Category: Informative

#1. Make use of the help available                                                                                       
If you’ve just started using RaveBuild, the number one thing to remember is that we’re just a phone call away. We are serious about providing quality, and personalised customer service to our clients and make a point of being there for you. You can book a training session with one of our friendly staff members to help with the initial setting up and learn how to effectively utilize RaveBuild features. It’s a small time investment that will save you a tonne of time in the long run – and we’re happy to help. Additionally, you can take a look at our online Help Desk.

#2. Get your contractors on board
Ensure your contractors and subcontractors can easily access and use RaveBuild. Once the app has been downloaded on their mobile devices, they can see where and when they need to be as well as any important updates while on site. Information usually obtained through a phone call or text is now easily found in the click of a button. If your contractors’ downtime is minimised, your company’s efficiency will be maximised.

3. Keep your clients in the loop
Once you’re set up with RaveBuild you will be the owner of a RaveBuild powered portal customised with your company branding. This portal allows your clients to log in on any device and see an array of information on their build progress at their leisure. They can be kept informed throughout the entire journey without calling you or making as many site visits – if any at all! Make sure you take the time to give your clients their login credentials and show them how to use the portal so they can feel involved in their build without the hand-holding.

4. Take it easy to begin with
RaveBuild offers an extensive range of features that will help various users and make your building projects run smoothly – however, it takes some practice before you’ll be using them all at max capacity. Start with features that can be used immediately by your employees like adding clients, adding follow ups, loading schedules, assigning contractors to tasks, and contractor access. These features are straightforward, easy to learn, and useful stepping stones for achieving streamlined processes and communication within your business. Let your staff grasp the smaller features before introducing them to more complex features such as CRM, time sheeting, tender management, project management, progress payments and more. Taking baby steps means systems can be implemented in a way that is non-confrontational for your employees.

5. Load all your projects into RaveBuild
Adding all of your current builds to the platform makes it easier to merge your business’ operations into RaveBuild. It’s common for new users to initially load only one of their projects into RaveBuild to trial the system. While it’s only natural to shy away from putting all your eggs in one basket, keeping the remaining projects independent from RaveBuild makes it tricky to successfully integrate the software into your company.

6. Create project templates
Eventually, you will have a template for every different kind of project your business caters for. Each one will include project stages, schedules, tasks, expected task durations, and deadlines for that particular project type. This means every time you add a new project, you can select which type and the major details of the build are already right there in front of you.

Give yourself a pat on the back! You’ve closed a deal, but the job is far from finished! While you have unlocked a new client, you have also entered a vulnerable period. Just because a client has signed a contract doesn’t mean they’re a ‘loyal’ customer yet. Immediately post-sale, clients want reassurance that they’ve made the right decision – they will be on high alert to gain the satisfaction consumers look for directly after making a big purchase decision. The connection you build with them in this time is therefore vital!

Why is the post-sale follow up so important?

A key fact often overlooked by businesses when it comes to sales and marketing is that winning new customers bears a much greater cost than retaining existing customers. In fact, acquiring new customers can cost seven times more than retaining current ones. According to Frederick Reichheld, the founder of Net Promoter Score, a mere 5% increase in customer retention leads to more than 25% increase in profit. The reason being that customers tend to progressively buy more from a company they are loyal to, which results in diminishing operating costs to serve them. In addition, loyal customers will almost always be willing to pay more with a company they know and trust. This is due to the high perceived risk associated with switching. Lastly, returning customers recommend your company to others.

Here’s 4 tips to get your post-sale follow up sorted!

#1. Make yourself available
Let them know you’re in it for the long run, and you’ll be there to hold their hand throughout the entire process. Give them your contact details, and someone to contact if they have any questions or concerns. One of the features RaveBuild offers is setting reminders to meet, call, or email certain customers at specific times. This means you’ll never forget to make this crucial post-sale communication.

