PCL Heating Testimonial

"I can increase my revenue by 14% by the end of this year. When you look at that in terms of monetary value, it's a no brainer."

Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating, located in Bath, UK, was started in 2016 by Managing Director, Nicola Seviour.

Nicola and her team were initially using a custom-designed job management software that was tailored to their business, however, this proved problematic. “It didn’t work. It wasn’t reliable and that hindered us right from the beginning,” says Nicola. She adds, “We were growing and I knew that we were in real trouble if we didn’t have a piece of software that could support us.” It was time for a change.

Moving to Commusoft

Nicola spent two weeks talking to people, searching the internet, and phoning software companies. She admits, “I wasn’t actually looking at Commusoft at all. But by chance, I went on a review site and saw all the really good reviews and thought, ‘Let’s see what this is all about!’”

After speaking to the Commusoft team, Nicola trialed the software and before long, Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating were signed up and starting their training. When asked about the training process, Nicola replied, “It was amazing. I think your client services team is a real asset to the company. They were incredibly patient and their delivery was incredible.”

But it wasn’t just the training that got Nicola and her team off to a good start. Commusoft’s interface and user-friendly design helped too. “The thing that really grabs me with Commusoft is how it looks—it’s all very user-friendly and that helped me feel more confident on it right from day one,” explains Nicola.

Commusoft’s emphasis on after-sales service has also been critical. “I don’t feel that Commusoft has just sold me this software and told me to get on with it,” says Nicola, “I feel like you’ve backed us up and continue to support us as we grow. And that’s really important.”

Intelligent Scheduling and a 14% Increase in Revenue

Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating chose to implement Commusoft’s intelligent scheduling software, which can radically improve job booking with optimized appointment suggestions.

For Nicola’s team, this has been one of the most important features, as she makes clear, “I love it—I think for us and for me, it’s one of the best features.” Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating now use it 99% of the time when booking jobs into the calendar. On the challenges of manual scheduling, Nicola elaborates, “If my technicians are driving all over town for their jobs, they’re going to cost me more fuel and they won’t be as efficient as I’d like.”

Nicola knew that to grow her business and revenue, she needed her technicians to fit in an extra job per day, which required a more efficient solution, “That means not traveling around so much… and it means I need an intelligent piece of software”. She explains further:

“As bright as my team are, it’s very difficult to manually find an appointment in the same area when the customer’s on the phone. So the intelligent scheduling has been amazing. It’s not disappointed us and it’s already made a difference.”

But just how much impact is intelligent scheduling having for Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating? Nicola’s done the math on what one extra job per technician, per day means for her business:

“I can increase my revenue by 14% by the end of this year. And that’s huge – that’s massive. When you look at that in terms of monetary value, it’s a no brainer. That far outweighs the cost of putting Commusoft on our machines.”

If you want to calculate your own possible return on investment for intelligent scheduling, try our ROI calculator.

Easier Scheduling, With Less Room for Error

While intelligent scheduling is helping Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating improve revenue through greater efficiency, what role do supporting features like technician skills and shift patterns play?

“They stop user errors… we all make mistakes, don’t we?”, admits Nicola. She explains how when a customer requires an oil service, the scheduling tool will only show the technicians who are qualified to complete that type of work, reducing the chance of sending the wrong person for the job.

Equally as important are shift patterns. As Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating’s technicians start at different times of the day, Commusoft won’t suggest appointments outside of those shift patterns. Nicola thinks this will be increasingly vital in the future:

“As we add more office staff and more technicians, it’ll be difficult to keep track of. If there’s a piece of software that’s just guiding us along the right track—that’s what we need. And that’s exactly what Commusoft offers us.”

It’s not only Nicola who is pleased with the improvements that intelligent scheduling is bringing to her company. The technicians are also benefiting from the optimized proximity and travel distance between their jobs. Nicola recalls how one of her techs called her shortly after implementing this new feature:

“He called me up and said, ‘Today I’ve had a brilliant day! I didn’t feel stressed… didn’t feel like I had to race to the other side of town’, and he felt it worked much better for him. When I looked at it, I could see he’d done much more work that day than any other.”

