CLIENT: Front Range Roofing
TYPE: Roofing Contractor
PARTNERSHIP LENGTH: 16 Years
TOP RESULTS
- Enabled production team to capture critical job data to improve forecasting
- Saved up to 6 days a month on accounting and payroll operations with Quickbooks integration
- Versatile CRM for easier customer communication and full project management
- Thousands saved due to better material planning for jobs
COMPANY QUOTE
“Originally we were looking for a service software, but Dataforma has become so much more to us. The program is just an integral part of our business now. First thing I do in the morning is open up Dataforma and it stays open all day!”
– Michael Trotter
CHALLENGES
When Michael Trotter bought Front Range Roofing in 2001, the business had just one desktop computer. He doesn’t remember using it for much else than for an occasional game of solitaire, considering all operations were managed with paper service tickets and reliance on a good memory.
This was back in the the businesses’ days where employees rifled through extensive filing cabinets and sticky notes, trying to remember when a prospect was last contacted or if their invoice was past due. Michael remembers the early 2000’s as a time where his staff was consumed by ‘busy work’ of every kind.
Without a centralized database for the accumulating paperwork, Front Range Roofing found themselves getting overwhelmed with daily business operations, and the strategy for scaling the business was looking more like a distant dream.
Invoices would get shuffled and lost in the transition from the job site to the main office, impacting revenue. Warm leads would go cold after never receiving a call back when a sticky note got misplaced, causing the company to miss out on countless opportunities.
Mr. Trotter soon realized his business would not be able to scale like he envisioned without the implementation of a digital organizational tool to help run day-to-day operations.
He had heard about a new service management roofing software tool called Dataforma that was designed by a roofer for roofers, and Front Range Roofing adopted the platform in 2006 and never looked back.
PROCESS/HIGHLIGHTS
Dataforma immediately made a positive impact for the company’s service department; invoices became neatly organized after being stored digitally, allowing the team to better track billings and eliminate cash flow losses.
When Michael Trotter and Front Range Roofing roofing began using Dataforma, they now had the ability to capture all of their customer and prospect data. As of 2022 they have now 16 years of lead, bid, proposal, and warranty data stored that they can access at the click of a button. This provided the business a seamless way to better manage customer relationships, manage their roof maintenance plans, service manufacturer warranty requests, and make Informed roofing recommendations to customers based on objective data.
Arguably one of the most valuable features is the seamless integration with accounting software, Quickbooks. The accounting team can export all financial data from Dataforma to quickbooks via an API so everything is accurately recorded. This process used to take up to a week to do manually with several employees involved, now it takes half a day on average.
A major element to a successful growing business is making sure communication with clients doesn’t slip through the cracks. The correspondence management capability allows Front Range Roofing to trace all external and internal communications, further supporting the company’s focus on top-notch customer service.
All photo documentation from the field is attached to a project or work order and stored within the app and desktop versions. Along with them are progress reports that keep everyone in the company up to speed on how each project is going. Michael’s team can now immediately access important time-sensitive documents about a customer’s roof without having to take the time to call them.
Job selection and project management became much simpler with Dataforma’s onboard scheduling and calendars. Being able to visually map out project timelines removed the hunches and guesswork that often went into scheduling Michael’s production crews.
Tracking labor hours, fuel costs, materials, etc. has proved to be one of the most invaluable features due to its impact on resource planning and project cost estimation. All of this mission critical data has allowed Michael and his leadership team to make deeper sense of their actions and project operating costs.
Over the years, Mr. Trotter has been delighted with the amount of improvements made to the platform, principally the additional features that make running the business even easier i.e custom templates. As the technology advanced a mobile app was developed to bring all of Dataforma’s tools to the field technician’s fingertips.
RESULTS
Now Front Range Roofing uses Dataforma to manage nearly everything in their company. What started as a tool for decluttering a developing roofing contractor’s service department has turned into an invaluable platform for total business management.
Working with Brian Cook, the Senior VP of Sales at Dataforma, has truly been an beneficial experience for Front Range Roofing, according to Mr. Trotter. Brian is constantly providing them with insights on platform features as well as tips on how to be more productive and take full advantage of Dataforma’s capabilities. Michael says he can’t remember anyone from a software company giving his business that level of customer attention before.
Dataforma has enabled the Front Range Roofing production teams to manage the entire customer life cycle, what Michael calls ‘roof asset management’, capturing critical information to better help his customer’s extend the service life of their roofs and to make better informed decisions based on the data. . The improved forecasting has led his customers to save thousands of dollars and proactively manage their roofs well past their manufacturer’s warranties.
Michael Trotter says he enjoys not having to follow up endlessly with busy employees when he’s trying to hunt down information about jobs. Whenever he needs something, he can access all reported information for each job or work order on the go using the app or from his office desktop computer.
Dataforma has helped Front Range Roofing stay in touch with their customers more, better manage their roofing jobs, save money on outdated manual processes, and ultimately help them provide an enhanced customer experience which has earned them a glowing reputation in the Colorado Springs area. Michael Trotter and Front Range Roofing are Dataforma users for life.
