CRM Systems Continued from page 46 been confirmed for installation but also those that have been put on hold or have been cancelled, supporting effective cashflow forecasting. It’s Status Progression tool also allows them to manage the lead to sale pipeline, establishing process and automating tasks. “We’re now tracking those enquiries,” Simon continues. “If they haven’t been touched in three or four days by the sales team, we’re going back and revisiting them whether that’s an email or picking up the telephone. They aren’t being lost.” In addition to allowing installers to map their lead-to-contract process, Business Pilot’s Status Progression Tool also allows them to do the same for contract-to-delivery, something which has been instrumental in supporting Three Counties Window in navigating its way through the home improvement boom. “We’d done a sort of ‘time and motion’ study to try and understand our processes from the point at which we had the contract in our hands to installation. It turned out that we had 44 or 45 processes – far more than I thought – to get a contract to installation,” Simon continues. “Multiply the time involved by however many contracts you do in a month, and you see very quickly how much time was going into a very basic but overly complex process. We were just touching the same bits of paper time and time again and entering the same data over and over because all these spreadsheets didn’t talk to one another. Business Pilot has changed that. Everything’s in one place and it happens automatically. We’re busier than ever before but we have more control. We’re a better business.” Contact Business Pilot: 0333 050 7560 www.businesspilot.co.uk @BusinessPilotUK 'WINDOW PEOPLE' AT THE HELM Total Installer talks to Business Pilot’s Ryan Schofield... Alongside his role as a director and founding partner of cloud-based CRM and business management tool, Business Pilot, Ryan Schofield retains his ‘day job’ at installation company, Thames Valley Windows. As a result, he knows only too well the challenges installers face on a daily basis. “We’re window people, not software people,” Ryan says. “If we see value in something, for us and our customer base, we will bring it in [to Business Pilot]. We’re not looking to introduce things just because they look good.” Game-changing email function One such development, billed as a communication game-changer, is Business Pilot’s recently unveiled email integration system. Automatically pulling emails into the CRM and assigning them to a lead or job, this new feature creates a ‘clear and instantly accessible audit trail’, with significant benefits for users, as Ryan explains: “How much time do you spend looking for emails?” he says. “We know it’s a nightmare and when you’re running an installation business with lots of people in your team and lots of jobs on the go, emails, [which have] disappeared or not been shared properly, can have a massive impact on your business and installations. “Our new email integration genuinely puts an end to hunting for lost emails or asking round the office to see if a colleague sent them in the first place! A unique email is assigned to each lead or job as soon as it’s created. You can copy and paste it into your preferred email client in the ‘cc’ or ‘bcc’ box, or send direct from within Business Pilot. “Either way, you get an instantly accessible and shared record of each email correspondence within the CRM. You, and anyone in your team can see exactly where each job is, what was said, and even automate those emails that you send on a regular basis through integration with our Status Progression tool.” It’s this kind of detail that can make all the difference in the current climate of high demand and low supply. Obviously, when it comes to the latter, if products simply don’t turn up, there is not a lot you can do, but Business Pilot can soften the blow. Rescheduling jobs is quick and easy with the Schedule Board’s simple drag and drop amendment function, while a traffic light system clearly displays delivery status. In addition, the email integration system’s template facility can speed-up vital communication between all parties involved. In busy times such as these, it might be easy to lose track of profitability, but Business Pilot makes it easy to keep on top of this too. “Just by clicking a few buttons, I can see our job costs and generally speaking, when I compare those back to our management accounts, they are pretty close,” says Ryan. “So, in a much more user-friendly way, I can have visibility on the profit and loss of the business; the products that are performing, the products that are not, even the performance of individual sales people... “Ultimately, our aim is to help make your business more manageable, more scalable and more efficient,” adds Ryan. “That, in a nutshell, is what we offer. “Our ongoing development is based around providing our users with the best possible tools we can, to tackle the challenges of our industry and make their day-to-day lives as smooth and easy and efficient as possible.” 48 T I NOVEMBER/DECEMBER <strong>2021</strong> PRACTICAL CONTENT FOR THE GLAZING INSTALLER & HOME IMPROVEMENT SPECIALIST
Only the sky’s the limit • Minimalist design in aluminium with ultra-low sight lines • You can have a range of lanterns, flat rooflights, skyrooms, conservatories, verandas or lean-tos • Lanterns available in a number of options, including our new square version • 19 stock items • Stronger aluminium construction • Available in all RAL colours • Quality technical support To see more, talk to our Technical Team at atlasroofsolutions.co.uk/sky Lantern Flat Rooflight Skyroom Conservatories Verandas Lean-tos
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