In a world where there are many software options available to choose from to assist with your day to day business operations, it can feel overwhelming; what is right for me and my business? What will save me the most time? Who will support me to get this up and running?
As you will know, the requirements for renewables businesses differ to software catered to electricians, plumbers and the like. I see businesses trying to fit software that wasn’t built for them into their day to day operations, which often means multiple programs, all doing a very specific job independently and not communicating with each other. This means a lot of copy and pasting, double handling of work within multiple programs, and having to work around features that were designed for another industry. These issues take up a lot of time resource - ultimately impacting profitability, and ends up frustrating users.
My name is Ben Clarke, and I have worked for various field service management businesses over the last 10+ years, and have seen what works well for organisations and what tends to hinder businesses growth. Today, I proudly work as an Account Executive at Payaca, who have built a renewables specific CRM in order to solve these common problems for renewable energy pioneers.
A lot of businesses that create field service management software (FSM) are trying to cater to as many industries as possible in order to increase their customer base. A customer relationship management program (CRM) built for electrical businesses may have little cross-over with the needs of an ASHP installer, and software built for plumbers will have very little to offer a solar PV installer.
This means we have to get specific. What are the real requirements for renewables installers? Well, this starts by looking at your process. For many this will mean managing a project pipeline with various stages that can vary from ASHP to Solar PV to EV installs. When creating a design for a heat pump or solar system, you may use a design tool which is disconnected from your engineers or main CRM. Having these integrated into your project management software means you can import materials directly into your purchase ordering process and PDFs into document folders.
Unfortunately, another problem with CRM with a lack of focus is that they can overlook the needs of our industry’s basic requirements, such as inclusion of industry standard forms like commissioning checklists and or a DNO letter of consent, or may even charge extortionate fees for them to be created from scratch.
Software should align with the needs of our industry - which also means staying compliant. Easy to use, MCS compliant proposals are important for wowing your customers, as with offering them the options for multiple choice and the ability to pay - however many programs do not understand the standard payment stages and government incentives that are an integral part of costing a renewables project. DNO applications are a commonly overlooked part of the process as well, which can also show a lack of understanding about what is required in a typical project. Sharing your handover documents via a dedicated customer portal also helps improve your customers' experience with you and can save you the inevitable back and forth via telephone calls and email in the future when a document gets lost.
This is where many CRM providers go wrong - and can make or break a business relationship. You’re busy, you have lots of work to do, and little time to implement and migrate to a new system. You’ve dedicated a person to take control and champion the software onboarding process for you. This is where an Assisted Onboarding process can offer additional assistance to make sure that not just your data is imported, but the system has been configured correctly for your business’ requirements before going live.
Common practice with many CRM providers is to offer basic training and then to leave you to your own devices. Having dedicated sessions with specialists (who have worked for large UK energy providers) to discuss your process is crucial to making sure that a system is set up and configured (with various automations) to help streamline your operations and customer experience even further.
A robust CRM is one that touches many parts of your customer-facing business. It is important that this software aligns with your business processes, growth goals and to be honest - ideology, before making a decision.
Having an inefficient software setup affects internal resources and your ability to scale, so it is of course important that you can make sure to demonstrate a return on investment when choosing a software provider to streamline your operations.
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