Mycroft Heating and Plumbing Testimonial

"Commusoft has directly helped us take on more business and manage everything efficiently. We've seen so much growth!"

Director of Merit Facility Management, Ness Aguilar, sat down with us to discuss Commusoft’s impact on their operations since implementing our Customer Journey plan in 2022.

Why Commusoft?

From HVAC installations to plumbing repairs, pest control inspections, and more, Merit offers a wide range of services for customers. Ness outlines, “Our customer base consists of restaurants, apartment complexes, and commercial properties. We’re also getting into hospital facilities and some government facilities.”

To keep up with demand, Merit employs a variety of subcontractors. Ness and his team knew they needed a job management platform that could effortlessly organize their varied customer base and subcontractors.

He explains, “Out of all the demos that I did, Commusoft was the best and also the biggest. The deal breaker that made us go with Commusoft over any other software was the way the billing is set up.”

He continues,

“No other software has the ability for a Daily License, which was the most perfect thing. It’s the only thing that could work for us. Every other company wanted to charge us a set rate for the amount of users that were gonna be on the system. I wasn’t going be able to pay that because with how many subcontractors we work with right now. We work with 30 to 40.”

Commusoft differs by offering unique licensing options, including Daily, Rolling, and Contracted.

Offering Customer Self-Service Solutions

Facilities management is extremely competitive. After all, building managers want the very best communication and solutions for their facilities. Merit is able to stand apart by offering a self-service Customer Portal.

Ness explains,

“The biggest thing that really hooks them is the Customer Portal. Especially for restaurant customers that have multiple locations. For instance, we’re working with a company called Churches Texas Chicken, and they have multiple locations. I’m able to tell their regional manager, ‘Hey by using us you get a Customer Portal, and you can see all the different locations that you have. They’re all separate, but you can click into a specific location: Store Number One. And on there, it’ll show all the work that we’ve done at Store Number One, along with all the invoices and all the forms that you need.

‘You’re also able to give your managers access to that so they can also see what’s going on at that property. But the cool part about it is that you’re able to see all your different properties in one place’.

I tell them, ‘The more that you use us, the better. If you only use this for one service, you’ll still have all the information there, but it’s way more convenient if you’re using us for four different services instead of one because all the information is gonna be put into one place”.

Commusoft’s Customer Portal ensures Ness keeps commercial customers updated and encourages them to work Merit again and again.

He continues,

“The Customer Portal has allowed me to be able to focus on getting other jobs, opportunities, contracts and more. It’s freed me up from doing the bare minimum. When you’re stuck on responding to complaints or responding to simple requests that can be done in a more efficient manner, it takes away from your ability to grow or focus on other tasks.

I can focus on the things that really matter, like bringing us projects and talking to new customers. This is what will bring us more business, rather than just barely trying to keep up with the business that we already have.”

Ness is confident his team can stand apart from competitors: “Commusoft is able to put us ahead of everybody else that’s doing something similar because of the communication aspect alone!”

Perfecting Customer Communication

Updating and supporting customers is impossible without the right support. That’s why Merit Facility Management uses automated notifications and messages to keep each customer in the loop.

Ness outlines,

“Commusoft is so efficient when it comes to communicating for us, whether it’s emails, notifications, text messages, or the Customer Portal.

Customers are able to access everything; they don’t need to call us with any questions. I make sure I’m calling to touch base with them, just to make sure that they’re doing well. Even if there’s nothing wrong. I talk to customers in-person or over the phone and make sure that relationship is still there and going strong because Commusoft does such a great job of communicating with them.

It’s so smooth and convenient, it’s like the business is on autopilot! Honestly, I could not call them and they’ll still be fine because they’re getting all the communication they need. They’re almost self-sufficient, you know?”

Commusoft’s Alerts and Notifications remove the need to manually update customers. Automated reminders and messages ensure customers have access to the information they need, meaning Ness and his team can tackle higher-value tasks!

Capturing Data With Custom Forms

Ness’s contractors need to gather and record valuable information while on-site: “Custom Forms have been a massive help when comes to covering ourselves. It’s something that has been a godsend!”

