Ayrshire Tree Surgeons Reaches New Heights, Increasing Job Bookings by 60% With Commusoft
Ayrshire Tree Surgeons, established in Kilbirnie, Scotland in 2006, provides a variety of tree services for residential and large commercial clients across Scotland.
Tree Service
25+
Kilbirnie, Scotland
Real-time insight has proved a game changer...it takes us from being a small player, to a big player in the market.
60%%
Increase in job booking
80%%
Reduction in outstanding debt
Struggling With a Paper-Based System
Ayrshire Tree Surgeons, established in Kilbirnie, Scotland in 2006, provides a variety of tree services for both residential and large commercial clients across Scotland.
David Adam, Commercial Director, caught up with us to share how Ayrshire Tree Surgeons transformed their business with Commusoft. He describes their previous paper-based workflows as “a slow and cumbersome process”.
He details,
“There was a lack of flexibility throughout the day. We were using a paper-based system, and were marking the jobs up on a whiteboard. Every morning, the teams would come in, and they would get their jobs allocated to them by bits of paper and sheets. [If there were] any issues within a job, or anybody not on site who’s required to be on site…the job would then stop”.
Pen and paper, and whiteboards weren’t going to cut it; they needed an inclusive solution that would accommodate their steadily growing business. “The extra admin and costs involved”, with a paper-based system, was “substantial. We required the system to streamline that process for us. And as the company grew and expanded, we needed a system that would grow and expand with us, and a process that would enable us to be as efficient”.
Modernizing operations with a digital job management software was a huge step for the business. With Commusoft facilitating daily operations and workflows, David and his team were able to hit the ground running.
Getting Started With Commusoft
Moving the entirety of a business’s organization and structure to a digital system is a tremendous task. David puts it best: “I think any small business moving from a paper-based system onto an online system is quite daunting”.
He details his organization’s transition: “The implementation for us was seamless. It was very easy, with full support from Commusoft. The training was excellent, and very quickly built confidence within the team…Everybody, from the office staff, senior management, and the tree surgeon squads, picked up the process very quickly…It’s an intuitive system, it’s not complicated, things are where they should be”.
This quick transition allowed Ayrshire Tree Surgeons to land on their feet. David told us about how his technicians have reacted to their new digital workflows;
“The utilization of Commusoft by either a tablet, or a phone, has enabled them to have greater confidence when turning up to a job. All the details and documentation is there. They have full clarity of what’s required for them on that day. It also allows them to manage the calendar, should they finish that job quickly, they can then go onto the next job, and the next job, and the next job”.
Commusoft empowers mobile teams to take control of their daily workflows, so they can stay effortlessly organized and up-to-date, ultimately allowing them to take on more jobs.
Quotes
David states, “What we always strive for here at Ayrshire Tree Surgeons is to deliver the highest level of professional service to our customers”. Estimates are the first opportunity for technicians to provide unmatched customer service in-person, on-site.
Commusoft streamlines Ayrshire Tree Surgeons’ estimate and quotes process: “Our surveyor goes out to price the job up. The job is not just priced, but all work that’s agreed to be undertaken is scoped out, marked down, and loaded into Commusoft”.
Digital estimates can be built with custom templates, incorporate unique parts and their costs, including site photos, and can be emailed to customers to accept digitally.
Once a job is won, “the teams are then allocated to the job through the calendar in Commusoft. The teams then can have full visibility on their tablets of the full scope of what’s required on the job. They then go and undertake that job to the requirements of the initial quote”.
With estimates saved directly to customer records and jobs, unique customer expectations and agreed-upon terms will always be met.
Custom Forms
Safety is the top priority for Ayrshire Tree Surgeons. David explains, “Tree surgery work is one of the most dangerous industries to be involved in. A big driver for Ayrshire tree Surgeons is the safety of the staff and general public”.
