The story:
Sir Grout is a nationally-branded franchise business that is a leader in grout and tile cleaning and restoration. Entrepreneur Magazine listed them as one of the top 500 franchises of the year for five years straight. Sir Grout is part of a fast-growing sector within the home improvement industry, offering an outstanding range of products. Right from the start, the founders of the company have strived to provide customers with exceptional customer service; to that end, they have made significant investments in training and infrastructure to help maintain their brand in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
To cope with the high demand for their services, Sir Grout needed a reliable solution for handling service call scheduling and call center coordination. Unfortunately, the first system they tried didn’t meet their needs. “Before we used Vonigo, our old solution was very difficult to use in a call center environment,” says Sir Grout President Jeff Gill. “It just wasn’t user friendly for our operators and it didn’t have intuitive capabilities to streamline the process very well. Even after we recognized the disadvantages of using that system, it was difficult to change it to do what we wanted. Certainly, it would have been a challenge to scale up our franchise business nationally using it. Basically, it was more trouble than it was worth.”
Sir Grout’s management team started looking for an alternative solution and coincidentally, that’s when Vonigo contacted them to suggest a free demonstration. “I was already thinking of making a change and it was a lucky thing they got in touch,” Gill says. “I really liked what I saw.”
While changing business software can be a complex process, Gill recalls that the process was relatively pain-free thanks to the top-notch support Vonigo provided. Call center employees were able to learn how to use the system rapidly. The call center administration feature has prompts built in so scripts are available right on their screen. “The system is so easy to use, it’s like painting by numbers,” Gill says. Since Sir Grout implemented Vonigo, they’ve seen excellent results.
The benefits:
Competitive advantage in a crowded business environment.
“It’s been almost three years since we adopted Vonigo to gain a technological edge and we’re still light years ahead of our competitors.”
Easy online booking for estimates.
“The estimate booking system customers use on our website is easy to navigate and they can use it in real-time. This is essential for running our business. You could try to run it through something like Google Calendar but it wouldn’t give us the capabilities we really need.”
Fast, easy and profitable follow-up service booking.
After a Sir Grout team member shows an estimate from their tablet while they’re at the client site, they can go ahead and book an appointment for the job right on the spot, instantly. Customers clearly feel confident enough in the professionalism of the company that they often won’t shop around to competitors -- which certainly helps Sir Grout’s bottom line.
Winning features to help sell franchises.
“Potential franchisees see that Vonigo enables you to run your business almost automatically. Our call center puts the estimates on the calendar, the managers and sales guys check the calendar and get the information they need instantly, the service guys do their job, we collect the money – and no one needs to say a word to coordinate it all. That is a huge selling feature.”
Rock-solid reliability to ensure business continuity.
“We never feel like we’re alone. With any business solution, you can have an issue that crops up – but when I have a problem, I get a very fast response. Vonigo is there for us.”