CRM and ERP systems for Uborka.Expert

Uborka.Expert – how and why we introduced automation into the cleaning company

Uborka.Expert is a standard cleaning company that provides cleaning service for the owners and tenants of residential houses, apartments, and offices.

When we started our cooperation, this company had 3 office managers involved in booking and interaction with customers, and 15 cleaning workers, who actually performed the cleaning services. The company’s top managers faced with standard problems of the businesses oriented to the work with individuals:

1. The office managers could occasionally miss the call from the client;
2. Not all customers’ preferences were registered, and, if registered, not always were announced to the workers;
3. The cleaning workers came to the site later than required;
4. Payroll job was too complicated and took a lot of time at the end of each month;
5. It was impossible to control the performance of the cleaning workers.

After the comprehensive company’s analysis, our team offered and developed an IT solution that solved all the existing problems and helped to improve the performance in general.

The software developed for Uborka.Expert is a complex CRM and ERP system, which allowed to introduce complete automation of the Kazan office and make the work process clear for everyone – from top managers to cleaning workers.

Well, here is what we have done.

Classical CRM system

CRM system is a well-known instrument, and we decided to not reinvent the wheel. We developed a standard CRM system adjusted for the cleaning business.  

The outstanding feature of our system is the call record. For this purpose, we integrated our system with IP telephony, and all incoming calls were displayed on managers’ screens. As a result, managers see who is calling and can immediately check the whole customer history. On top of that, the call record is permanently saved in the system, and if the office manager forgot any details, he could listen to the call record once again.

Beyond that, for the cleaning company, it is crucial to have a list of accommodation to clean and keep track of all the clients’ preferences. It is very convenient and boosts customers’ trust and loyalty when there is no need to repeat all your preferences making new orders and when all the special aspects are taken into account even if different people perform the cleaning service.

Two more distinctive features of our CRM system are the possibility to monitor the periodicity of the cleaning services for the clients and the reminders for the managers when it is time to contact the customer. For instance, if the customer usually orders the cleaning services every week or twice a month and he did not place the next scheduled order, the system will remind the manager to call the client and check the reason for the missed order.

What benefits were derived:

1. No missed calls and orders;
2. Convenient service and increased customers’ trust and loyalty;
3. Decreased customer outflow thanks to the correct work with refunds;
4. Raised awareness of the managers and cleaning workers about all work-related aspects.

Technologies used:

1. The homegrown Web-CRM system based on microservice architecture;
2. The backend is built with the help of the Phalcon framework, and, as a database, we used PostgreSQL;
3. The frontend is built with the help of the VueJS;
4. The integration with IP telephony;
5. The integration with Bank acquiring to ensure payment receipts from credit cards.

ERP system

Enterprise Resource Planning is a system designed for the optimum company’s resources management. Concerning the cleaning company, the main resource is cleaning workers, and the aim of the ERP system is to plan their work in the most efficient way.

The system has special instruments for scheduling the working days:

1. The control of the workers’ educative process (to avoid situations when low trained workers instructed to perform the work they cannot do);
2. The work schedule for each employee;
3. The forecast of orders turnaround (depending on the floor space and the customer history);
4. The geographical spread of orders.

When new order entries the system, the office manager receives an automatic notification about the available dates for this order, depending on the workers’ schedule and the workload. If the system discovers that some particular day is overloaded, it gives the alarm. The system also signals that some days have a reduced capacity.

Scheduling the day, the system automatically assesses the time and the number of personnel needed for the order fulfillment and the geographical spread of orders. Using this information, the system provides managers with the optimum logistics and the priority of orders for each worker.

Through this process, we solved all the problems connected with the late arrival to the clients’ apartments due to incorrect planning, for example, when office manager assigned the worker to perform cleaning service in two different places which are far apart from each other with a too short time window for travel.

Moreover, we built automatically generated Work Orders – the documents that can be printed from the system and include the following information:

1. The location map of the facility, information about public transport to get on to this place, and the map with the route from public transport stop to the customer’s house;

1. The required time to get on to this place with the consideration of traffic jams: for the first order – from the worker’s home to the facility, for further orders – from the last place of work to the next one;
2. The necessary information about the client, order, and facility;
3. Check-list of the required equipment for cleaning.

