Southern Crafted Homes, based in Land O Lakes, Fla., began using Sales Simplicity, a web-based customer relationship management (CRM) application, about two years ago.
George Chambers, the contractor's direct of information systems, said Southern Crafted Homes chose Sales Simplicity because it helps them better organize the construction and fulfillment process with the customers requests. He liked the flexibility it offered the sales and builders team while minimizing the impact of changes during the construction process. Moreover, the ability to integrate Sales Simplicity and Constellation Builder 360 improved the contractor's ability to roll out new features in a less obtrusive manner that other products.
"From the moment a customer selects a home and associated options, that information flows directly through our budgeting and purchasing processes. This eliminates confusion in what was purchased and what is to be installed," Chambers said. "The two systems work effectively together which allows us to manage our costs effectively."
Southern Crafted Homes had looked at other CRM products -- and had even started working on another one a year and a half earlier. But, Chambers noted, Sales Simplicity was much easier to install and, in the end, "offered us the best solution, at the lowest price, fastest installation, easiest rollout, and minimal impact to our environment."
The applications also automated the firm's sales process, leading to better organization and cost controls, Chambers noted. "Prior to Sales Simplicity, our sales process was largely a manual process. We handled traffic using cards, our contractual documents differed by community, letters were manually produced, mass mailings were done via outside firms, there was no connectivity with our web page, and we had to build our own interfaces between sales and corporate office processes," he said. "Now everything is very streamlined, documentation is standardized and controlled in electronic folders, communication flows electronically, budgets are much tighter, cycle times and errors are reduced, and the ability to work on process improvements exists."
Southern Crafted Homes has also improved its previously ad hoc mass mailing process. "Now we can target based on demographics, do email blasts almost immediately, check on delivery, obtain feedback at a cost that is part of the infrastructure," Chambers explained. This has led to "significant savings," he added: "Just in the mass mailings, which only represent a small portion of the overall functionality, we have saved….easily seven times the monthly expenditures that we incur."
Overall, Chambers rated Sales Simplicity a 10 out of 10 but said he "would still expect improvement" as the product is updated.
Two years
Residential homes from $200,000 to $750,000.
We obtained the software directly from Sales Simplicity.
We currently lease the hosted (Web) solution.
We use Sales Simplicity as our CRM application, linking our Web page through to our construction process. We use the application to manage our prospects, perform mass mailings, transition prospects to potential customers, write contracts and manage the customer change process during construction process. The workflows are very helpful in managing the flow of information without use of general applications such as Microsoft Office. We use the option selection process to help inform our customers about the availability of options and give them time to better understand the prices associated with options they may wish to select. All contracts are managed through the system.
Another reason was the maturity of the company that we were dealing with. Most of the application was tried and working in other companies throughout the US. The implementation team provided by Sales Simplicity was just top notch. They went the extra effort to help us understand our requirements and adapt the components of the system to meet our needs. They continue to be most helpful when chasing problems down and getting issues resolved. Sales Simplicity training and support has really worked for us.
Sales Simplicity provided the greatest opportunity to give us a near full ERP installation with our existing implementations. The system demonstrated a great deal of flexibility in functions that minimize the amount of impact that would be placed on the user community. This flexibility also improved our ability to rollout out different features in a less obtrusive manner than other products would have caused.
For Southern Crafted Homes, finding products that work well together is key to our technology future. The information produced in one system most assuredly must support other system and vise versa. With Sales Simplicity, we had a unique opportunity to procure along the interface between it and Builder 360. This made the information flow in our company improve dramatically. From the moment a customer selects a home and associated options that information flows directly through our budgeting and purchasing processes. This eliminates confusion in what was purchased and what is to be installed. The two systems work effectively together, which allows us to manage our costs effectively.
We were using a different tool, but it had not reached a level of impact on our users that produced much functionality. Primarily the processes were manually driven.
Everyone in the corporation at some point uses Sales Simplicity in their daily activities -- traffic, sales revenue, and contracts are the drivers to the business. Everything is basically driven from Sales Simplicity. The information from Sales Simplicity is linked to Constellation B360, which handles all our internal processing.
Our processes have changed dramatically. Prior to Sales Simplicity, our sales process was largely a manual process. We handled traffic using cards, our contractual documents differed by community, letters were manually produced, mass mailings were done via outside firms, there was no connectivity with our web page, and we had to build our own interfaces between sales and corporate office processes. Now everything is very streamlined, documentation is standardized and controlled in electronic folders, communication flows electronically, budgets are much tighter, cycle times and errors are reduced, and the ability to work on process improvements exists.
Mass mailings or isolating on potential sales has become a very dependable and productive process. Previously the work was done ad hoc, and the ability to check on success rate was very limited. Now we can target based on demographics, do email blasts almost immediately, check on delivery, obtain feedback at a cost that is part of the infrastructure.
We feel that our ability to change our processes more effectively has lead to significant savings. Just in the mass mailings, which only represent a small portion of the overall functionality, we have saved in excess of our monthly costs. If I were to estimate the savings impacts, it is easily seven times the monthly expenditures that we incur.
The greatest feature of this tool is the flexibility of use and the support of the people.
Yes.The price for Sales Simplicity is very reasonable -- but only if you intend to implement. Savings are not achieved without putting the effort in to gain them.
If I could improve anything, I would improve on the upgrade process. While they do a good job of notifying of upgrades, I feel the customer service aspects of the implementation could be slightly improved.
We currently do not use the construction stage portion of the application. We intend to use the functionality, but at this time its relative importance, along with the present market, lowers the priority of this implementation.
I do not think must computer knowledge is needed to implement this tool. I think business acumen is important to understand your user community requirements, recognize potential problems areas, implement of good training techniques, and an overwhelming desire to be successful.
I do not think it took much training to understand this system at all, as the learning process is pretty straightforward. I think the training and the persistence in training is important so everyone in the company realizes how the company is committed to making this change work.
I call the support line frequently -- I have no problem picking up the phone and calling them. They are open to my questions, responsive to what I ask, and make every effort to help keep things moving.
I would say that the user documentation is adequate. But, like most documentation, it is geared toward how you can work with the product. After a period of use, while we still use the software documentation, we change our user documentation to match how our users are to do the process we want them to perform using Sales Simplicity.
I always upgrade.
I would rate this a 10, but would still expect improvement.