How to scale your business with job management software

simPRO Software’s Business Development Manager, Vishal Bedi, shares how electrical businesses can use cloud-based job management software to easily manage their sales, operations and marketing initiatives as they scale their business.

It’s an exciting moment when the time comes to finally take on more service, project, and maintenance work that will take your electrical business to the next level.

But how do you make sure you’re set up for success as you scale? You need to make sure that you have the right technology in place that helps you automate tedious, manual tasks and more efficiently manage your sales, operations and marketing activity as a result so that you can sustainably drive new business (and keep your head from spinning).

Here’s how cloud-based job management software can help.

Create competitive estimates on the fly to easily win new business

With job management software, you can quickly create, update and submit accurate, winning estimates in your first meeting with a potential new customer via mobile app. It can also allow you to accurately forecast projects and control costs with tools like takeoffs, and features such as pre-built assemblies, individual catalogue items, labour rates, subcontractor costs, contingencies and disbursements.

More importantly, it enables you to exceed customer expectations during the life of a project with the capability to make ongoing updates, review approvals and send estimates to your customer from anywhere and at any time.

The faster and more accurately you can create competitive estimates, the more likely you will stand out from the competition and win new business.

Dan Ogden, Director at D&B Electrical, Leicestershire, finds that cloud-based job management software not only helps his electrical business allocate proper resources for new jobs and projects. It also helps the company deliver a better customer experience by allowing it to access job details and easily communicate status to customers quickly. The company’s ability to provide exceptional customer service now sets them apart from others.

“simPRO has given us the edge against our competition really,” says Dan. “Now we can easily go ‘here you are, this is exactly what we’ve done, who’s done it, when it was done, and how much it has cost to replace’. Simple.”

Make timely, strategic decisions with intelligent business reporting

Want to know how long it takes field staff to arrive on-site? Need to find out where you are making and losing money? Or do you just want to know the number of jobs scheduled for the week? Business reporting allows you to answer all of these questions and many more so that you can adequately manage your operations.

Solid reporting processes are essential for identifying trends, seeing where you are making and losing money and highlighting inefficiencies while you scale. And when all of your project details are housed in one

cloud-based software, it is easy to generate reports and gain insight into key parts of your jobs and projects as well as your overall business health. simPRO job management software offers standard reports such as Work in Progress and Cost to Complete, which help keep your projects on track. Advanced business intelligence reporting, such as a BI Reporting Add-On, allows you to create more customised reports, dashboards and data visualisations that can help you make predictions and forecast growth while you scale.

Tom Simmonds, Managing Director at Allfire Protection, Sussex, finds that the reporting capabilities provided by job management software increases the company’s understanding of job profitability and overall cash flow visibility. This helps him make better-informed decisions for his business.

“Reporting has meant that I can quickly see planned against actual work,” says Tom. “What have we billed? Are we on target? Where are the engineers? How’s the job progressing? Are we ready to invoice? I always know exactly what’s going on.”

Automatically request reviews after service to build credibility and attract referrals

According to software review site G2, “about 50% of consumers need to see at least a 4-star rating to consider a business.”

Besides simple word of mouth, online reviews can be the make or break for customers when deciding if they even want to hire you in the first place.

Put your best foot forward online by asking top satisfied customers to leave positive reviews online. The more reviews you gather, the higher your overall rating, which helps you stand out on review sites.

Some job management software actually integrates with review sites, such as Podium (a top review site for electricians), to automatically request customer reviews as soon as you’ve completed a job or project for them.

For example, with the Podium integration, completing a job in simPRO triggers a text sent to the customer requesting a review. This integration makes capturing reviews and boosting credibility simple by incorporating the process directly into any workflow.

The more positive reviews you can gather, the easier it is to fill your website or other marketing with positive, honest feedback about your business that shows credibility and builds trust with potential customers. Plus, there’s usually an opportunity for a great referral and more new business for every positive review you gather!

Darren Thorne, Managing Director, at DT Fire Systems, Surrey, quickly saw the positive impact job management software had on the company’s ability to deliver the best customer experience when a large customer gave positive feedback on its quick and clear communication about the status of a job.

“I think the confidence came from when we had a large corporate client, that after the first maintenance visit, gave us feedback immediately after we sent the asset report,” says Darren. “They said the information that our system produced was the best they’d ever seen with detail, along with what they were getting at the end of the job.”

The success trades businesses like D&B Electrical, Allfire Protection and DT Fire Systems have seen with job management software goes beyond sales, operations and marketing. Job management software has helped them streamline all of the tedious manual tasks holding them back from scaling and ultimately helped them grow in every area of their business.

How will your business grow and thrive with job management software on your side? Are you ready to run more efficient sales, operations and marketing to scale your electrical business? Visit the simPRO website to learn more.

“According to software review site G2, ‘About 50% of consumers need to see at least a 4-star rating to consider a business’”

simPRO Software, simprogroup.com