Since they implemented ServiceTrade software in 2021, Western Allied Mechanical’s service department has been able to cut their quote delivery time in half and send invoices three times faster, while also providing clients a better overall experience with more visibility. ServiceTrade allowed Western Allied to streamline their operations and improve thecustomer experience while sticking with their existing accounting software and processes. In this Q&A, Western AlliedVice President Jeremy Goodland talks about how the company has been improving operations, customer experience, and sales since implementing ServiceTrade.
Please describe your prior processes and the journey to ServiceTrade.
Five or six years ago, we were doing everything in editable PDFs. Time cards, repair work orders, everything was aPDF. Techs would either email them as attachments or upload them to the cloud. Then we’d take all that information and manually enter it into Spectrum, our accounting software.
In 2018, we began utilizing Spectrum’s service component, but it fell short in a few areas where we knew we could dobetter. One of the areas we really felt was lacking was proposal (or quote) generation. We were doing all of our estimates in an Excel spreadsheet. So every job would have an Excel estimate and a Word proposal that we’d have to type up, save as a PDF, and email to the client to sign for approval. Then they’d have to email it back.
It was a clunky process, and given that we’re a service business generating hundreds of proposals each month, we feltit was in our best interest to try and streamline that process.
Was streamlining that quoting process a big factor in choosing ServiceTrade?
It was. We knew that if we were able to reduce that turnaround time by even just 20 percent, we’d be able to crank outthat many more proposals and generate that much more business. We ended up cutting the time from identifying arepair in the field to sending the proposal to the client by 50 percent on average.
How have customer communications changed with ServiceTrade?
ServiceTrade’s customer portal allows our clients to access all of their information—which is great for them, of course, but also for our account managers. I can’t tell you how often our clients reach out, saying, “Hey, can you send me the last two years of records for our account?” Now, with this portal, they have all that data at their fingertips, and that’s really helping out our account managers with that pain point.
The client portal is huge. It has a big impact on how we’re able to go to market. We’re able to pitch that added value to the client and differentiate ourselves. Prospective clients see that value. Tasking is also well received, and it’s nice to be able to sell it as it connects to the customer portal. As soon as the tech submits a task sheet, the client can access itthrough the portal.
Does that visibility help you sell to bigger or more complex clients?
Our construction division does a lot of work in life science and biotechnology buildings. Those clients have strict requirements and have to run a pretty tight ship. In order to work with these types of clients on the service side, weneed the ability to send them the information they need right away. So, yes, it has definitely been a big selling point for these clients.
For more information, visit www.servicetrade.com.