These Work Orders allowed cleaning workers to better plan their day. The late arrivals associated with location confuses were reduced to a minimum, and the problems connected with cleaning equipment disappeared completely.

What are the benefits for Uborka.Expert?

1. As we created the check-list of cleaning technologies for each worker, now it is easier to plan internal training;
2. Thanks to the correct planning of the working day, the workers’ out-of-service time was reduced on average by 30%. As a result, the company can take 30% more orders without hiring additional staff.
3. It helped to build the workers’ loyalty to the company – they are grateful for the company’s concern for them in the form of simple and clear Work Orders.    
4. It helped to foster customers’ loyalty and reduce customers’ outflow thanks to the minimization of the problems associated with the cleaning schedule. Now it is easier to specify a date and time, and there are more variants for dates selection.  

Technologies used:

1. As for the work schedule, workers’ training, and keeping track of orders, the system is completely integrated with CRM;
2. 2GIS API for the city maps and location schemes;
3. Google Maps Directions API to build routes taking into account traffic jams and public transport;
4. Machine learning – a special algorithm that is learning continuously and calculates the average and optimal time for each client’s facility, cleaning worker, and type of cleaning.

Management reporting system

One of the major problems of Uborka.Expert Company was the complexity of the payroll job at the end of each month. Some orders were paid by credit cards, the rest – in cash. The managers calculated the percentage for workers and consolidated information about money which workers had to return to the cash register.

The automatic payroll system simplified the whole process. Now the information about the salaries and the amount of money in hand is always available for the top managers. On top of that, the cleaning workers see their wages in personal accounts.

Beyond that, we introduced the cleaning workers’ assessment system, which included:

1. The customer ratings – the marks that workers receive from clients;
2. The prolongation ratings –  after whose cleaning services clients place new orders;
3. The non-prolongation ratings – after whose cleaning services clients stop placing new orders.

It was necessary to implement this assessment system because customers usually hesitate to complain about the services, and when they are asked to assess the quality of the service, clients put “10 out of 10” to avoid further disturbances. The real assessment of each worker can be made only based on the prolongation rating. Even if the cleaning worker gets high marks from the customers, this does not mean that this worker does his job well. If customers stop placing orders after definite worker’s cleaning services, this signals that they are unsatisfactory in their job performance.

The analog stats were created for the office managers’ performance. The system keeps the information about the number of incoming calls, the number of registered orders, and the total amount of sales. The system calculates the average values and creates the rating for each office manager – who process more orders and sell additional services, and who is a weak link in the chain.

What are the benefits for the company?

1. The payroll job became simpler, and the wage rates became clearer for workers;
2. At the moment, it is possible to identify low performers and optimize the company’s stuff based on this information.

Technologies used:

1. The system is completely integrated with CRM as one of its architecture modules. 
2. Machine learning is used to recognize “normal” or “not normal” clients’ behavior patterns during interaction with cleaning workers and office managers.

Conclusions

Our CRM and ERP systems allowed Uborka.Expert Company getting 30% more orders without hiring additional staff. The complete working process became clearer for the top managers and employees, and the customer outflow decreased on average by 20% in comparison with the period when the company worked without these systems. Beyond that, it helped to optimize the company’s staff by identifying workers with low performance and terminating their employment.

The development and implementation of the system took 8 months. The client started to use the system already in three months from the beginning of the system development. The team that built this system consisted of one frontend developer, two backend developers, and one designer. The total project budget amounted to $128.000. The costs of the system development paid off in 6 months.

Customer feedback

Ekaterina Kulagina, General Manager of Uborka.Expert Company.

Thinking back, it is quite hilarious how we worked previously – we registered orders in a notebook that was passed between office managers every day. For this reason, we had to ensure that their working schedules were overlapped to hand things over. Therefore, we kept four office-managers on the payroll! After the CRM system implementation, we optimized our work and decreased our office stuff to two people. Besides, nowadays our clients are totally satisfied with the booking process because they don’t have to repeat their preferences over and over again.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the bboss.io team for the executed work. We continue our cooperation with them across CRM and ERP system enhancement and other projects as well.