Ness explains,

“For kitchen pest control, the restaurants are required to be given a form after the service has been completed for compliance reasons.

We, as a company, have to provide the Pest Control Report to the restaurant as proof of what we did. I was able to create a Custom Form listing all the chemicals somebody could use, the option for them to input the quantity of chemicals, and the different types of pests that they could be targeting.

Our pest control company goes ahead and does their service. Afterwards, they complete the pest control form. The customer, in their Customer Portal, can access that form when requested by a Health Inspector at any given moment.”

Commusoft’s Custom Forms empower Merit contractors to digitally capture valuable information, fulfill safety requirements, and complete inspection checklists directly from the job site.

Seamless Dispatching With Job Descriptions and User Groups

Stress-free job booking is essential for Merit’s operations. Ness walked us through two Commusoft features that have transformed scheduling and directly supported the business’s growth.

“Another feature is the ability to create job descriptions that are ready behind the scenes instead of having to input it manually. My scheduling department don’t have to worry about what the notes and price should be. Everything populates automatically whenever they select that job description.

The drag-and-drop ability on the scheduling has been so easy. Rescheduling something is the easiest thing ever because they can do it in two seconds. They just drag something and drop it!”

Commusoft’s Job Descriptions allow Merit’s office team to set details, like pricing for each service type they offer.

Pivoting to User Groups,

“Another thing that has helped us tremendously has been User Groups. We’re starting to not only do work in San Antonio, but also Houston. We’re also starting to do work in Austin because the word is spreading!

Commusoft’s User Groups allowed me to be able to separate these vendors and subcontractors per city. I have User Groups set up as ‘East Texas’, ‘West Texas’, ‘Central’, etc. Now, whenever my scheduling department get a dispatch call from Houston, they make sure they select the user group ‘Houston’.

“This allows them to see all the technicians only in Houston. That way they’re not dispatching somebody from San Antonio to do work in Houston. Some Commusoft features might be small. But if they’re not there, you realize how big of a problem it could cause!”

He continues,

“So in Houston, let’s just say for plumbing, I might get six to 10 calls per month. With Commusoft, I’m able to find a subcontractor out there who wants to do the jobs. I’m able to dispatch them just for those calls in Houston, and I don’t have to turn work down. Commusoft allows me to be able to take any ticket that I need because it’s so easy to add subcontractors with a daily license!”

Commusoft’s User Groups feature ensures the best technician is selected for the task at hand. This removes much of the guesswork out of scheduling, meaning jobs can get booked faster!

Expanding With Commusoft

Growth was always in the cards. However, with Commusoft supporting the team, Merit Facility Management was able to accelerate their growth, while remaining in complete control.

Ness details,

“We wouldn’t have been able to expand as fast as we have without Commusoft. It’s allowed us to get a foothold in other cities without having to wait until we have a lot of business there.

Everything’s just very efficient and organized. We’re confident in being able to take on more customers. Commusoft allows our sales team to help grow us. Also, with any word-of-mouth business, we’re able to take jobs on and not turn them down because we’re confident in knowing that we have a system that can handle a lot of customers.”

He continues,

“We had the idea, the goal, the ambition, and the drive. We had the team. But without this platform, we wouldn’t have been able to be as convenient to our customers. We wouldn’t have been able to do what we do without Commusoft. I’m forever grateful, and we plan on continuing to grow.

One thing that we love about Commusoft is that you’re always trying to better yourselves just like we are. That’s one thing you do that no other company that I know of does: nobody does that. Everybody says, ‘This is our software, this is our platform. Take it or leave it. We’re not making any adjustments’, and they just collect money on it. The fact that Commusoft is always willing and wanting to adjust, that’s one thing we just love.”

Commusoft is always working to better our solutions. We listen to our clients when developing new features, and regularly release requested tools and functions that our client base has suggested.

Ness concludes,

“The growth that we’ve seen in this past year wouldn’t have happened without Commusoft. It’s been tremendous. I’m curious to see where we’re gonna be at two years from now, three years from now! Every step of the way we’re gonna be growing. It’s exciting to see!”

