The Power of Automation Ft. Log to Lumber

March 16, 2022

The Power of Automation Ft. Log to Lumber

My biggest weakness is administrative stuff. I’m great at calling people back. I always hear, ‘Hey, thank you so much for calling me back.’ I’m like, ‘Why wouldn’t I?’ You probably know there are so many service industry people that don’t call people back. So I get a lot of jobs that way. But I can do better at capturing customers. I was talking to Matt Rubin about a CRM and capturing customer data. That would be interesting.”

Brendan Vande Kamp

One of the most common challenges facing Woodpreneurs is the administrative side of their businesses. Most woodworkers and sawmill operators get into the industry because they enjoy the hands-on part of the job. Still, the whole business can fall apart without the administrative side being set up correctly. Steve’s advice for Brendan revolves around the simplest ways to get over that hurdle.

“One option is to get admin help. There are many things that you don’t necessarily have to do, but you know how to do. I have a process where whatever your hourly rate is, or what you’d like to be if there’s a task that costs less than that. Outsource it.

There are many things like doing research, maybe getting a list of all the contractors in the Virginia area that would buy from you. You can pay somebody 50 bucks, and they’ll get 300 names and websites and emails. Bookkeeping is another outsourcing option.

You should know how it works, but you shouldn’t do it yourself. Whether it’s paying bills, preparing reports, or whatever, you can hire and outsource because your time is valuable, and it should be spent on the highest priority actions.”

Steve Larosiliere

Leveraging a CRM Software

CRMs or Customer Relationship Managers come up frequently on the Woodpreneur Podcast, and for good reason! Most wood business owners are intimately familiar with all of the processes of the wood side of their business, but the management and administrative sides are often lacking.

The reason a CRM helps so much in that regard is because of the way it can automate that aspect of your business without requiring too much direct involvement. Owning a business means that time is your most valuable resource, and anything that can be automated should increase your productivity and, therefore, the profit of your business.

“The CRM, the amazing thing about it is that it saves you a ton of time. All the little things you can do on your website when people fill out a form or send you an email it goes automatically into our CRM, and a CRM can mimic the conversation that you have with people over texting or email.

So if somebody sends a message, like, ‘Hey, I would like to book a job. I have some trees that I want to be milled.’ You’re like, ‘Great, can you take some pictures of it?’ Then they send you a picture, and you can review it all in text. Then you’re like, ‘Awesome; I’m available; this is how much I charge.’ You send them a link, and the link says your availability, and once they book a time for you, they can get an automatic response about preparing the site, arranging the logs, etc.

Finally, they get a reminder text and email an hour before you’re on the way. Then while they’re there, you do your job, and if you want, you can invoice them right there, collect some payment, and take a picture of the work. After that, you can send them an automatic email asking how your service was. Leave you a Google review. Here’s the link, and it can all be automated just by clicking buttons.”

Steve Larosiliere

The Sky’s the Limit

Although automating contact with clients is an essential part of the CRM impact, you can take that one step further and use your CRM to find and integrate new clients with your business.

“Once you have that, you can say, ‘Oh, give me your address because I’m going to mail you some magnets.’ Then once a month, you say, ‘Hey, know anybody else that needs anything?’ Automatically something comes out in email marketing, and there are many things like that that can automate your whole process.

The cool thing is that once you log in, if you have the right CRM, and like our CRM does, you can see how many potential jobs, how many close jobs, and you can see how much my entire pipeline is worth. Then you can move people through a funnel.

When I first started this, that was the biggest thing. Nobody knew how much money there was on the table, everything was a handshake, and nothing was really clear. So we went out and created a system to help make it easier, so you want to stay focused on what you want to be good at.”