need like all the different variations to to build that place. So I think great. So, so in home services, I'm speaking to the choir here. It's tough to find great talent, right? So, what are some of the the strategies or techniques that you've done to attract, train, and grow the best talent on your team?

Women In The Trades

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Um, it's really been a lot of referral based. And we've had um a couple of young guys come through uh the career center through high school uh that have worked out really well. Uh, but the main thing is is about character. Uh, you know, we wanna we're always looking for good people. Even if I don't necessarily have a spot for somebody, if I have find somebody that is of you know, you know, you know, good character and you know wants to work hard, uh we'll we'll basically hire them and then you know find them a spot on the team, you know, because you know, you're always, you know, other interests happen and you know people move or uh and you know, so there's always a little bit of attrition in the company as far as you know keeping employees. So we're always looking, you know, but we have many long-standing employees, uh, 20 years, you know, 15 to 20 years, uh, you know, 10 to 15 years. Um, so within the building, we have you know hundreds of years of experience. Um, so when we bring in a new person, you know, we have training every every Tuesday morning and uh once a month on a Thursday, and you know, we go over all kinds of different technical training, uh, you know, how to deal with customer, customers, uh you know, talking about that thorough diagnosis, going through those things. We'll bring in uh some of our vendors for specific product training. Um so it's a good opportunity for somebody who uh you know who's of the right character because you can train those skills with somebody that has some mechanical aptitude. Um, you know, you do have to have a little bit of a mechanical aptitude in this business, but uh it's a rare bird, it's a unicorn, uh, you know, to find the real guy whose soft skill or gal whose soft skill and technical ability. You know, so you know, for a long time we wanted a female, a female technician. We're really keeping our eyes open for probably uh, you know, I've been here 15 years, you know, and just last year we finally, you know, finally were able to hire a female tech.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

She's she's just you know, she's just wonderful. You know, she has a you know, she has a big following already that you know, customers are already like, I want you know, I want to have her back. I want to have Jennifer back. And it's it's you know just uh good to hear. Yeah. How did you find her? She um she was working at another company that uh uh that was uh you know bought by private equity. And so the culture completely changes. It's more about uh you need to go in there and you need to bring me, you know, pay under dollars out of every house you go to, or whatever it is they have, they're getting called to the, you know, those technicians are getting called to the carpet on numbers. Uh and you know, the techs don't like that. And so we've had an influx of good people come from several of those companies in town.

Julian Placino 9:15

Interesting. So there's something about the attractiveness of your culture that was a basis of comparison that made them want to come to you. Um I I am curious about this idea of women working in home services. I'm curious why do you think there's not more women working in the field?

SPEAKER_00 9:33

That that is a that is a good question. I think they you know could it could be a little bit, you know, in intimidating. It can be heavier, heavier work. And um over the years I've found, you know, this was true of myself. I'm in this business because you know, that's what my dad did. My dad was in this business because you know, that's what grandpa did. So, you know, it's kind of a generational thing that uh culturally has just passed from father to son more than father to daughter. So I think it's just more in recent years where that has started to shift, but it's a slow shift. So there are more than there ever were before. But I think, especially now, uh, with the all the talk about you don't really need to spend all that money, tens of thousands of dollars, on on a university education, you can go into a trade and do very well for yourself, and so they're finding all that out, and uh and and they're smart. Girls are smarter than boys, everybody knows that.

Julian Placino 10:45

Well, why do you do this? Take a moment then to sort of demystify this, both from the owner's perspective, someone who might be hesitant to hire a woman for whatever reason, and also from a woman's perspective who might be watching thinking, I don't know if the trades are for me. What would you say?

Accountability And Peer Groups

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Well, it it's it's generalizing, but you know, I think you know, you know, women are more naturally you know nurturing, and I think that that uh builds a trust in the home. Um you know, most homes, the head of the household, no matter what the guys think, uh is probably the woman of the house. And and I think they really appreciate uh having a lady come into the house, you know, instead of a man. You know, my wife, she's a little bit more old-fashioned. You know, if we're having any kind of service done at the house, if it's not a doc dancer employee, she knows all them, she's fine with that. But if it's something else, I have to be home, you know. But I know that if it was uh you know, a female, uh, you know, a female coming in to you know hook up the TV or what have you, she would be she would probably be a lot more comfortable. Yeah, and uh I just think that speaks volume. So it's a natural fit in that way. And they and and and we all know they're quite capable of learning uh you know the technical side of things. And and and and no person, no technician is an island anymore with FaceTime and texting and all the information that's available on the internet, even though you might be in the basement of a customer's house, you know, you have a huge library of information and uh you know, 10 P 10 to 20 people here you could call, say, hey, have you seen this before? You know, this is what I'm seeing. And and so uh, you know, there's a lot of support there as well. So I just think that uh, you know, it's a it's a good fit really for anybody who wants to better themselves, you know, earn a great living, you know, have a family, you know, you you can do that in this business.