Ness Aguilar
Director

"Commusoft is a big player; it really puts it all together for us, and without it, genuinely, we would be lost. "

G Jassal All Trades, based out of Glasgow’s West End, provides a variety of field service services to customers. Company Director Gurminder Jassal spoke to us about how his multi-trades business has flourished since implementing Commusoft’s Customer Journey plan in 2017.

Plugging Away With a Disjointed System

Gurminder describes his previous daily workflow as “a jumbled mess” before finding Commusoft.

“We used to run things was remarkably different from what we do now. I would have WhatsApp sent to an technician, a text message sent to another technician, a handwritten note…and a calendar, which, simply, ran out of room because if you made a mistake or had to alter anything, you had to put a line through it…I was up till all hours of the morning trying to sort things out”.

Gurminder and his team knew this workflow wouldn’t support their business’s growth.

Revamping Daily Operations

Trading a chaotic workflow for a streamlined digital system wasn’t a difficult decision, but it was intimidating.

Gurminder expands,

“Using a new system can be daunting…you’re thinking ‘how much time is it going to take me to learn this? Am I ever going to get good at this? I don’t have time for it’, but my advice would be, definitely take the time for it…The service from Commusoft was great…They were always there, and that’s why we’re still here after all these years”. 

After settling in with Commusoft, Gurminder and his team wanted to organize their tasks. As a multi-trade business, easily distinguishing services was a necessity.

Gurminder elaborates,

“We can actually group the jobs into ‘plumbing’, ‘heating’, ‘decorating’, ‘miscellaneous’; having those separate files, I can simply pull them up and go ‘how much decorating did we do between July and August 2018’? I can [compare this], to July and August 2021. And I can say ‘that portion of the business is doing really well, let’s get a painter on our books’. Or I can look at something and say ‘why has it declined? Can we push it forward? Can we generate more social media? Can we gather more customers to increase the workload?’ And really, separating those out is very, very, important and it gives you information at a glance”.

With Commusoft, the G Jassal All Trades team is able to separate jobs by type and can generate reports to keep track of all the moving parts. Learn more about Commusoft’s work order management and reporting software.

Focusing On Customer Satisfaction

Gurminder works to provide full transparency, availability, and service to his customers.

He explains,

“Communication for any business is really important. For a customer journey, it’s massive. In the trades business, unfortunately, there’s this stigma of ‘the plumber didn’t call me back’, or ‘the electrician didn’t turn up’, so people have their backs up sometimes. But Commusoft has helped us overcome that fear with our customers”.

Gurminder expands, “Having Commusoft, and having a good admin team, combining those both together, has dramatically changed it because we get advanced warning of when a customer is going to be needing a service”.

Commusoft’s Service Reminders software keeps both our clients, and their customers on track, supporting PPM workflows, increasing the number of jobs booked, and boosting company profits. Gurminder explains, “[Commusoft] lets us gain more business as well because instead of a customer possibly forgetting our details, can’t find us anymore, they go online…we’re actually capturing them before they have a chance to go somewhere else, it’s really, really important for us”. Learn more about winning continued business with Commusoft’s service reminder software.

Custom Service Plans

On top of being a multi-trades business, G Jassal All Trades also offers tiered service plans for customers with their Homecare packages.

Gurminder explains,

“One of the sides of the business we have is Homecare… We have silver, bronze, gold packages, and this [offers] different levels of cover from whether they’re allowed call outs, how much parts are allowed, what the labor is, and really, what benefits they can capture from using our services…”

He continues,

“[With] Commusoft, we can look at the customer’s file, see how many properties he’s got, and what level of Homecare plan they’re on, and when the service is due. So we’re not being held back from providing a great service either… we’re happy because if we get in early, carry out the service early, we can pick up problems early, and that can save us a whole host of money. So it’s a really good benefit for us”.

With customized service plans, Gurminder and his team can ensure they’re always providing uenrivalled service to their customers. Learn more about creating custom service agreements with Commusoft’s service contract management software.

