Why Your general contractors Company Needs A CRM System
GREAT CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
are the foundation of any business. This is especially true for general contractors companies, where the growth of your business depends on the number of customer relationships developed and maintained over the long run.
MANAGING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
when you first open your business is pretty simple, given there aren't many customers you're dealing with. As your service portfolio grows, those customer relationships become harder to manage without the right toolset.
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a set of tools that allow businesses to manage their customer relationships and the information associated with them. CRM is now a major tenet of operating a successful business. Simply put, CRM software is like Facebook or Twitter for your business. As their general contractors company, you connect and collaborate with your customers using the CRM tools. These powerful tools also act as your customer database and serve to remind you of the next followup, estimate or job, while keeping your customer information updated about the job in one central place.
Topics to Consider:
If you manage a general contractors business but are unfamiliar with the benefits of CRM, we'd like to first give you some questions to think about before we discuss the specific benefits of CRM.
- How do you manage your leads?
- How does your sales team capture customer information? Do they use post-it notes or spreadsheets? How consistently is the information transferred to a spreadsheet or program? How much time is spent completing the transfer?
- Think about the last time a customer called you for an update? How long did they have to hold before you could find their information?
- Does your sales team treat all customers the same way? If you could, would you rather isolate and prioritize the largest jobs that you are prospecting?
- Can you determine which of your leads are 'hot' or 'cold'?
- On average, how much time does it take for your team to do an estimate?
- Are you tracking your sales pipeline? Your sales pipeline provides an overview of your sales forecast 30, 60 or 90 days out.
- What are your closing ratios?
- Do you get leads from multiple sources? Are you able to track your revenues from each lead source?
- How do you notify all employees involved about changes or updates to a job?
- Can your company's current processes scale up as your business grows?
- Have you ever missed a job because it didn't make it on your schedule, lost a customer or dealt with poor negative reviews on Yelp, BBB or social media because someone in your office actually forgot something or didn't pass on vital information on time?
- Most importantly, if you have the answers available for these inquiries, consider the time it takes you to find the answers to these questions.
What Got You Here Won't Get You There
To borrow from Marshall Goldsmith's famous book, 'What Got You Here Won't Get You There'; maximizing your businesses' potential requires you to find a new set of tools that will complement the strengths you already possess and take your business to the next level.
A good CRM system helps both start up and established general contractors companies alike to maximize their profits. An intelligent CRM system turns a good team into a great one. When your staff is firing on all cylinders, you can expect not just more jobs, but you can also expect cream of the crop jobs, a great reputation, and greater returns on your investment.
While good CRM software can be valuable to any business, it can provide immense value to small and medium-size businesses as a toolset that can help them compete with larger players in the marketplace. A CRM system helps bridge the divide in efficiency between smaller business by making available features and apps previously only available to larger corporations.
A good CRM system could be that complementary toolset your business needs to 'Get You There'.
THE CASE FOR BUILDING A GREAT ONLINE REPUTATION
We are in the social media age where customer interactions are amplified on the Internet. When a customer has a fantastic experience, they may tell their friends. When a customer has a poor experience, they're likely to broadcast their thoughts to thousands, even millions of people.
As more and more businesses establish a digital presence, their social customer interactions become very significant - but what are customers most likely to complain about?
Below are some findings from a study titled 'Roasted Reputations' by Corra:
- 52% of survey respondents said they were likely to complain publicly if customer service did a poor job resolving their product or service issue
- Almost 1 in 8 complainers do so with the hopes of hurting the company's reputation
- 88% of consumers have avoided a company because of a bad review on social media
A marketing research firm, Ask Your Target Market, recently surveyed consumers and determined that 50 percent of the respondents checked online reviews "all of the time" or "most of the time". An additional 25 percent of respondents claim they check reviews half of the time.
Clearly, poor customer experiences lead to negative reviews, and a negative review can do serious damage-the kind that takes more than a good review to fix.
The facts are clear and they may make the Internet seem like a terrifying place for small businesses but can those negative reviews be avoided to begin with?
You can minimize negative reviews by employing a CRM system that will simplify key tasks like sending estimates to your customers, responding quickly to requests and having a solid schedule where nothing slips through the cracks.
THE CASE FOR CUSTOMER LOYALTY
If there's one thing most businesses have in common, it's that we all want loyal customers. Our growth depends on them. We thrive on them. CRM software can dramatically help foster strong customer relationships.
Generally, it's much cheaper to keep customers satisfied than it is to acquire new customers. Gartner, a major global research firm, has done extensive studies on the value of repeat customers compared to new customers. They have discovered that repeat customers have a 65% chance of converting to another sale over just 13% with new customers - that follow-up phone call, job anniversary email or postcard means a lot to them. Your repeat customers also serve as a great source of referrals - they refer 50% more business to you than single-transaction customers.
These powerful statistics translate to more dollars in your pocket. Customer Relationship Management encompasses every interaction from beginning to end. It's about ensuring that every customer has a great experience, that they get the right services, and that they become your satisfied customers, your repeat customers and even your brand ambassadors.
Benefits of general contractors CRM Software
While general contractors companies are generally considered very 'low-tech' outfits, the future of the general contractors industry relies on strong CRM systems. A powerful CRM tool can literally transform every aspect of your business - beginning with lead capture and all the way up to closing the job and getting rave customer reviews.
Now let's talk about what a great CRM system can help you accomplish:
Rapidly capture, engage and convert leads into booked jobs. You can automatically funnel leads instantaneously from multiple sources into your CRM. With a good CRM, you will often have booked the job by the time your competitors get their estimates in.
Your representatives can craft accurate estimates for all types of jobs in a quarter of the time it takes to prepare estimates manually.
With your CRM's e-sign feature your customers can easily review and electronically sign their documents.
Build a healthy sales pipeline. A good CRM will show you at what stage each prospect is, and whether you have enough jobs on the calendar to achieve your quotas.
Sales reps are people persons (by nature and by training). If you have already done the hard work to hire great sales reps with a fire in their belly, give them a smart CRM tool and see your closing ratios shoot up.
A good CRM will provide true 360 visibility on job updates, notes, your team's activities and follow-ups so everyone stays on the same page.
You can track appointments, jobs and tasks on your calendar with custom color-coding. Some CRMs will even sync to your Google calendar.
Billing - Most CRMs will let you send invoices electronically.
Reporting - Check the health of your business through dashboard analytics and powerful reports.
True cloud-based software - Companies across the globe are migrating their computer systems to the Cloud for it's various benefits. With Cloud-based software and the convenience of mobile apps, your entire team will be connected at all times.
Serwiz® is a CRM system that will help you accomplish all of the above benefits with only a few clicks. When analyzing any major business decision, it's important to ensure that your decisions make financial sense.
Serwiz provides countless implicit benefits via improvements in your services and the customer experience. With Serwiz, you will also experience an impressive return on your investment. Nucleus Research, a major information technology research firm, recently wrapped up a 3-year long case study where they investigated the average return on investment of CRM systems. The study discovered that implementing CRM systems result in an $8.71 return for every dollar spent. Where else can you earn an 871% return on your investment?
If you are not getting the returns you have been expecting or if your team is neglecting your current software it's time to consider Serwiz. Think about how much you could improve your customers' experience by providing them with quick turnarounds for document requests, accurate estimates, timely updates, and quality service? Get the tool that makes all of this possible - visit www.serwiz.com to sign up today. You will see measurable improvements in just 30 days or less. Your competition doesn't take any days off, so schedule your live demo today and get started.