Consistency, Ethics, And Faith

Julian Placino 12:59

Steve, I gotta say, I think we're on to something here. Whoever figures that out, whoever figures out that recruiting strategy, like I mean, that they're gonna take over because you know, so many people say that they hire first for character and then the technical skills. And it makes sense that it is true that um, you know, it's you're walking into the house of a family, but ultimately it's the woman who's gonna be making uh, you know, a lot of the decisions. So that makes a lot of sense. So wow. Any other thoughts that you want to share on that before we move on?

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Um, no, not that I can think of. I think we've covered it well.

Julian Placino 13:34

I think so too. Well, well, Docdancer is affiliated with organizations like the ACCA, the Better Business Bureau Service Roundtable, and the Greater Fort Wayne uh Incorporated. So, why is it so important to you to stay accountable to so many industry and community standards?

Peaksy: Data, Hiring, And Marketing

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Well, um, you know, you know, nothing is a straight line, and there's always ways to improve. Um, so you know, being around other business owners uh that are that are local, uh, you just get uh you know insight and you get uh energy from that. Um, you know, understanding, you know, you know, what's going on locally is very important. Uh with the ACCA, I'm in a business mixed group. So uh every six months we are a group of about 12 and we go to each other's companies and do an evaluation and discuss uh best practices, you know, training, uh customer service, you know, what kind of software are you using, you know, all those things. That's how we found peak, it's how I got acquainted with Peaksy. So it was through that, you know, through that business group. And uh so it's uh always uh there's always something new to learn. You know, I've been in this business since I was in high school, so I've been in it uh a little bit. And uh and I learn something new every day, you know. That's you know part of the part of the beauty of it, and you know, staying engaged and getting outside the building, you know, to learn more and always engaging and you know, pushing forward. Because if you're not pushing forward, you're gonna fall back. There's no standing still.

Julian Placino 15:22

So it sounds like ultimately it comes down to continuous development, learning friends, being plugged into the community, what is the market doing and staying under up to breath and continuing to innovate. So I think that's great. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Continuous improvement and keeping your eyes open to that and being open to that. And okay, how can that how can that help us be more efficient as a company, or how can that help us uh you know provide better service to the customer?

Julian Placino 15:49

So let's go into some of the nuts and bolts because I mean the brand has been around for 80 years. You can't fake longevity. You've also been recognized multiple times as Fort Wayne's best heating and air company, received uh the Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Ethics. So, what are some of the things that you have done uniquely different that have allowed you to become a leader in home services?

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Well, I think the main thing is being uh consistent, you know, with our service, uh being responsive, you know, with our service, and uh you know, always listening to the customer. Um and I don't think that happens a lot, you know, with you know businesses generally. Um and you know, that's important to us, and uh and and I think that consistency in uh is the main thing.

Julian Placino 16:46

Consistency is the main thing. Okay, I think that's uh I think that's great advice and uh um awesome to to really kind of ponder. So you also are very public. Your mission mentions that honoring God in your business conduct. So how does your faith influence the way that you lead and make decisions?

How To Connect With Doc Dancer

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Um ultimately it it it really drives our our ourselves to make sure that we're treating people uh with kindness um and respect. Um we meet uh people from all different walks of life, all different stations of life, um, all different um you know life experiences they might have, you know, lost a loved one. Uh we are we're a very old company, we have a lot of older customers. So we, you know, somebody might lose a spouse, or we know about you know their you know, their kids being sick, we know about their kids graduating, we know, you know, a lot of personal things uh because when we are talking to our customers, it starts with the CSRs. Um, you know, when they're answering the phone here, they will, you know, we take the time to talk to people. And uh you might have uh you know somebody who just wants to talk, you know, a two-minute from a practicality standpoint, it really should take two to three minutes to book a call, but sometimes it might take 20 minutes. So it's about meeting people where they are and uh and treating them with that uh that respect.

Julian Placino 18:25

So it sounds like it comes down to kindness, compassion, golden rule. I think those are all really, really great values. So um, so Steve, you mentioned always being innovative. And the show, of course, is powered by Peaksy. You're a Pixie customer. So, first off, how would you explain to another home services leader what Peaksy is?