He elaborates,
“A lot of our jobs are undertaken in remote locations. Commusoft allows us to work offline, this gives the teams full visibility of what the jobs are, and allows us to communicate effectively with them at all times. [With] Commusoft [we] automate and centralize a lot of our checklists. Prior to going out on any site, we are required to undertake a full site [and] health and safety assessment…We now know that every single job and every single assessment has been undertaken prior to the job taking place. This provides confidence to all the senior management teams that we are being as safe as possible…We have a full repository of completed forms, and can refer back to them at any time”.
With custom forms, Ayrshire tree surgeons capture job information that’s valuable to them. Site surveys, and PPE and equipment safety checklists are time-logged, so managers know they’re being completed before the job begins. This system protects employees, clients, and the public.
David was happy to tell us that “We have now seen a significant reduction in health and safety related incidents”.
Invoicing
Invoicing and keeping track of payments was frustrating for the office team to manage with a paper-based system. Muddled communications between the field and office, and customers with the office resulted in late payments and other oversights. After managing invoicing and finances with Commusoft, there was a massive shift.
David explains,
“We’re also seeing quicker invoicing happening across the business. We’ve seen a significant reduction in outstanding debts, which has seen it drop by over 80% in the last six months…The flexibility of being able to manage the jobs, and manage the internal invoicing and payments due is a perfect mix for us as a business”.
Commusoft’s invoicing software can be built in the office or in the field, and payments can be accepted online, meaning that your team will never forget to send an invoice, and can receive payments faster.
Commercial Clients
As Ayrshire Tree Surgeons has grown, they’ve focused on catering to larger, commercial clients. They needed a job management platform that could handle the unique needs of commercial clients like a multi-property database, the ability to create and send consolidated invoices, and a customer portal.
With Commusoft, David states,
“We’ve seen a huge rise in our commercial clients, and our commercial database, and that is in part, down to us utilizing the data, our internal processes, and our ability to be flexible and deliver a corporate service to corporate clients. Our ability to interact on a peer to peer level, especially in the finance department, is essential. Commusoft allows us to be able to do that. Without this system, and this effective invoicing system, I don’t believe we would have been successful winning some of our commercial contracts”.
With Commusoft’s field service management software supporting all aspects of daily operations, Ayrshire Tree Surgeons now has the confidence to flourish with confidence.
David sums it up perfectly;
“from a management perspective, [Commusoft] allows us to track our aged debt, our win ratios, our sales-to-dates, and a whole range of other business priorities. We use it as a CRM system, we use it as a job management system, and we also use it as a finance system. For us, it’s the perfect one stop shop, all-in-one system, and we would recommend anybody within our industry”.
Ayrshire Tree Surgeons has already “seen an increase in the volume of jobs undertaken”.
David further explains, “Year-on-year, this quarter alone, has seen a 60% increase in the volume of jobs undertaken. This is down to business efficiencies, driving the productivity of the squads out in the field, and identifying areas of improvement within the office”.
Ayrshire Tree Surgeons has big, and attainable, plans: “We’re looking to continue that growth to become one of the largest tree surgeons in Scotland”.
Ready to Get Started?
More Commusoft case studies
Ace Energy Plumbing & Heating
"I can increase my revenue by 14% by the end of this year. When you look at that in terms of monetary value, it's a no brainer."
Nicola and her team were initially using a custom-designed job management software that was tailored to their business, however, this proved problematic. “It didn’t work. It wasn’t reliable and that hindered us right from the beginning,” says Nicola. She adds, “We were growing and I knew that we were in real trouble if we didn’t have a piece of software that could support us.” It was time for a change.
Moving to Commusoft
Nicola spent two weeks talking to people, searching the internet, and phoning software companies. She admits, “I wasn’t actually looking at Commusoft at all. But by chance, I went on a review site and saw all the really good reviews and thought, ‘Let’s see what this is all about!’”
After speaking to the Commusoft team, Nicola trialed the software and before long, Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating were signed up and starting their training. When asked about the training process, Nicola replied, “It was amazing. I think your client services team is a real asset to the company. They were incredibly patient and their delivery was incredible.”
