When Shaun Dunn started SD Plumbing & Heating in 2015, his goal was to get off the tools and move into managing his team by the time he hit 30. He’s gone and ‘Dunn’ that, now leading a team of 8 engineers and office staff who service Edinburgh and surrounding areas.
Shaun understood that implementing a structured system was essential for expanding his business. He was on the hunt for a tool that would streamline operations and ensure reliable communication with his customers. This approach allowed him to operate and expand a successful team skilled in a variety of services; including bathroom and kitchen plumbing, boiler services, emergency breakdowns, and regular maintenance.
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Originally planning jobs in a diary and using Quickbooks to send invoices, Shaun discovered that relying on information passed on paper was a recipe for missed jobs and delayed payments. Shaun realised it was better to take a step back, review and set up a system that would allow him to scale.
“Before Tradify I was still using a diary and writing stuff down. Tradify… totally changed my business. It's pretty much doubled my sales.”
Shaun tackled the new challenge of learning a job management software system head-on. Moving from old-school pen and paper to the digital world with Tradify was a leap, but the payoff was clear: balancing admin was more efficient and the usual stress of juggling business info dropped significantly. With Tradify, managing customer details and job schedules became more efficient and better yet, nothing fell through the cracks.
“Tradify’s a massive thing for scaling up…I tried to scale up before and it just went to sh**. Basically, it just crashed. So I scaled back down and thought, I need to get structured processes in place before I go any further. And I feel like I definitely have got that now.”
There’s also little room for the pen-and-paper method to allow for efficient teamwork. With Tradify, Shaun can train his office staff and get them up and running the whole team in a matter of days.
“I’ve had a few office staff and it takes about two days to train them on it then they’re away.”
It also helps his team of engineers organise their days, manage their workload and plan their timings and routes.
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At the end of each job, his team can log the finished work and Tradify sends the customer a payment reminder. Organising the team's workflow through Tradify gives the engineers a clear method of reporting, allows the office staff to monitor their growing team and ensures customer communication is automated and done on time. It also ensures that, even when business is busy, no enquiries or communications are lost.
“It's impossible to forget about customers because then you can go through the app and pick up any ones that are lying about or stuff like that. So you’re always seeing that the jobs are ongoing.”
Tradify helped SD Plumbing & Heating with their no.1 service goal, giving customers clear communication and reliable service. Through Tradify’s Text Message feature, customers can receive and accept quotes, get notified exactly when their engineer will arrive and be prompted to pay once the job is completed. The benefit for businesses is that it automates this task, and ensures that all communication is professional, personalised and gets seen.
The Text Message feature creates… “a much better service to your customers. You're keeping them updated through texts - It’s just so much more organised.”
Sending Text Messages from Tradify revolutionised how SD Plumbing & Heating communicated with its customers. Quotes, job updates, and payment reminders can be sent directly to clients' phones, simplifying interactions and enhancing customer experience. It also reduced headaches associated with manually creating a chain of command of communication between the staff and engineers; there’s no confusion on who is supposed to send a message, to whom or when.
“Because of the text messages, the reminders, customers are always getting confirmation - so they're always kept in the loop…You're giving a much better service to your customers. You're keeping them updated.”
By sending Text Messages for quotes and payment reminders, SD Plumbing & Heating not only saw an increase in quote acceptance rates but also experienced faster payments. Fun Fact: Quotes sent to clients via text message have a 22% higher acceptance rate compared to email!
“Yeah, using the Text Message feature 100% helps to get paid faster because we get paid on completion. They get an automatic reminder straight away, it definitely prompts somebody to pay faster.”
As SD Plumbing & Heating continues to evolve, Shaun sees Tradify as an indispensable part of his business's future, essential for scaling and achieving new milestones.
“I’m still trying to figure out the future goals of my business but Tradify’s going to be a key part of scaling up, I couldn’t imagine how we’d do it without it.”
Shaun Dunn’s journey with SD Plumbing & Heating showcases a remarkable transformation from traditional management methods to a modern, streamlined approach facilitated by Tradify. The result? A thriving business, satisfied customers, and a clear path to future growth.
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