Asbestway Cleans Up Their Customer-facing Processes With SageCRM

Since 1992, Asbestway Abatement Corporation has provided environmental consulting services, focusing on asbestos removal, lead paint testing, and mold abatement. High quality service earned them a reputation for excellence, so the company was able to thrive for more than twelve years using manual customer relationship management methods.
By 2004, however, Asbestway was beginning to see the signs of having outgrown their manual processes. With only a document management application in place to store key documents, the company struggled to give employees centralized access to customer information, which in turn made it very labor-intensive for them to provide thorough customer service. Also, communication across departments was becoming increasingly difficult because other than the data kept in the document management application, each group maintained separate records.

Sharing information meant sending emails, giving verbal updates, or exchanging paper records. Thanks to a prior relationship with a SageCRM business partner who had helped them implement document management and an accounting application, Asbestway got their first introduction to CRM. According to Mendy Gorodetsky, president of Asbestway, “Within 15 minutes, we were convinced that we needed CRM.” Working side-by-side with their partner, Asbestway evaluated four leading solutions. Fortunately, the decision-making process was incredibly fast and direct. “SageCRM made everything else go out the window,” said Gorodetsky. “It wasn’t what we wanted; it was what we needed.”

Integrating SageCRM into All Areas of Business
Today, SageCRM sits at the center of Asbestway’s business, along with KnowledgeSync, both of which were expertly implemented by their business partner. The solution not only enables advanced customer relationship management, but also automates critical processes, particularly time-sensitive ones. Now, when Asbestway is working on a project with a city-mandated deadline, key players receive email reminders to meet due dates throughout the project. Similarly, if salespeople don’t receive a response to a proposal within a predetermined period, they receive email instructions to follow-up with the account.

Asbestway takes advantage of SageCRM in every functional area of business. For example, when a new contract closes, a member of the sales staff scans or downloads the information directly into SageCRM, which then sends automated emails to the jobscheduling staff. Once scheduled, an Asbestway technician receives the job order, which was printed out of SageCRM. On-site, the technician scans the job order’s barcode to transmit a date and time stamp back into SageCRM.

It’s a full-circle solution that enables management to track every aspect of every project, even field work. End-users also appreciate the conveniences that SageCRM affords. Gorodetsky explained, “At first, they were skeptical of using a software solution, but now they’re giving praises. It makes everyone’s job easier because they’re not chasing paper. Everything is right in front of them on their desktops.”

Experiencing Immediate and Long-term Benefits Since the implementation, Asbestway’s customer service has dramatically improved because representatives can access any account in SageCRM and provide to-the-minute status on projects. Previously, the rep would have had to search through filing cabinets to piece together an answer for a customer.

Asbestway leveraged SageCRM reporting to further improve customer service. Some clients require weekly or even daily job-status reports, often in a format particular to that customer. Asbestway’s staff used to manually create each report. Now, SageCRM automatically generates the reports according to the customer’s specific requirements. The time savings from this activity alone has rippled through the organization, enabling employees to focus on customer interaction, instead of laboriously compiling data.

The solution has also helped to expedite payment collection. Now, when an invoice is processed, the Accounting system sends an automated notice into SageCRM. If the status of that invoice doesn’t change from outstanding to paid within the appropriate timeframe, the sales person for that account receives an alert to contact the customer.

With one centralized SageCRM database, Asbestway has resolved their intra-department communication challenges. Teams can easily access shared information, each contributing to their particular area.