But it wasn’t just the training that got Nicola and her team off to a good start. Commusoft’s interface and user-friendly design helped too. “The thing that really grabs me with Commusoft is how it looks—it’s all very user-friendly and that helped me feel more confident on it right from day one,” explains Nicola.
Commusoft’s emphasis on after-sales service has also been critical. “I don’t feel that Commusoft has just sold me this software and told me to get on with it,” says Nicola, “I feel like you’ve backed us up and continue to support us as we grow. And that’s really important.”
Intelligent Scheduling and a 14% Increase in Revenue
Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating chose to implement Commusoft’s intelligent scheduling software, which can radically improve job booking with optimized appointment suggestions.
For Nicola’s team, this has been one of the most important features, as she makes clear, “I love it—I think for us and for me, it’s one of the best features.” Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating now use it 99% of the time when booking jobs into the calendar. On the challenges of manual scheduling, Nicola elaborates, “If my technicians are driving all over town for their jobs, they’re going to cost me more fuel and they won’t be as efficient as I’d like.”
Nicola knew that to grow her business and revenue, she needed her technicians to fit in an extra job per day, which required a more efficient solution, “That means not traveling around so much… and it means I need an intelligent piece of software”. She explains further:
“As bright as my team are, it’s very difficult to manually find an appointment in the same area when the customer’s on the phone. So the intelligent scheduling has been amazing. It’s not disappointed us and it’s already made a difference.”
But just how much impact is intelligent scheduling having for Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating? Nicola’s done the math on what one extra job per technician, per day means for her business:
“I canincrease my revenue by 14%by the end of this year. And that’s huge – that’s massive. When you look at that in terms of monetary value, it’s a no brainer. That far outweighs the cost of putting Commusoft on our machines.”
If you want to calculate your own possible return on investment for intelligent scheduling, try our ROI calculator.
Easier Scheduling, With Less Room for Error
While intelligent scheduling is helping Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating improve revenue through greater efficiency, what role do supporting features like technician skills and shift patterns play?
“They stop user errors… we all make mistakes, don’t we?”, admits Nicola. She explains how when a customer requires an oil service, the scheduling tool will only show the technicians who are qualified to complete that type of work, reducing the chance of sending the wrong person for the job.
Equally as important are shift patterns. As Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating’s technicians start at different times of the day, Commusoft won’t suggest appointments outside of those shift patterns. Nicola thinks this will be increasingly vital in the future:
“As we add more office staff and more technicians, it’ll be difficult to keep track of. If there’s a piece of software that’s just guiding us along the right track—that’s what we need. And that’s exactly what Commusoft offers us.”
It’s not only Nicola who is pleased with the improvements that intelligent scheduling is bringing to her company. The technicians are also benefiting from the optimized proximity and travel distance between their jobs. Nicola recalls how one of her techs called her shortly after implementing this new feature:
“He called me up and said, ‘Today I’ve had a brilliant day! I didn’t feel stressed… didn’t feel like I had to race to the other side of town’, and he felt it worked much better for him. When I looked at it, I could see he’d done much more work that day than any other.”
Customer Satisfaction and Improving Communication
From the outset, Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating wanted to offer a service that’s different from other companies. Nicola explains, “We answer our phones until 10 in the evening and we always turn up… customer satisfaction is an absolute priority.”
Commusoft enabled the company to double down on their commitment to customer satisfaction through tools like online booking, a self-service solution which allows customers to requests appointments through the company website. Nicola details why this is essential for them:
“We live in a world where everything needs to be done online. Customers can go to the front page of our website now and book an appointment at their leisure, any time of the day. We’ve found that it’s really popular.”
It’s not only job bookings that can be done online, but accepting quotes and paying invoices too. When discussing the online quoting portal, Nicola remarks on its simplicity, “The customer gets an email saying you need this part, it’s going to cost this much money, and all they need to do is click to accept the job.” Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating always back up their quotations with an automated SMS message too, “It’s just polite – and we’re making sure that they’ve got the information they need in a timely manner.”