#2. Be personal
In the midst of the digital era, automating contact points can seem like the most simple and efficient option. While this may be true, making a personal connection is what will earn respect and build trust. An automated ‘Purchase Confirmation’ email may be okay for a customer who has bought a $30 shirt online, but for a customer making a highly involved purchase decision, such as hiring a building company, the need for assurance that they’re dealing with humans and not robots is much greater. When you add a client in your RaveBuild account, you can add significant details about them you may have picked up on. These types of details, like having a dog, or that they love cycling, can then be used to connect with them on a more personalised level.

#3. Keep them in the loop
It’s not surprising that selling a service requires you to give your customer more attention than if they were buying a one-off product. Furthermore, a customer investing a lot of money to build their dream home, potentially the biggest purchase they’ll make in their life, will be needier than the regular consumer. This is especially true for a service involving so many variables and possibilities that things won’t go exactly according to plan. The RaveBuild app gives you the option to create your own company branded portal for clients. They can login on any device to see important updates, site photos, and budget spend at their convenience. Ultimately clients are kept involved throughout their build journey which brings peace of mind while minimising the need for unnecessary phone calls.

#4. Improve your performance
Use existing clients’ feedback as a reference point to refine your value proposition and areas of focus moving forward. Your clients’ needs and concerns translate to invaluable knowledge that can be capitalised on. When you ask your clients how they heard about your company, you can record their answers in the RaveBuild customer account page. Use this information to gauge what marketing mediums are the most effective and focus your budget spend accordingly.

Keep in mind!!

In the construction industry, word of mouth is your biggest weapon. A customer who is signing a building contract is making a huge commitment. They are well aware of this before making their final purchase decision, so you can be sure they’ve done their research and asked their friends, family, and colleagues for advice. The opinion of an outsider is also seen as more credible than self-made claims. All considered, word of mouth is one of your best marketing vehicles, but the only way you can control it is by ensuring your clients are no less than 100% happy. So use these four steps to create a successful post-sale follow-up strategy and build long-lasting client relationships!

Managing your customers well is equally as essential as managing projects, employees, and your business as a whole. Happy customers lead to a high-ranking reputation effectively creating healthy business growth through referrals and repeat business. While generating new clients is key in sales, you must not underestimate the importance of looking after your existing customers and supporting them throughout and after their build. Follow these four simple steps and nail your sales!

#1 Know your customers
Just like any relationship, it’s not just about forming it, but also constantly nurturing and maintaining it. This is referred to as customer relationship management (CRM for short).

To effectively manage your customer relationships you must first get to know your customers. What makes them tick? What makes them frustrated? What do they require of you? Once you know this, you can easily tailor your product or service to meet their needs, ultimately leading to greater customer satisfaction. But it all starts with getting to know them. Find a way to collect customer data and compile it where it’s easily accessible so you can make well informed decisions, quickly. RAVE’s cloud-based system allows you to do just that – record customer information alongside your calendar and dashboard in one single destination that you can easily access on your device.

#2 Carry customers through your sales pipeline
Looking after your customers is not just about satisfying them now, but also generating sales leads for the future through repeat business and referrals. From the outset, looking after existing customers sounds like a fairly straightforward task, but the small administrative jobs really do add up and can become time consuming. Personal tasks, appointments, client follow-ups. You want to organise these small tasks into a streamlined forum that you and your clients can keep track of. RAVE lets you set up digital registration for your show homes so viewer details are automatically uploaded to the cloud as they’re entered. You can continually add notes to build their customer profile which then becomes a valuable yet convenient resource for securing sales and performing follow-ups during and post build.

#3 Re-engage!
Email marketing is a powerful way to derive extended value from existing customers. Did you know the effectiveness of good old fashioned email marketing is widely underestimated? According to reports, the average return on investment for every dollar spent on email marketing is $44 AND it generates 174% more conversions than social media – surprising huh?

The truth is, email marketing is far from dead. In fact, it is gaining dominance as the most formidable marketing medium. Take advantage of it! It’s essentially a free platform of communication if you can generate an adequate email database, or already have one. If you don’t already have a database, develop one by obtaining email addresses directly from your customers as a way of contacting them. These will become valuable assets you can use to re-target them in the future! RAVE has a built-in email marketing system that you can upload your database to. You can segment it based on your customers’ stage within the sales funnel, and create automated, yet highly targeted emails. Sit back, relax, and let the system do the work for you.

