Customer Catchup with Elevator One
Canadian company Elevator One first went into business 25 years ago with a small but mighty team serving the Southern Ontario area. Over time, they were able to grow to become Ontario’s premier elevator company and expand into more cities in the province. They quickly became top-rated by the Technical Standards & Safety Authority (TSSA). And among their customers. Thanks to their strict adherence to their three core values of integrity, customer catchup and quality.
We caught up with Linda Witzke, Office Manager and employee for 20 years, and Rolly Mechler, Sales & Marketing Manager and employee for 6 years, to see how Elevator One is celebrating 25 years in business. “We’re just in the planning stages,” Linda said, “but we’re planning a fun trip getaway for our employees currently.” Celebrating with customers and suppliers who have had a hand in Elevator One’s success is also in the works. But is still undecided at this time. What is certain is that the past 25 years have been filled with hard work and dedication. In order to grow Elevator One to what it is today.
Becoming faster
In the early days of Elevator One, manually entering data was no easy feat. From completing work orders to generating invoices, the process was quite laborious for Linda, who was in charge of managing it all. The data entry process was cumbersome with plenty of stop-and-go. Including waiting on technicians and customers to provide information about a job. Collecting signatures and payments, and more. Plus, the piles of paperwork accumulated from the growing list of job projects was becoming a lot to sift through.
Linda recognized that as the company continued to expand, resources were being drained on data entry that could be better spent on other areas. They would need an electronic, paperless solution that would help them become more efficient. With this in mind, the team decided to invest in a system that would speed up data entry. In 2010, Elevator One discovered ESS’s Mobile Service and decided to test it out.
Time savings
The time savings of using Mobile Service were immediately evident. “It’s saved us approximately 8 hours a week the very first week we went onto the system,” Linda said. The switch to Mobile Service was smooth from the start. And immediately made managing projects easier. By having customer information, job details, costing and more, all in one system. It streamlined the data entry process for Linda and the Elevator One team.
With this new, efficient system in place, Elevator One seized the opportunity to expand their team. “We have more than doubled our technicians since that period of time,” explained Linda. “So what we would normally do with 20-something technicians would be probably 3 or 4 days of data entry. And we’re down to a half day of data entry.”
Added benefits
Besides the tremendous amount of time saved, Linda was pleasantly surprised by the wealth of additional features that came with Mobile Service. Now, they could pinpoint exactly where their technician is at any time with the GPS Tracking feature. Elevator One was able to stay better connected with technicians, and as such, better manage customer expectations of when a technician would be arriving on site and completing the job.
Breakdowns for Elevator One elevators are significantly lower than the industry average; the Canadian Condominium Institute estimates the number of breakdowns per elevator per year is approximately six, while Elevator One elevators average less than one breakdown per elevator per year. When they do need to rush out a technician for an emergency repair, dispatching became easier with the Mobile Service. At any time, they could quickly dispatch technician to a job, thus improving their customer catchup response times.
More Accurate Billing
In addition to this, they also offered customers more accurate billing. Using Mobile Service, a technician would be able to log their hours spent on a job down to the minute, with rounding up or down to a quarter of an hour becoming a thing of the past. This resulted in extremely accurate billing (for both Elevator One and the customer), which gave Elevator One a competitive edge that customers were looking for.
Another important feature was the ability to live-capture a customer signature at the start and end of any project. In the past, they had to rely on paper. And eventually, when they went digital, would occasionally end up with blurry, poor-quality signature captures. With Mobile Service, Elevator One received crystal clear signature captures as it happened. Which is a necessary and important part of every project.
Linda and Elevator One also appreciated the way Mobile Service helped make their company more green. Going paperless not only saved them time. But also made them more eco-friendly, which is an important value for the company. In 2011, Elevator One was even a finalist for The Green Project Award, one of the Barrie Business Awards, as they transitioned into a new eco-friendly office in Barrie, Ontario.
Quality service
When asked, Linda shared that one of her favourite things about working with ESS is the quality customer catchup she has received over the years. She found ESS was extremely receptive to the needs and concerns of Elevator One. And wanted to work closely with her to customize and improve her experience. She preferred staying in close contact with the ESS team to provide feedback or ask questions. So that she could get the most out of Mobile Service.
“Without good quality suppliers like Expert Service Solutions, we wouldn’t have made it to 25 years,” Linda said. “We’d still be toiling away doing manual data entry every day and costing the company time and money. We’re trying to be as efficient as we possibly can and you’ve been a great help in doing that.”
Congratulations on 25 years, Elevator One! We look forward to providing you with quality service for many years to come.
