Athena Stonecare

THE START: A ONE-MAN SHOW PRIMED FOR GROWTH

Dave Cranfield founded Athena Stonecare 13 years ago with only a vision and a van. Like many trades professionals, that’s all he needed in the beginning. Within five years, however, his company was poised for expansion. He had forged strong partnerships in the stone industry, earned a reputation for impeccable restoration work and established a healthy list of regular clientele.

“It was a very successful one-man business,” says his wife, Becca Cranfield. “He was doing really well and had a good opportunity [to grow].”

Yet, she knew Dave couldn't handle a larger workload on his own. To scale the business, he would need to hire office staff and field crews, as well as implement operational systems to support them. “I’m very big on processes and systems,” says Becca. So, she left her full-time career to help him grow the company.

FROM A SPREADSHEET TO FOUR SOFTWARE SYSTEMS  

When Becca came on board, Dave was using a spreadsheet as a customer database. Dave knew everything about those clients—from their addresses to the types of stone they had. But much of the detail was locked away in his head, not on the spreadsheet. It was plain to see that to work together successfully and add new hires, Becca and Dave would need a better way to store and communicate customer data.

So, they created an internal system to document and track the customer journey—from initial contact, to scheduling and service, to follow-up. Then, as they began to hire stone technicians, they invested in a software solution to ensure field teams knew what to do on-site. They also invested in a program to send clients automated reminders and another to handle invoicing.

In total, they had four separate software systems.

While this new way of working provided better communication and a more detailed overview than a spreadsheet, it still lacked transparency between the office and the field, resulting in loads of double-work for administrators. “Talk about double-entry. This was quadruple entry!” says Becca.

She knew that this growing pain would only get worse as the company got bigger.

“That’s a usual story,” says Becca. “As you grow, you go from sticky notes to spreadsheets, then think you’re really great for using a computer. But you’re actually doing things 100 times that you don’t need to do. It was fine when we only had 10 clients per week. But we were getting more and more and more [clients]. So, I wanted to find something that could integrate everything.”

In her search for an integrated solution, Becca understood that no software would be 100% perfect. Because none were specifically created for stone restoration companies. So, she looked for close-fit systems with customization options.

That's when she found Simpro—a highly customizable field service software that helps manage both office and field operations. 

EVERY PROCESS IN ONE TAILORED SOLUTION

“Our reason for getting Simpro was to consolidate everything,” says Becca. But she also wanted a system that was customized to fit the way the company worked. Not the other way around.

“The most important thing with any database you’re going to implement is [deciding] what you want to get out of it to start. Then work backwards,” she says. “The fact that I could build Simpro with the support and guidance of an expert was incredible. Ours is bespoked to the Nth degree.”

Automated email workflows were a key area Simpro helped Becca customize. Now her clients automatically receive a booking confirmation, a one-week reminder, a two-day reminder and a thank-you email. Each personalized email is friendly and professional in tone, to the extent that clients often respond to the reminders with thank you notes.

So, not only do these emails keep no-shows to a minimum, they also strengthen client relationships.

These extra touch points also offer clients opportunities to ask last-minute questions or request additional services before crews head out. Now, teams arrive on site fully prepared for what would have been surprise add-ons in the past. “That has massively helped the jobs go to plan and the clients be happier with services,” says Becca.

Simpro has also boosted the stone care company’s quote-to-job ratio, thanks to automated follow-up workflows. “A quote goes into the system, we add follow-up tasks, and they’re done on a weekly basis,” explains Becca. “Having one system that everybody uses has made us more efficient.”

Since streamlining their field and office processes with Simpro, Athena Stonecare has shaved 50% off their administrative burden. Plus, they’ve added another field team, doubling the amount of projects they can take on at one time. 

PROFITABLE JOBS, PRODUCTIVE WORKERS AND PAID INVOICES

“We are able to take on more jobs, which obviously has increased our income,” says Becca. But that’s not the only way Simpro has helped the company improve. They’re seeing other significant benefits as well:

• Better Insight into Profitability - Not all client- and job-types are profitable. Before having access to reporting capabilities, it was often hard for Becca and Dave to gauge which jobs to take and which to avoid. “Reporting has been really key for us as we’ve grown,” says Becca. “It’s that reassurance to pull the data and say, ‘Here’s how many times we had to rebook that type of job, and here’s how much that cost us. Let’s start saying ‘No’ to those jobs.’”
• Greater Team Productivity - Using one integrated system has made teams more efficient and independent. They no longer need to rely on Becca and Dave to function. Teams can run jobs on their own, giving Becca and Dave space to focus on bigger picture issues—or simply take a vacation.
• Faster Payments - “Simpro has 100% helped with getting paid and cash flow. We don’t have this mountain of invoices, which we used to,” says Becca. And thanks to the Stripe integration, credit card payments have increased by 20%, making payments simpler than ever.

“Like I always say to Dave when we’re going to do anything within the business: ‘It either has to make us more profitable, professional, or efficient,” says Becca. Simpro checks all three boxes. “We wouldn’t be able to run the team and the jobs—and do what we do—without it.”