No commission

Our technicians work for you, not for a percentage of your invoice.

Every Kestrel technician is on salary. They earn the same wage whether they fix a $200 valve or quote a $20,000 replacement. No revenue targets, no upsell bonuses, no leaderboard. The recommendation you get is the one they’d give a friend.

(804) 455-7700

How pay shapes recommendations

The incentive behind the diagnosis matters.

How a technician gets paid changes what they tell you is wrong and what they recommend you do about it. Here is how our approach is different and why.

1 · The problem

How commission changes the conversation

Most residential service companies pay technicians a base wage plus a percentage of the revenue they generate. That is not a secret in the industry. What homeowners may not realize is how directly it shapes what gets recommended.

Revenue targets: Many service companies set daily or weekly revenue targets for each technician. Some post a leaderboard in the break room. The technician sitting at your kitchen table has a real, personal financial stake in the size of your invoice.
The upsell: When the person diagnosing the problem gets paid more for recommending a bigger fix, the diagnosis and the sales pitch become the same conversation. A $200 repair and a $6,000 replacement can both be defensible recommendations for the same problem. Commission decides which one you hear first.
Accessories and add-ons: Commission structures do not just push replacements over repairs. They incentivize add-on products, premium upgrades, and maintenance agreements that you may not need. The technician is not necessarily being dishonest. They are responding to the incentive they were hired under.

2 · Our approach

Salary. Same wage on every job.

Our technicians are on salary. They make the same whether they fix a $200 valve or quote a $20,000 replacement. No quota, no leaderboard, no bonus for closing the bigger job.

The diagnosis is honest: When there is no financial reward for recommending the more expensive option, the recommendation you hear is the honest one. Sometimes that is a $40 part. Sometimes it is replacement. Sometimes it is "not yet." You hear whichever one the technician would tell a friend.
No pressure to pad the invoice: Our technicians are not tracking how much revenue they have generated today. They are not trying to hit a number before they clock out. The work takes the time it takes, and the quote reflects what the job actually needs.
We can recommend doing less: A commission technician who tells you "this does not need to be replaced yet" just cost themselves money. Our technicians can say that without it affecting their paycheck. Sometimes the right answer is to wait, and we want them to be able to tell you that.

3 · What we do care about

Reviews, not revenue

If our technicians are not chasing commission, what are they chasing? Your recommendation.

Our business model in one sentence: Do work that is good enough that people call us back and tell their neighbors. That is the entire strategy. There is no shortcut to it, and commission does not help get there.
We ask for reviews: After a job is finished, our technicians will mention that a review is appreciated. We are not going to pester you about it, but we are going to ask. Our reputation is the engine of this business, and reviews are how other homeowners find out whether we are worth calling.
The trade-off: A technician who is trying to earn a five-star review acts very differently than one who is trying to maximize the invoice. They are more careful, more honest, more respectful of your home and your time. If being asked for a review at the end of a good job is the trade-off for never being upsold during it, we think that is a deal most homeowners would take.

Side by side

Same technician, different incentive, different conversation.

Commission shop

Technician earns more when you spend more. The recommendation and the sales pitch are the same conversation.

Kestrel

Technician earns the same regardless of what you spend. The recommendation is just a recommendation.

Ready when you are

A diagnosis you can trust.

Call during business hours or send a message any time. You will get an honest recommendation, not a pitch. How we price work →

(804) 455-7700