My company installs onsite systems: mounds, in-ground systems, etc. We also do soil testing, system design, repairs, replacements, mound re-cores, sewer camera work, sewer and water repairs and installs, septic pumping, stormwater and the list goes on.
This year in the spring when the phones went from slow to nonstop, our office definitely needed a better way of keeping track of all of the jobs, and the progress of each. What was the permit status, what was the design status, what was the material ordering status, what was the Diggers Hotline status, what was the status of the crew lead site visit walk-through with the customer, and what was the scheduling of each project? It’s not that we did not have this information; but how to efficiently share the status of each job with each team member when certain people weren’t in the office to ask, or that file is not where it should be.
We needed a way to coordinate all of our work in a way that everyone could pull up a job’s status at a glance and automatically keep customers apprised at the same time. I had a vision of what it should look like; I knew what I wanted, what we needed.
I was in a business class that mentioned CRM: a customer relationship management tool. To learn more, I reached out to AI. I asked AI, how do really busy companies keep track of the status of multiple projects and the status of each? The response mentioned a kanban board. The examples were using Post-Its to keep track of their jobs on a board; they moved the projects from step to step from left to right, with each step being a different vertical. So when I researched kanban boards, I started getting what I was looking for and settled on Monday.com after a lot of research.
Our CRM/project management tool is customized. We determined what boards we wanted, and the setup of each. There are different boards for: New (jobs as they come in), system install, system repairs, soil testing and more.
The great thing about this is any update is live amongst all the users. So when a call comes in, the new or prospective customer gets added, and all of their info is now available to anyone checking in on the system.
Like a kanban board, our CRM boards are divided into vertical sections, with customer or job name along the left-hand side. Like the boards themselves, the vertical sections are customized by us. So from left to right you might have project name, plan design, permit obtained, diggers hotline called, material ordered, crew lead site walk-through, date scheduled, job complete, invoice, project review.
Anybody who clicks on the project name, the customer card pops up with all information from the date we received the contract to how many bedrooms, customer contact info, and the latest status.
A nice feature we are setting up, and that some other systems have as well, is you can have preset automaed emails that go out at specific intervals to keep customers updated. For example, if the Smiths sign their contract, they receive an automated email thanking them for the contract and explaining the next steps. At a next predetermined interval, when the project moves on the board from design to submitted for permit (or once the permit is received), another automated email could go out explaining the permit was received, so the utilities are being located and as soon as we know the approximate date, we will let them know.
Some CRM systems have AI as a major component that does a lot of automatic things for them. I guess I just wasn’t ready to turn my customer relationships over to AI just yet. I like remaining a bit more hands-on for now.
Each user of the CRM has access to all of the information. What really works well for us (as long as everyone keeps up with it), is the status of each project is clearly defined on each project card. Anyone in the office can pull up the status of any project if they get a call inquiring. This to me is worth the price of the system.
So the CRM we have elected to use is not just a customer relationship tool, although it does a great job of that; it’s also considered a project management tool.
Benefits of this type of tool:
- All key employees are copied on the same live "boards."
- When anybody takes a call and enters the customer’s info, it is live on everybody's system including QuickBooks if you have the online version.
- As long as everybody keeps each project updated, every project you have has a live status you can check at click of button.
- As each project reaches certain key points the system automatically sends prewritten updates to the customer.
It feels great to automatically keep customers updated at certain preselected points of their project. It reduces calls from customers wondering what the current status is. No matter who takes a call, when the person asks a question, the answers are all right there without searching for a file that may not also be where it’s supposed to be.
There are many different brands of this type of tool now, so with some research anyone should be able to find one that has all the features they want. As we are just starting with ours, I look forward to the positive changes it’s making in a busy company. It helps us and, more important, it helps our customers as well.
About the author
Todd Stair is owner and president of Herr Septic and Sewer, Inc., with over 35 years’ experience designing, installing, repairing, replacing and evaluating septic and mound systems in southeast Wisconsin. He is the author of The Book on Septics and Mounds and a former president of the Wisconsin Onsite Water Recycling Association.
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