Interstate Roofing – Document Management / Laserfiche

Modernizing After 30 Years

Interstate Roofing, established in 1988 in Portland, Oregon, is a family business. Passed down to the second generation, they’ve grown from a “one-man show” to a multi-million dollar corporation. Interstate had a very paper-based process, and as it continued to grow to nearly 100 employees, this presented many challenges. The most significant was scheduling and communication with their customers. Interstate’s paper-based process left too much room for error. Requests were falling through the cracks because there was no easy way to track the status of leads or projects without asking multiple people. They couldn’t see if a lead was transferred between sales staff or if they’d already bid a property in the past. Their production team also had challenges with not having ALL the necessary information in the field. Duplication of quotes and sales efforts, lack of visibility for follow up leading to dropped leads, and reduced customer service resulted.

With nearly 30 years’ worth of information and a somewhat non-technical employee base, Interstate needed a solution that was easy to implement and use. After demoing numerous products, they felt that Laserfiche was the best fit for their current document management issues and staff. With the simplicity of the program and the intuitive layout, their “old dogs” quickly could learn and adapt to a digital system. Laserfiche also gives Interstate the ability to continue to refine their operations as they progress through the digital transformation process, at their own pace.

Solution

Nine Peaks worked with Interstate to create forms and workflows for a paperless process.

1. Their office staff receives a call, email, website inquiry, or referral in the field.

2. The staff member fills out the Laserfiche form digitally, and a Sales/Project Manager is automatically assigned based on zip code. The lead form is also designed with an address lookup function to avoid duplications and minimize time searching for past jobs. When the staff members begin to type an address, if it’s in the system, it will provide a drop-down menu option signaling that Interstate has completed work at that home in the past.

3. The potential client receives an email confirming their request has been designated to a sales associate, and they will respond within two business days.

4. Simultaneously the Sales/Project Manager receives an email where they can accept or reject the request directly in Outlook.

5. If the Sales/Project Manager denies the request, due to workload or other reasons, it’s communicated via email to the office staff. They can then quickly reassign to another sales associate. Since the office staff can now see, in real time, the workload of all Project Managers, they can reassign without having to consult the entire sales team.

6. When the Sales/Project Manager accepts the request, the lead form automatically moves into that person’s current leads, which signal them to contact the potential customer to schedule an appointment.
After the call, the lead automatically moves into either contacted or attempted to contact status. The Sales/Project Manager and Management can quickly see completed leads and what needs to be done, within seconds.

7. While creating a quote in the field, the technician can access all information from their iPad or iPhone and directly upload photos to Laserfiche. Once the quote is complete, the lead form and quote, with all supporting information from the home visit, are automatically moved into pending.

8. After a deposit is received, a color is selected, and a contract is signed, the quote is automatically moved to an active job.

9. Once the job is complete, it’s moved into the archive, complete with all documentation – lead form, contract, warranty, comments and notes, emails, additional scanned documents, etc.

Results

The most significant benefit is quickly getting the information to Interstate’s staff to create a better experience for their customer. A process that may have taken nearly 10 minutes (entering data, printing a form, locate the property on a map, and delivering it to the sales team)  takes less than one.
They estimate they’re currently saving about nine minutes per sales lead. With an average of 249 leads a month at Interstate that equates to nearly 500 hours a year in staff time.

“One of the biggest returns is seeing the excitement when staff members successfully use the system and comment to others how easy it is to use.” – Shelley Metzler, President, Interstate Roofing

The shift to Laserfiche has resulted in better interoffice communication, time efficiencies, and overall better customer service for Interstate.