Express Glass: Salesforce Success Story
Express Glass is an Australian glass and glazing service provider that is known for their ability to solve emergency situations quickly. With a recent growth in their business, they needed modern technology to scale. For any SMB, embarking on a digital transformation journey can be intimidating. Thanks to our Agile framework, their Salesforce solution was delivered and refined on the go, which delivered outstanding value for their business, above and beyond expectations.
The team at Express Glass needed a local Salesforce implementation partner who would take the time to understand their needs and consult on field service best practices. We were up for the challenge and design a powerful integrated Salesforce Service Cloud and Field Service Lightning solution that would dramatically improve their processes.
“The Express Glass implementation was a large task that involved changing the way the entire business operates each hour every day. Case management, scheduling, purchasing, invoicing customer and community portals were all part of the mission. The ProQuest team were very knowledgeable regarding best practice and how this applied in our business and this was very helpful in assisting us decide the best flows for our operation. Our new system is a success and ProQuest played a major part in making this happen on-time and were upfront and transparent with the project budget.”
– Reece Van Vliet, Operations Manager
Express Glass: Live in 6 weeks
Express Glass went live with their Salesforce Field Service Lightning MVP (Minimum Viable Product) in just 6 weeks. An MVP is what ProQuest helps determine in the earliest phase of the project: the core set of requirements required to go live that will bring the most business value. For Express Glass, their MVP was focussed on improving end-to-end field service activities whilst limiting change management required in the back-office. We advised to start by keeping their legacy system Microsoft Navision in place to manage pricing and accounting, setup a two-way integration with Salesforce Service Cloud to remove any double entry, and use Salesforce Field Service Lightning to streamline dispatch and field work.
Express Glass: Field Service Management on steroids
6 weeks only after starting development, the first solution that went live covered the essentials of a highly efficient field service process with some very interesting features designed to boost their first time fix rate and customer satisfaction KPIs:
- Automated individual email to all glaziers at 6am with the list of parts they need in their truck to successfully complete today’s planned jobs
- SMS appointment notification to customers
- Ability for customers to confirm appointments by SMS
- Notification of a new job dispatched on glazier’s iPad
- Ability for glaziers to acknowledge dispatched jobs
- SMS notification to gaziers when the next job hasn’t been acknowledged yet
- Enforced steps to complete jobs on the glazier iPad, including taking photos and capturing reason details when a job can’t be completed
- Automated integration with Microsoft Navision upon job completion ready for invoicing with quite an outstanding amount of features.One week after the first deployment, they experienced an 8% increase in the volume of completed jobs, and a 90% increase in volume of information returning from the field to the back office.
Express Glass: Evolving past legacy systems
With a rapidly growing number of work orders, the clunky legacy system they were using to manage their field service operation was becoming increasingly difficult and time consuming. Since the system was too expensive to upgrade, Reece wanted a new solution that would help them cut down on paper and create a smooth transition between field and office. We integrated their existing system with Salesforce to ensure instant, accurate communication. We also used Talend to automate Account, Contact, Case, Work Order and Service Appointment creations in Field Service Lightning (FSL) in close to real-time (every minute). Information from the field to the office has gone from a 50% strike rate to a 95 + strike rate.
Express Glass: Working smarter with Field Service Lightning
By choosing FSL, the team at Express Glass have seen instant improvements to their organisation. 38 glaziers use the Field Service app to receive and complete work orders, and they see the platform as intuitive and easy to use. There’s been an 8% increase in number of jobs complete per day on the second week, and 3000+ work orders have been completed with FSL in just two months. One feature that has particularly impressed Reece is the ability to capture photos from site and let the back office know that the job has been completed.
Express Glass: Getting it right the first time, every time
For any field service organisation, customer satisfaction is by far the most important factor for success. These days, you can’t afford to have unhappy customers and not complete jobs on the first visit. With FSL, Express Glass has seen a 59% decrease in jobs requiring more than three visits to complete. Every technician now knows exactly what parts they need in their van before hitting the road to serve customers, and it’s also mandatory to provide a reason when marking jobs incomplete.
Express Glass: Better cross-team collaboration
Before moving to Salesforce, there were a few issues around communication which resulted in inaccuracies and the occasional delay. The solution we designed aimed to improve cross-team collaboration through the use of SMS notifications and email. Express Glass now use SMS to notify glaziers upon work order dispatch, send to customers to confirm appointments and make bookings. Automated morning emails to glaziers also require them to list their required material for the day to ensure they have everything needed to complete a job successfully.
Express Glass: Instant visibility
Express Glass had no reporting on individual glazier performance in place before coming to us. To be able to assess their work quality, it was important to put measures in place that would lower the risk of job failure. Firstly, we made sure the glaziers have all the information they need to complete their jobs: material required, location, contact details, work order history through Field Service Lightning. They use the mobile app to update work orders throughout the process and send customers SMS notifications if there are any unforeseen changes. They also know instantly when a job is completed and if the glazier is on time or running late.
Express Glass: Making life easy for their customer service team
Salesforce Service Cloud is a powerful product and Express Glass knew that it was crucial to provide the level of customer service they hoped to achieve. It provides a 360-degree view of their customers, which means all the relevant information they need (ie. work order history, account balance and contract details) is on one screen. This helps them give accurate appointment details and follow up on anyone who has a history of late or unapproved payments.
Express Glass: Getting more done
Most importantly, Express Glass has been able to complete more work than ever before. They are on pace to complete 500+ work orders per week, and they have seen an immediate increase in the number of jobs completed per day with the same glaziers (+8%).
Express Glass: Invoice automation with Xero integration
Xero is a powerful accounting platform and Salesforce makes it easy to integrate the two systems. Express Glass used to manually create invoices and check on customer balance and overdue invoices. Invoicing used to be a tedious process and human error also needed to be taken into consideration. Now, invoices are automatically generated in Xero upon work order completion and they can see an up-to-date customer account balance right in Salesforce, and know when someone hasn’t paid and if they should stop serving them in the future.
Reece and Adrian have been overjoyed with their digital transformation and feel that they are going to be better than their competitors which is an amazing feeling as their partner. They are now empowered to make data-driven decisions and we can’t wait to watch them grow and succeed.
Want to see more customer success story videos? Check out our YouTube channel.