The whole process is quick and easy for the customer, thinks Nicola, “It’s really to do with the speed and the fact that they can do it online – from their phone, even when they’re on the go. It’s all done seamlessly.” As a result, Nicola says, “We get more sales. It’s that simple.”
A Wide Breadth of Benefits
Implementing Commusoft has led to a variety of other benefits for Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating too.
Saving admin time for everyone
“Commusoft on the whole saves us a ton of admin time.” Nicola remembers how technicians used to bring handwritten notes into the office for staff to decipher and type up into the software. “We don’t do that anymore. Everything is much speedier.”
Faster Invoicing and Improved Cash Flow
With Commusoft’s invoicing software, Nicola’s team can get invoices out much quicker. “Before, it would take 4 to 5 days to send out an invoice. Now we get an invoice out to a customer within 10 minutes of finishing the job, which means we are much more likely to get paid quicker.”
It’s Easier to Train New Staff
Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating are a growing company, recently hiring a new pair of hands in the office. Nicola explains how Commusoft has made that process smoother: “When we take somebody new on, we need a piece of software for them to be able to pick up and run with. Jane, our latest hire, is already picking it up quickly.”
Technicians Are Happier
It’s expected when adopting any new system that there will likely be some skepticism. Nicola tells us how this was initially the case for her techs, “They didn’t want to use it to start with. After 48 hours of launching though, I was getting messages saying, ‘This is amazing. This is saving so much time!’”. It was apparent that the Commusoft field service mobile app was proving better for the team. Nicola adds that, “Previously, they would leave the customer’s house, sit in their truck, and do their paperwork. Now, when they leave the customer’s house, both the job and paperwork is finished.”
Future Growth With Commusoft
Looking to the future, Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating are planning to expand their geographical service area. As Nicola summarises, “We’ve got a model now that works and Commusoft supported that really well – all we need to do is expand into new areas and take on additional employees.”
On top of that, Commusoft still has further functionality to offer and new features in development, which Nicola is eager to try. “I want to start using other tools you’ve got, like field service inventory management. Plus, any new features that you introduce, I will be right there as your guinea pigs to try them out!”, laughs Nicola.
When asked for any last remarks, Nicola concludes, “Overall, I am really thrilled with Commusoft and I know it’s going to make a big difference to the business.” With a predicted 14% increase in annual revenue from Intelligent Scheduling alone, we couldn’t be happier about the clear and positive impact Commusoft is bringing to Ace Energy Plumbing and Heating.
Nicola Seviour
Managing Director
A growing plumbing and heating company that puts customer satisfaction first.
Bath, UK
8 employees
Electrical
Custom Heat
"There is no way we could run our business efficiently and effectively... we just simply could not run it without Commusoft."
"There is no way we could run our business efficiently and effectively... we just simply could not run it without Commusoft."
Lincoln Smith, a director at Custom Heat Ltd, sat down to discuss why Commusoft is essential for running their heating and plumbing business.
Custom Heat is a family-run business that started with Lincoln’s parents in 1980 and has been operating for 40 years since in and around Rugby, UK. Since implementing Commusoft in 2016, the Custom Heat team has grown from 60 in 2020, to over 100 in 2023!
How Was Your Business Run Before Commusoft?
“We had a paper-based system that we’d had for many years. The system was not internet based, so you couldn’t download a mobile app. We had technicians that would call in on a Friday afternoon to ask if they could pick another job up, or we’d have a customer that would all in at 3 o’clock on a Friday afternoon and say ‘We’ve got no hot water, can you come fix the boiler?’. So we’d call the technician and say we’ve got another job. He’d then jot it down on a sticky label or something in his van – or probably not write it down at all. He’d drive there, do the job – but then we’d never get paid.”