Moving Forward With Commusoft

Gurminder’s technicians thrive with Commusoft and their new workflows.

He explains,

“So from their side, it’s a fantastic tool. They know where they’re going, what they have to do, and they can target and base their day around that…And the great thing is, because it’s all digital, we can actually add in what happened during the last service…[The technicians] can view who’s been there before, what actually happened, what’s the best course of action, and the customer’s having a seamless enjoyment of using our business”.

With Commusoft, Gurminder knows G Jassal All Trades can grow comfortably, and continue offering exceptional service. He explains, “[we] captured over 60% more services now than we did before…Anyone that’s out there, thinking of utilizing a system, I would definitely recommend Commusoft… Anyone sitting on the fence thinking about doing it, I would definitely do it”.

Gurminder Jassal
Director

"I can honestly say going forward with technology, it's so much easier, so much more organized, and just a lot more professional."

Lorna Taylor, who manages the office for Westminster Heating and Plumbing, joined us to discuss the impact Commusoft has had on their business and how it helped their owner take a well-deserved step back from day-to-day operations.

Westminster Heating and Plumbing is a family-run business based in London, UK. For the past twenty years they’ve offered a trustworthy, friendly, and professional service to thousands of customers. Since 2017, Westminster Heating and Plumbing have used Commusoft to streamline their office work and help manage their small team of technicians on the road.

How Has Tracking Jobs Changed?

“My dad would have it down on a bit of paper with just the customer’s name. But the technicians used to phone into the office, and quite often, especially if it was just me here in the office, I’d be putting them on hold to try and find a job ticket that fell down the back of the desk. Then I’d have a customer phone in at the same time – so I was always having to juggle between giving the technicians the details over the phone and dealing with customers calling in.”

“Now it’s a lot easier. Straight away I’m able to search for that customer, just from a few key points they’ve said. From that, I can see who previously was there on the job and what they’d done. That procedure is a lot smoother than it was previously.”

Discover Commusoft’s customer database software.

What About Service Reminders?

“Prior to Commusoft, we used to have a service reminder system. It was a folder of customer’s records – as and when they’d had their service done – but there were always problems with it. Some customers used to bring their service forward, some would miss a service, so we needed something a bit more organized for our reminders, which is why we originally came to Commusoft.”

“Every time you go in to do their boiler service or the gas safety inspection, you have to clear the previous one on and it automatically triggers the next year’s. I will go on there on a weekly basis rather than monthly, and send them out as and when they’re due. It’s all done with one click and it’s so much easier for the customers.”

Learn more about Commusoft’s service reminder software.

How Has Scheduling Improved?

“In London, we only cover a 10-mile radius so it’s not far for technicians to travel, but the traffic to get from one part to the next part was always quite difficult to tell which job was located near to the next job.”

“Now all of the technicians are all on one page. So I can see exactly who’s got what workload compared to the other person’s workload. I can drop the job onto one of the technicians and double check on the map to see where it’s pin dropped and see whether that tech is closest to that job or if I should send another tech.”

Discover Commusoft’s job scheduling software.

How Was the Onboarding Process?

“When we first took on Commusoft it was very apprehensive for us, especially for my dad. He was very dubious about having the system in place – and as were we, actually. But Nisha, who did our training and was the first one with contact to us, was fantastic at talking us through step by step, how to do that, how to set the different addresses up and how to link customers, which was brilliant.”

Has Your Dad Looked Back Since Moving to Commusoft?

“He is converted! Although he doesn’t really get too much involved with the office now, but I’ll show him the dashboard and what’s going on, this is how many jobs we’ve done. The fact that the job tickets are there on the board, then he’s not worrying about what jobs need to be done because it’s all on the system now – and it’s all in place. So it has enabled him to take that step back that he wanted to do.”

“We’ve been going for 20 years now – and only in the last three years we’ve been Commusoft customers – and I can honestly say going forward with technology, it’s so much easier, so much more organized, and just a lot more professional.”

Join Westminster Heating and Plumbing and dive into our job management software!

Lorna Taylor
Office Manager