Customer Satisfaction and Improving Communication

From the outset, Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating wanted to offer a service that’s different from other companies. Nicola explains, “We answer our phones until 10 in the evening and we always turn up… customer satisfaction is an absolute priority.”

Commusoft enabled the company to double down on their commitment to customer satisfaction through tools like online booking, a self-service solution which allows customers to requests appointments through the company website. Nicola details why this is essential for them:

“We live in a world where everything needs to be done online. Customers can go to the front page of our website now and book an appointment at their leisure, any time of the day. We’ve found that it’s really popular.”

It’s not only job bookings that can be done online, but accepting quotes and paying invoices too. When discussing the online quoting portal, Nicola remarks on its simplicity, “The customer gets an email saying you need this part, it’s going to cost this much money, and all they need to do is click to accept the job.” Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating always back up their quotations with an automated SMS message too, “It’s just polite – and we’re making sure that they’ve got the information they need in a timely manner.”

The whole process is quick and easy for the customer, thinks Nicola, “It’s really to do with the speed and the fact that they can do it online –  from their phone, even when they’re on the go. It’s all done seamlessly.” As a result, Nicola says, “We get more sales. It’s that simple.”

A Wide Breadth of Benefits

Implementing Commusoft has led to a variety of other benefits for Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating too.

Saving admin time for everyone

“Commusoft on the whole saves us a ton of admin time.” Nicola remembers how technicians used to bring handwritten notes into the office for staff to decipher and type up into the software. “We don’t do that anymore. Everything is much speedier.”

Faster Invoicing and Improved Cash Flow

With Commusoft’s invoicing software, Nicola’s team can get invoices out much quicker. “Before, it would take 4 to 5 days to send out an invoice. Now we get an invoice out to a customer within 10 minutes of finishing the job, which means we are much more likely to get paid quicker.”

It’s Easier to Train New Staff

Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating are a growing company, recently hiring a new pair of hands in the office. Nicola explains how Commusoft has made that process smoother: “When we take somebody new on, we need a piece of software for them to be able to pick up and run with. Jane, our latest hire, is already picking it up quickly.”

Technicians Are Happier

It’s expected when adopting any new system that there will likely be some skepticism. Nicola tells us how this was initially the case for her techs, “They didn’t want to use it to start with. After 48 hours of launching though, I was getting messages saying, ‘This is amazing. This is saving so much time!’”. It was apparent that the Commusoft field service mobile app was proving better for the team. Nicola adds that, “Previously, they would leave the customer’s house, sit in their truck, and do their paperwork. Now, when they leave the customer’s house, both the job and paperwork is finished.”

Future Growth With Commusoft

Looking to the future, Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating are planning to expand their geographical service area. As Nicola summarises, “We’ve got a model now that works and Commusoft supported that really well – all we need to do is expand into new areas and take on additional employees.”

On top of that, Commusoft still has further functionality to offer and new features in development, which Nicola is eager to try. “I want to start using other tools you’ve got, like field service inventory management. Plus, any new features that you introduce, I will be right there as your guinea pigs to try them out!”, laughs Nicola.

When asked for any last remarks, Nicola concludes, “Overall, I am really thrilled with Commusoft and I know it’s going to make a big difference to the business.” With a predicted 14% increase in annual revenue from Intelligent Scheduling alone, we couldn’t be happier about the clear and positive impact Commusoft is bringing to Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating.

Nicola Seviour
Managing Director

"There is no way we could run our business efficiently and effectively... we just simply could not run it without Commusoft."

Lincoln Smith, a director at Custom Heat Ltd, sat down to discuss why Commusoft is essential for running their heating and plumbing business.

Custom Heat is a family-run business that started with Lincoln’s parents in 1980 and has been operating for 40 years since in and around Rugby, UK. Since implementing Commusoft in 2016, the Custom Heat team has grown from 60 in 2020, to over 100 in 2023!

How Was Your Business Run Before Commusoft?