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Um, it's a it's a window to the world. It's like you were looking at a brick wall before, and you know, you were able to cut open a big picture window, you know, into your market, and you can see uh a lot of activity, and it can either confirm your own intuition, which a lot of that did for me. It's like, yeah, I always kind of thought that, but it's nice to see it. And um, and then it can also open your eyes to uh things that are happening in the market that you might not be as attuned to, like the market demand curve, uh how much of a market share you have. Um, I was pleasantly surprised by ours. Yeah. And it's uh it's there's growing, they're always growing it. So uh there's real estate data you can get out of there now uh that is that is very helpful. And it's a it's a key tool and what helps me look forward, you know, to what move I might want to make next. Uh and including, you know, one of the gentlemen that we've hired recently, I've I saw him, you know, he was like the number one tech in our area oh consistently up on Peaksy. So it's a small enough town that you know, I was able to find one. And I just texted him, hey, if you're ever if you're ever looking for somewhere to go, you know, we'd love to talk to you. And uh, you know, just every once in a while, it took about a year and a half, but he's here today.

Julian Placino 20:24

Unbelievable. And you found him from Peaksey Data.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

That's how I that's how I that's where the light bulb went off and said, I wonder if I can find this guy. And uh, we were able to because another gentleman that that that worked here had worked with him in the past, so he had his number. So it it helps you network, even though it's all on the internet and everything, ultimately, you can make uh if you can make that uh eyeball connection there that you're gonna, you know, you could have some success finding good people.

Julian Placino 20:54

Interesting. So, in addition to you know, market intelligence, and I think it's cool that it shows you your market share, right? What a thing to look at. Uh, and also from the hiring perspective, um, what other, I guess, interesting outcomes have you experienced from using the platform?

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Well, I think the main thing is the marketing, I made a big shift in marketing. Uh, that was uh a major move that I wasn't really planning on making, you know, that I did, you know, based on what I was able to gather out of uh out of Peaksy.

Julian Placino 21:29

Nice. So you've made some real strategic moves because of the information that Peaksy has provided you.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Absolutely.

Julian Placino 21:36

Excellent. Well, anything else that you'd like to share about Peaksy before we kind of wrap up here, Steve?

SPEAKER_00 21:41

Um, you know, I think that uh in today's world, information is uh power and knowledge is power, and uh it will give you uh it's almost mind numbing, you know. But as you use the platform more, uh you can really hone in on uh Questions you might have, you know, it's like, man, what's going on here? You know, I wonder what's happening. You can you can get a good idea or the answer through through the information on Peaksy.

Julian Placino 22:13

Well, I think those are really great words uh about the platform. So thank you for sharing that, Steve. Well, we'll close us out now. So Doc Danswer has had an incredible history and legacy already. But looking ahead, what is the long-term vision and what is the legacy that you want to leave behind through the business?

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Well, um, I'm really a steward of this, you know. Yeah, I'm uh I'm you know, I'm a co-owner of the business, but it's really about stewardship, you know. So, you know it's really important to me that we have a company that is gonna be sustainable and matter uh for the long term. You know, so a lot of things that I think about and plan on and am doing are are based on having a solid foundation, you know, to lead us into that future, you know, through our through our culture, through our training program, uh, through our channel partners, all those, all those relationships, you know, matter uh for the long term. And uh it matters to me that uh and it's important to me that you know that uh the people that work here, you know, can you know earn earn a great living and uh you know raise their families and you know buy a house and all those things. And uh I'd like to see that you know baton passed on successfully. Yeah.

Julian Placino 23:45

So ultimately being a great steward of the business from the business perspective, the relationships, your employees, everything, and ultimately the future vision of it. So um I think that's really great, Steve. So um, Steve, if you would share uh how do folks connect with you, learn about the business, follow you on social, tell us all that.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Yeah, so we're on uh you know Facebook, you know, Docdancer, on Instagram and uh and docdancer.com. Uh, you know, we'll lead you right to our website and you can schedule from there and you know, buy filters and stuff like that. All the information on the company history is there and and our services.

Julian Placino 24:22

Wonderful. And we'll make sure to have all of your contact information in the show notes as well. So uh so Steve, this has been a true pleasure. Thank you so much for your time today.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

All right. Thanks, Julian.

Julian Placino 24:32

And that is it for today's episode, and we'll see you next time on the Home Services Success Stories podcast powered by Peaksy, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business.