#4 Support clients throughout their build
As you know well, an entire build involves many factors and stakeholders that affect progress, timing, budget spend, and overall results. Due to this changeable nature of residential construction, both a trusting relationship with the client and strong, consistent communication throughout the build are crucial. Keep your client in the loop so that they feel confident in what’s going on, feel in control of their project, and won’t be faced with any unwelcome surprises. With RAVE, you can provide customer access via a personalised portal with your company branding so they can log in on their device and see up-to-date progress photos, updates, and reports.  

As you can see RAVE can equip you will all the tools needed to nail your sales. If you need any help utilising these RAVE tools or want to speak to someone about how RAVE can help you and your sales team, feel free get in touch!

E: support@ravebuild.co.nz
P: +64 7 210 2228
W: www.ravebuild.co.nz

When you leave for your Christmas holidays this year, will you lock up your house and hide your valuables? Of course. But, have you considered the added threat to your online assets over this time?

The internet undoubtedly plays an essential role in our day-to-day lives, both in the personal and professional contexts. We use it for just about everything – communication, storing information, researching, shopping, banking and more. While it offers so much convenience, partaking in these daily activities now uncovers your personal information and makes you more vulnerable than you might realise.

Just as you would lock your house or car to stay safe from thieves, you need to protect your online assets from hackers looking to steal and take advantage of your personal information. Once a hacker gets hold of your information, they can steal your money, delete your valuable data, impersonate you and damage your reputation – the list goes on.

What people don’t realise is that the risk of being virtually burgled dramatically increases over the silly season. The reason being is that hackers 1. Have more time on their hands being off work or school and 2. Know that people are easier to hack while on holiday because they aren’t checking up on things daily as they would at work, and being away, often device-less, makes it more difficult to counteract a cyber-attack quickly.
With this in mind, keeping yourself, your information, and your business secure and safe online is CRITICAL over this period.

Follow these 6 easy steps to stay cyber-safe during the Christmas break.

#1 Keep your devices updated
Security bug fixes are among the most common elements of operating system updates on your computer or mobile phone. Operating system like Windows, Mac OS, iOS, and Android are constantly being improved to keep you safe. Make sure you take advantage of these updates.

#2 Keep your passwords safe and secure
No legitimate organisation will ever ask you for your password via email or phone – NEVER give your password to a third party. Avoid using the same password twice. Don’t use passwords that are easy to guess – rather than words, use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numerals, and symbols. Use a password checker to see how secure your passwords really are. There are some excellent tools available for you to keep track of all your passwords, while ensuring maximum security. Using programs like LastPass is a clever way to store multiple log in credentials safely.

#3 Use two-step authentication
This is an absolute MUST. Two-step authentication is a method that adds another layer of security when accessing your online accounts. If a hacker enters the correct password to your email account, you will receive an automated text, phone call, or email providing a code needed for the user to proceed. This effectively stops potential imposters in their tracks.

#4 Backup your data
If you were to be the victim of a malicious cyber-attack, you can be confident knowing your information is safely backed up elsewhere, and can therefore be recovered. A good way to do this is use cloud-based systems such as Google Drive to store all of your documents. Changes or updates you make are automatically backed up to the cloud in real time. Easy!

#5 Ensure you have up-to-date virus, malware, and firewall software
Check your operating system includes adequate security features. For example, Windows has Windows Firewall and Windows Defender pre-installed. If your OS doesn’t have these built in safety tools, you’ll need to purchase some. Whether your computer security software is included in your OS or sourced elsewhere, don’t forget to keep it updated!

#6 Get cyber liability insurance
This is a type of insurance that will protect you if disaster strikes, giving professional support to get your business back on track, and reimbursing your losses. With research suggesting that people are becoming more likely to face a cyber-attack than a burglary, cyber liability insurance is a smart move.

Before you leave for your Christmas holidays this year, make sure you keep your online assets and valuables locked up, as well as your tangible ones. To hackers you are just a target – someone to make money off. The chances of a cyber-ambush are even greater over the holiday period, so protect yourself and be vigilant!

Follow these steps for a cyber-safe Christmas break!