Business Pilot – a trainer’s view
Business Pilot’s new training co-ordinator, Arwen Van Wyk, explains how she welcomes new users to the CRM system.
When I meet customers for the first time for their onboarding session, it is important that they are comfortable and don’t feel overwhelmed by learning new software.
Before joining Business Pilot, I worked for two window installation companies, as well as a window fabricator. I’m definitely a window person, and not a software engineer, so when I teach people how to use Business Pilot to make their lives easier, more efficient and – yes, most definitely – more profitable, I’m speaking from experience.
In fact, Business Pilot was designed by window installers who wanted a CRM system that suited their needs not the other way around.
In my last job before joining Business Pilot this year, I used the software myself, and it’s no exaggeration to say that I was blown away with how straightforward it is to use. In another company we were completely paper-based, and we were constantly surrounded by piles of documents and trays on walls.
When I was introduced to Business Pilot, all of that chaos disappeared, and I remember telling a colleague that if they took Business Pilot away from me, it would make my job 10 times more difficult!
So, when I introduce companies to Business Pilot for their onboarding session, that is the key message: it is there to make your lives easier and your customers happier.
In a nutshell: Business Pilot is a CRM and business management tool that gives you complete visibility of each element of your operation. Everything is there at your fingertips – there is no need to go searching for separate documents stored elsewhere, either on paper or in another part of your computer network. This includes leads and conversions, job scheduling, cost of installation, service calls, and financial reporting.
And it is cloud-based, so you – and your team out on the road – can access it from anywhere either on a desktop, tablet or on your phone on the app. It links with other third-party software like Xero, Tommy Trinder and Windowlink, and you can even register your installations with FENSA with a simple click of a button, taking you seconds rather than hours, and reducing the possibility of errors, and saving time and money.
When I meet customers for the first time, we have a pretraining session over the phone or on Teams to find out how they would get the most from the software.
In most cases people are transferring from either Excel or another CRM system, so they are comfortable with software, it’s just learning something new. And Business Pilot is designed to work around the user rather than expecting users to adapt to them.
For instance, the default setting is a grid view (which I love) because it shows you everything in one easy-to-view layout. You can change this so that you only see what you need to see, disregarding information that may not affect your work flow. If you are a die-hard Excel user, then you can export this information in a spreadsheet format, or even a simple pdf if you prefer. Basically, it moulds to the way you work, making you want to use the software.
Once you get the hang of that we can look at ways in which Business Pilot can make an immediate difference to the way you work, and one of my favourite features is the Activity Tab.
When I used Business Pilot, I would log all phone calls, emails, site visits – everything – in the Activity Tab, so that if a customer called, I could bring up all the details relating to that job in a matter of seconds. This makes your life hundreds of times easier – no hunting for stray information – but it also makes the customer feel special, because you are brought up to speed immediately.
These details also mean that fitters know exactly what to expect when they turn up to site, and it doesn’t matter if someone goes on holiday because everything is kept in one place.
Business Pilot also makes my job easier because I can attend these onboarding sessions without any preconceptions. I’m not there to make you change the way you work to suit the software. I’m there to show you how Business Pilot fits in with the way you work, making your life easier and more efficient, not the other way around.