How Digital Solutions are Transforming the Stairlift Industry

Have you ever encountered these scenarios?

Your sales team is jumping around in three different apps that don’t work with each other to schedule an initial visit with a prospect and generate a proposal onsite. Closing the sale is delayed because of errors in the paperwork. The prospect goes with another company.

Scheduling a call with your company to replace a battery is a byzantine time-waster for your customer. She’s frustrated trying to set up an appointment and goes several days without a way to use her stairs safely. The customer ends up leaving a scathingly negative review.

Your customer does not remember to call to set up a needed annual service visit. The remote for the stairlift stops working, and the available fix is not installed by your company. Months later, the motor breaks due to lack of preventative care, and your business must scramble to get someone onsite to repair the unit for this now angry customer.

These kinds of situations damage the reputation of your stairlift business and cost you time, money, and potential growth. You have a host of salespeople and technicians as well as potentially hundreds of prospects and customers. Keeping track of where they are in the process and what they need at any given moment is a juggling act. Things can slip through the cracks.

The stairlift industry is experiencing exponential growth. The global market size was recently valued at $2.2 billion, with the US sector predicted to grow by 5.7% over the next five years. The competition is fierce, and you can’t afford to have faulty operational processes and second-rate customer interactions. You need that edge that positions you as a company that can be trusted to deliver superior products and responsive, knowledgeable customer interactions.

Digitizing your operations can help you do this.

More and more stairlift manufacturers and dealers are digitizing their workflows end-to-end. They are employing best-in-class applications like customer relationship management (CRM) tools, financing software, and field service management (FSM) solutions to streamline operations and improve the overall customer service experience. Most importantly, these companies are choosing solutions that actually integrate with one another so their teams aren’t struggling with the inefficiencies and inaccuracies of jumping from app to app. 

The Digital Difference

There are a number of key tools that stairlift businesses are using to expedite their workflows and nurture meaningful and profitable relationships with customers. 

With a CRM, businesses store and manage all their customer data. This data can be mined for insights and used to automate marketing and predict future sales. It allows your business to more effectively personalize interactions with customers across the entire sales cycle, from identifying prospects and converting them to loyal customers to keeping them satisfied.

Ticketing software processes and catalogs customer service requests. Your teams work more efficiently, able to prioritize urgent cases and solve issues faster. Customers easily schedule sales, installation, and service visits and track the progress of their tickets. Financial management software simplifies complex financial processes and gives your company clarity around expense tracking and budgeting. You gain better control over finances through automation when it comes to invoicing, bill collection, reporting, inventory management, and more.

Field service management provides work order administration allowing office and onsite teams to coordinate their processes throughout the entire customer journey, from the initial sales call and estimate creation to installation, repair, and servicing. Key features include intelligent scheduling and dispatch, sales proposal and estimate generation, automated customer alerts and notifications, and optimized repair and maintenance job tracking. FSM includes a mobile component that gives field staff capabilities they need on-site such as detailed job and customer data, proposal generation, digital payment collection, real-time communication, and job checklists that ensure safety and compliance.

A Superior End-to-End Experience for Your Customer

Field service management software, fully integrated with other key apps, can help your teams provide an exceptional customer experience from start to finish. 

The office quickly schedules the initial sales visit, and your sales rep arrives on site with everything they need to generate customized proposals and estimates in the field. The right technician is dispatched for the installation, armed with all the necessary information about the job and customer preferences. They generate an invoice, collect payment onsite, and monitor their work with curated job checklists. Later, any needed repair and preventive maintenance visits are tracked and executed with ease. 

Best of all, your customer enjoys consistent, easy access to the status of their job and their appointments via automated and real-time online communication with your business. They feel that their needs are taken care of and that the company they’ve entrusted their mobility to can be relied on. Often, this means they are much more willing to offer those all-important positive reviews and referrals. 

Here’s how your customer journey will look with a field service management software

The Power of a Fully Integrated Digital Solution

Having a field management solution that is comprehensive, flexible, and customizable is most critical. Zuper’s platform allows you to seamlessly manage your teams all in one app, efficiently overseeing staff activities and easily scheduling and dispatching sales staff and field technicians. Your field employees, in turn, are empowered by having the Zuper mobile component’s exhaustive work order details and the readily available tools they need to bring the best sales and service experience. Additionally, with over 60+ integrations, Zuper is connected with the apps you need, allowing for an effortless transition. 

Digitizing your business with an FSM solution integrated with other online tools means your company experiences organized information and communication all in one place. It automates tasks so that staff is freed up to focus on closing deals and not wrangling data. From initial contact to post-install preventative care, your teams are fully aligned around their workflows and customer care. 

And that’s what customers want to see from a business that offers something so integral to their safety and independence.

Learn more about Zuper FSM for Stairlifts