“We were growing as a business, our customer-base was growing, the demand for our services was growing, so we needed a system that could cope with the increase in jobs.”
What Was Your Biggest Challenge Before Using Commusoft?
“Before we used Commusoft, our invoicing was done manually. A lady in the office would produce an invoice and at the end of the week she would send all those invoices out in the post. So you could complete a job on a Tuesday – by the Thursday or Friday you’re posting the invoice – by the Monday they’ve received it – and a few days later, they’re paying it. The whole process could be a week or more.”
How Has Using Commusoft Helped You Improve This?
“Now, you click a button – and send an invoice! In fact, the technicians do it from site. Not only do invoices not get missed, but the technician can go to a boiler service, complete the work, and click a button – all within a second. The office staff doesn’t have to do any of it.”
How Has Commusoft Transformed Your Operations?
“We now have customers call our office, who are ready to handle the call and can book the appointment into a live calendar. If it’s a call-out for that day, which happens very often, it will appear in real time in the technician’s schedule. The technician can then travel to that job and carry out the work. If they need a part, they communicate easily back with the office – just click to select who to communicate with. Once they hit complete, it lets the office know they need those parts. The technician can then invoice and it will automatically send off the after-care email asking for a review. It’s all made very technician friendly and very easy to use. The communication between the office and technician is instant.”
Would You Recommend Commusoft to Other People?
“The way that Commusoft tracks every part of every single job – you will not lose anything – it gives you complete confidence in the whole system. Complete confidence to grow. Complete confidence to push on with your business. There is no way that we could run our business efficiently and effectively, presenting ourselves the way we do with our customers, with our reminders the night before, with our text messages that say ‘we’re on our way’… we just simply could not run our business without Commusoft, it would be impossible.“
Lincoln Smith
Managing Director
A trusted, family-run heating and plumbing company with decades of experience.
Rugby, UK
100+
Electrical
Custom Heat
Finch, The Trade Professionals
"Without Commusoft I would need at least another full-time staff member. Now I can spend time planning targets of our business."
"Without Commusoft I would need at least another full-time staff member. Now I can spend time planning targets of our business."
“The main great thing about Commusoft is the fact that everything is in one. What is really important for us, is a software that delivers a great customer service and helps people out. If the software wouldn’t support us with this, it would be a catastrophe. Because, imagine someone calls up because they’ve got no heating, no water – and you forget your appointment and they are sitting at home waiting for you. We need a software that’s reliable, keeping all of these things on record and Commusoft does exactly that.
What we love about Commusoft is the job scheduling feature, the customer database and the interaction with the technicians via the mobile app. The history that we’ve got – we know exactly what we’ve done at every customer’s house and we can see it in the office and technicians can see it on the field.”
“Before Commusoft, life was rather difficult. Keeping an eye on things when you’ve got hundreds of jobs going at the same time was an absolute nightmare. I am the office manager and without Commusoft I would need at least another full-time staff member. Now I can spend time planning the targets of our business and what strategic approach we’re taking for new things, because I don’t have to worry all the time about the on-going management, as a lot of it is done by the software for me.”
Julia Winkler
Operations Director
Supported by over 65 years of combined experience and equipped with professional skills, they are highly motivated and full of spirit. Monday to Sunday, January to December, by day and by night.
Poole, UK
10 employees
Plumbing & Heating
Finch, The Trade Professionals
Schedule an Intro Call
Confidently Grow Your Business with Commusoft
Take the first step by picking your date and time to chat with our team of experts.
We’ll discuss your current challenges and identify the key areas Commusoft can help
In a personalized follow-up demo, you’ll see the software in action for yourself
Once signed up, you’ll onboard and start your business on the path to 4x growth!
JOIN 1000+ TRADES BUSINESSES
Schedule an Intro Call
We’ll discuss your current challenges and identify the key areas Commusoft can help
In a personalized follow-up demo, you’ll see the software in action for yourself
Once signed up, you’ll onboard and start your business on the path to 4x growth!