“We had a paper-based system that we’d had for many years. The system was not internet based, so you couldn’t download a mobile app. We had technicians that would call in on a Friday afternoon to ask if they could pick another job up, or we’d have a customer that would all in at 3 o’clock on a Friday afternoon and say ‘We’ve got no hot water, can you come fix the boiler?’. So we’d call the technician and say we’ve got another job. He’d then jot it down on a sticky label or something in his van – or probably not write it down at all. He’d drive there, do the job – but then we’d never get paid.”

“We were growing as a business, our customer-base was growing, the demand for our services was growing, so we needed a system that could cope with the increase in jobs.”

What Was Your Biggest Challenge Before Using Commusoft?

“Before we used Commusoft, our invoicing was done manually. A lady in the office would produce an invoice and at the end of the week she would send all those invoices out in the post. So you could complete a job on a Tuesday – by the Thursday or Friday you’re posting the invoice – by the Monday they’ve received it – and a few days later, they’re paying it. The whole process could be a week or more.”

How Has Using Commusoft Helped You Improve This?

“Now, you click a button – and send an invoice! In fact, the technicians do it from site. Not only do invoices not get missed, but the technician can go to a boiler service, complete the work, and click a button – all within a second. The office staff doesn’t have to do any of it.”

How Has Commusoft Transformed Your Operations?

“We now have customers call our office, who are ready to handle the call and can book the appointment into a live calendar. If it’s a call-out for that day, which happens very often, it will appear in real time in the technician’s schedule. The technician can then travel to that job and carry out the work. If they need a part, they communicate easily back with the office – just click to select who to communicate with. Once they hit complete, it lets the office know they need those parts. The technician can then invoice and it will automatically send off the after-care email asking for a review. It’s all made very technician friendly and very easy to use. The communication between the office and technician is instant.”

Would You Recommend Commusoft to Other People?

“The way that Commusoft tracks every part of every single job – you will not lose anything – it gives you complete confidence in the whole system. Complete confidence to grow. Complete confidence to push on with your business. There is no way that we could run our business efficiently and effectively, presenting ourselves the way we do with our customers, with our reminders the night before, with our text messages that say ‘we’re on our way’… we just simply could not run our business without Commusoft, it would be impossible.“

Lincoln Smith
Managing Director

"I can't say nice enough things about Commusoft. It made us grow up and actually think about what we really want."

Voity Electrical has operated out of Rutland, Vermont since 2017. Mary-Rachel Voity manages the office while her husband, Matt, leads the electricians in the field. This team provides world-class residential and commercial electrical services. Mary-Rachel met with us to discuss how Commusoft revived their business and helped elevate their workflows.

Before Commusoft

Hard work and passion are two trademarks of Voity Electrical; but while they were working hard, they were drowning under the stress. Mary-Rachel remembers their past workflows:

“It just wasn’t working…there was no open communication. Everything was in Matt’s head. And if we were gonna make the move of hiring someone else, we needed to be able to have a system in place where we would be able to empower the crew leader with information.”

She continues, “It’s about working smarter, not harder…My heart was breaking that my husband was working so hard. He wasn’t able to be part of the family.” Voity Electrical needed to resuscitate their daily operations. Mary-Rachel set out to find a job management solution, and found Commusoft.

She walked us through her decision-making process,

“The most important thing for the crew was having the ability for the system to be offline and still connect when it got into service and still retain all the information. So it wouldn’t stop the workflow; one less thing for them to worry about. That really weeded out what we were looking at.”

Commusoft’s powerful Mobile app works offline and syncs when a WiFi signal returns

Growth is important to Voity Electrical, and helping clients grow is important to Commusoft. Mary-Rachel elaborates; “Commusoft allowed us to grow up as a company and allowed us to be able to move forward. I can see this software growing with us, or we’re going to be growing with the software. And that was huge.”

Training With Commusoft

Mary-Rachel describes Commusoft’s training and onboarding process as “wicked easy”.

She continues,

“I’ve been in CRMs before; the logic of Commusoft was very easy for me to pick up. I was able to catch up really fast and it made me have to think about the things I should be doing. There was a great framework of being able to organize everything in a system. I don’t recall a process or procedure where I wasn’t able to have two different ways to solve it.”

