360º Painting Introduces New Customer Relationship Management Software to Boost Sales and Streamline Franchisees’ Day-To-Day Operations

360º Painting, one of the fastest-growing residential and commercial painting franchises with more than 120 units, ended 2020 with a massive value-add for franchisees looking to tackle the pandemic-induced home renovations boom. The brand was growing at a rapid pace, but still had one hurdle to overcome: the lack of a seamless process for franchisees to schedule or give estimates, assign projects to their team or invoice customers. Everything was being handled manually and it was creating hiccups in the administrative side of the business.

Dave Rychley, vice president of brand performance for Premium Service Brands, said the addition of the brand’s new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool takes the hassle out of managing client flows with an easy-to-use interface and automated tools. Before the advent of the new system, Rychley said managing customer relationships was difficult, particularly so during a time of rapid growth.

“How franchisees used to organize and manage the business was very manual,” said Rychley. “Typically, franchisees were putting appointments in their own calendar, managing job cost cards in Excel and invoicing manually. Basically, much of what they did from the administrative or scheduling side was way too time-consuming for the times we’re living in.”

New crm tool

Rychley and his team put together a tool that takes the customer from their first estimate to project completion, then leaves their contact information easily accessible in the system forever. The result is an all-encompassing approach to managing sales that leaves no stone unturned and no potential sale unexplored.

Rychley gave a breakdown of how the system seamlessly ushers leads into becoming long-term customers.

“First, a lead comes in through the contact center,” said Rychley. “The franchisee will have access to the lead, and they can put them in the schedule. They can then take them through the estimate until the point of sale, then assign it to a crew to complete the job. At that point, it’s invoiced, so every step of the process, soup to nuts, is all housed in the CRM. From there, the franchisee can communicate with that customer forever through the platform.”

Data insights and growth

But more than just a streamlined workflow tool for franchisees to learn to use, this tool gathers data and helps 360º Painting’s corporate team develop high-level insights into improving the brand and business. The CRM offers robust reporting, which gives business coaches access to franchisees’ client list reports, KPI reports, year-over-year sales figures and stack rankings to analyze, develop insights and provide recommendations to best leverage in future marketing.

Beaverton, Oregon owner Derek Wolfe said the incorporation of technology and innovation was what sold him on the franchise opportunity. “The technology is so efficient that it allows us to not only complete a very detailed quote on site, but also present it to the customer in an electronic form,” he said. “They can sign and move forward with the project immediately, but if they're not ready we can send the interactive estimate and they can click and see all the details.”

According to Rychley, 2020 was a strong year for 360º Painting, thanks to some quick-thinking technological innovations from corporate like virtual estimates or the electronic estimates the brand sends to customers.

“When the shutdowns brought on by the pandemic happened in March and April, we weren’t sure what the rest of the year would look like,” he said. “Some franchisees stalled or had to pause services while some were able to continue. Eventually, all states allowed painting and construction to be essential work and we ended the year very successfully from a performance standpoint.”

Once the pandemic lockdowns were in place, Americans began to look inwards towards the home. That’s when the business started to take off again.

Pandemic sales growth

“From July onward, we had a record year. Franchisees’ sales, year over year, month after month, went up and up. We’ll end the year about 40% higher in topline sales than last year,” he said.

That’s where the tech side allowed 360º Painting to thrive during the pandemic.

“The world changed overnight — and people weren’t comfortable letting a stranger into their homes,” Rychley said. “But the only way we can estimate and actually paint the inside of your house is to get in there.”

Rychley and his team quickly set out to create a way to keep business rolling virtually, and what started as a workaround may have blossomed into the new industry standard.

“Very quickly we pivoted to virtual estimates. We gave every customer the choice between wearing a mask and social distancing for in-person visits or doing virtual estimates,” said Rychley. “We have a few different ways to do a virtual estimate. More tech-savvy customers would FaceTime or Skype with us and walk us around. Some give us a good virtual tour and even get a tape measure out.”

The virtual estimate goes into the CRM where owners are then able to send bids to customers. It’s just one illustration of the many ways the new CRM contributes to building a thriving business.

“All quotes are already done electronically with an online estimating software,” said Rychley. “Bids are done electronically as well, so they send bids to customers with different prices for different rooms. These all live in the CRM.”

Wolfe noted this as one of the main reasons customers find it easy to choose 360º Painting over their competitors. “The technology allows us to break down each part of painting projects. For example, if you're painting a master bedroom that has ceilings, walls, doors, baseboard, trim, etc., we list out all those items and break it down into a cost estimate. From there they can pick and choose to keep it within their budget.”

For anyone researching franchise opportunities, especially those in the home services industry, 360º Painting has all the tech tools to put you in business. Or, if you’re like Wolfe and have an IT or software background, the brand makes it easy to transition into the industry. “I come from a software engineering background and own a software consulting business.

I chose 360º Painting because the business models were similar and the technology made it an easy switch. You don’t have to have a home services industry background, and if you’re like me, a software or IT background makes this the perfect opportunity.”