The renovation industry can be very cut-throat, especially when cowboys with an electric drill think they can renovate an entire kitchen with some flat-pack cabinetry, basic tools and an instruction manual.
In the renovation “real world”, we know of the hidden dangers that can undermine your business success and we understand the value of design in creating solutions to customer’s problems. But it can be very difficult to get the consumer to see, and appreciate, the difference between a true renovation company and a handyman offering makeover services.
That’s why the Ayrmont ARMS CRM was created. Designed by experienced members of the renovation industry, the Arymont ARMS CRM seeks to make true renovation businesses more profitable and more highly regarded, by addressing the five key “make-or-break” areas of any business.
1. Final Payments
If you are consistently struggling to collect final payments on your renovation jobs this is going to put your business under a lot of pressure. Renovation businesses are complex and involve juggling and managing many aspects of the renovation process from trades and materials to delivery and installation.
As a business owner, it’s essential that you are on top of all these areas. If your team is failing to finish tasks on time or the quality of the installation is poor, or it’s perceived that you are not delivering on the designer’s promises, then the customer will lose confidence in your business and be reluctant to make the final progress payment.
They way to solve this problem before it becomes a problem is to have strong leadership and strong systems that ensure issues do not develop.
Ayrmont ARMS manages scheduling, trade work orders, documentation, sign offs at each stage, maintenance, quotations, variations, and so much more to ensure that you, as a business owner, have a bird’s eye view of every project your business undertakes.
2. Accurate quoting
You simply cannot run a professional business if you do not have an accurate quoting system in place. Accurate quoting not only gains your customers trust (because there are fewer changes needed as the project unfolds and no surprises for your customer) but also because you can precisely measure your true profitability.
Programs such as Excel allow you to create spreadsheets and add up costs but they are not designed to look at complex data as sub-sections of a whole so you won’t be seeing an accurate view of each project as it pertains to your whole business.
A CRM system such as Ayrmont ARMS provides a range of business tools that assist you to generate accurate quotations as well as manage back-office costs, supplier and material costs and so much more.
3. Scheduling
Scheduling is a task that makes most business owners shudder and it’s not surprising given how complex and challenging this job can be. But it’s no surprise that the success of a renovation project will always come back to the accuracy of the scheduling.
There is nothing worse in your customer’s eyes than a delayed start date, trades not arriving when needed (or all arriving at once!), haphazard deliveries and lack of communication.
When working with contractors, using a scheduling tool that gives you visibility across calendars, projects and tasks across the entire team is essential. Ayrmont ARMS not only provides this ability but also automates SMS and email reminders complete with work orders to ensure your schedule runs without a hiccup.
4. Variations
Variations are inevitable in most renovations. Sometimes these arise because of unforeseen issues (from the designer, during the check measure, noted by the site manager or raised by the customer themselves) and sometimes they are needed because the customer has changed their mind.
No matter the reason, variations must be carefully and accurately documented to outline exactly what has been agreed to and any adjustments to the original quotation that occur as a result. As a business owner, you also need to have a solid variation workflow in place to ensure the variation is precisely noted.
The Arymont ARMS CRM allows you to clearly document variations within the project, translate this across to the materials ordering section, and make amendments to the scheduling calendar as needed. You can note requests from the customer and store variation approvals within the system so all documentation is kept in one secure location.
5. Product costings
There is no way your business can quote accurately if you don’t know how much your materials are costing you. And, particularly at the moment, supplier pricing can almost be a daily update. Not having your product costings updated in your systems can result in critical loss of margin as well as a red face as you have to advise your customer that the price you quoted them was not correct.
Ayrmont ARMS stores all your supplier price lists and can be updated as changes are advised. In this way, you can be assured you are always quoting from the most recent price lists but also offer accurate pricing to your customer at the same time as being confident in your margins and profit.
For more information visit www.ayrmont.com.au