Learn more about our training and onboarding process

Revamped Daily Workflows

Commusoft’s flexibility and customizations made it easy for Voity Electrical to reinvent their workflows.

Mary-Rachel states,

“Commusoft allowed us to be able to change our process and procedures, because we didn’t know what we were doing. With the flow, who’s doing estimates, and just everything. The system allowed us to do and experiment different ways to do processes and be able to change on a dime”.

Commusoft is all-inclusive and flexible; we take the guess-work out of field service. With important processes standardized and organized, our clients can handle their operations with confidence. Voity Electrical doesn’t wonder what comes next anymore; they’re in control.

Currently, Voity Electrical operates with a “one to five” ratio of office staff to technicians. Mary-Rachel’s office schedule is optimized and efficient. She explains, “I’m able to get a routine in place because I have the reports. I’m posting payments, I’m making my deposit slip all in Commusoft and then I start uploading all the vendors invoices and putting it underneath the job numbers.”

She continues,

“Before this, when it was billing time, we were searching through papers, we were trying to pull this, ‘what was the time’? Just absolute craziness. Commusoft allowed us to have processes and procedures. We know we’re not missing any money. We’re not missing and forgetting about invoices. Because everything is a report. I go into my reporting and I see the jobs that are completed that need to be billed, the ones that need attention”.

Commusoft’s reporting dashboard software offers 40+ preconfigured reports, the ability to filter data, create custom resorts, and more.

Optimized Remote Operations

Voity Electrical electricians are thriving with their new mobile workflows: “The staff was very excited about the software and finding solutions and having it being so custom. The crew loves the Office Tasks. That’s their favorite one.”

Office Tasks are available on Commusoft’s field service mobile app, empowering technicians to make requests and tasks for office staff.

Mary-Rachel elaborates,

“With the remote teams, we did get laptops for them, and they also have their clock in and clock out within the system, which eliminated our payroll service because now everything is in Commusoft…Everything is in front of them.”

Commusoft strengthens working relationships and oversight between the office and field.

Timesheets are available on Commusoft’s field service engineer app, this feature automatically logs time spent traveling and at job sites.

She explains, “I’m on top of things…I get to track what’s going on with their time and make sure there isn’t any kind of craziness going on.”

Exceptional Customer Service

Kindness and great service were always at the core of Voity Electrical. With Commusoft, they were able to focus on their customer experiences.

Mary-Rachel states,

“Our customers are amazed that people actually call them back or answer the phone. But also the confirmations, cause we know when the technicians are gonna be there. Because everything’s customizable, we’re able to do some branding within the communication. With the customer journey, we can just bring them along”.

These efforts have paid off. Mary-Rachel was excited to share “12 months ago, our Google rating was a 3.0 and now today we’re a 3.8!” Voity Electrical is continuously improving; as of May 2023, they currently boast a 4.4 rating on Google!

Voity Electrical Is Growing With Commusoft

Voity Electrical has hit the ground running and are excited to build on their success.

Mary-Rachel explains,

“We’re able to work on the business, not in the business… We’ve moved into a new warehouse space because we have the ability to track inventory. In the next five years, I would like to hire another office staff. I’ll be able to run three different crews with three different leaders, and be able to control all those things like prices and parts. We want to scan the parts when we start picking parts. And I want to have a part-time job for someone to pick parts. So then the crew can just focus on the job at hand”.

Voity Electrical found their confidence with Commusoft. Their system is organized, and they’re in full control of their growth.

Most importantly, with work details squared away, the Voitys have time to spend together as a family. Mary-Rachel was excited to share, “We get more family time. When I say ’Commusoft saved my marriage’, I’m really not kidding. We very rarely forget the details now that need to make the business run smoothly. We’re able to be proactive instead of reactive.”

She concludes, “In hindsight, we still would make our choice again. Commusoft allows us to streamline everything and make us more meaty instead of fat.”

Voity Electrical is going to electrify the Electrical Industry, and will continue to thrill more and more customers; there’s no looking back.

Mary-Rachel Voity
Office Manager