How to Automate Manual Processes in Your Restoration Business to Save Time and Reduce Errors

The success of a restoration business often comes down to one thing — how smoothly your operations run.

If there’s chaos and disorder, you’ll upset your customers, the insurance companies, and your own team. This will all have a negative impact on your reputation, which is ultimately how you win new work and hire the best people.

The problem, though, is that every project has so many moving parts. This makes it tricky to keep everything organized, and things can quickly start to spiral out of control.

This is where automation can be your guardian angel, helping you to keep everyone on the same page, and everything working like a well-oiled machine. But automation can also be an intimidating premise to anyone who’s not used it before, which is why we’ve written this guide.

In this article, we’re going to walk you through the pitfalls of relying on manual processes, then explain what automation is, and how it will help you to run and grow your restoration business more efficiently.

By the end of this guide, you’ll know everything you need to know about automation, and how you can use it to make your projects run like clockwork.

The hidden costs of manual processes

As we’ve already touched on; restoration projects have a lot of moving parts, which means there are so many places where delays can happen. Which means straightforward tasks can take a long time to be completed.

Nowhere is this more apparent than when you’re dealing with the customer. There’s viewing the property, writing it up and providing an estimate, and chasing up the estimate. And that’s before the project has even kicked off!

You also need to be providing updates at every stage of the process, answering any questions they have, and then making sure the insurance company pays promptly when the work is done. 

This is hard enough if it’s just one person doing these tasks, but a lot of the time these tasks are being done by different people. This kind of situation can easily lead to miscommunication, mixed messages, or even leaving the customer in the dark.

There’s also a lot of time wasted as part of the internal project management. Not only does someone have to stay on top of when different projects are supposed to start and finish, but also what stage each project is at.

This often involves a lot of manual check-ins with the team, and checking notes to make sure what needs to be done is actually getting done. This includes keeping tabs on compliance tasks, to make sure the project is adhering to industry regulations and meeting the expectations of the insurance companies.

These delays themselves cost money. If you’ve got painters sitting around waiting for plasterers to finish, that’s going to inflate the cost and complexity of the project.

Neither are ideal, and both will have a negative impact on your business.

We all make mistakes

Another huge flaw with an over reliance on manual tasks is the potential for mistakes. We’re all human after all, so sometimes things get missed, we press the wrong button, or we enter a wrong number.

But for restorers, something as simple as ordering the wrong materials for a custom cabinet can set you back months.

An error like this isn’t just an inconvenience to you, either. They often have a long-term negative impact on your professional relationships, too.

It creates friction with customers because you can’t install the cabinet for another 12 weeks. It damages the relationship with the insurance carrier because they don’t understand why the project isn’t done. And it can prevent your contractors from getting their work finished, so they have to change their schedules to accommodate the mistake.

Mistakes and errors can also have a huge effect on your internal operations. If someone enters the wrong date, or puts a decimal point in the wrong place, or forgets to hit a button, it all has a knock-on effect. 

Entering the wrong date could make it look like you’re not hitting your KPIs, the decimal point could mean you undercharge a customer, and hitting the wrong button could mean the insurance company doesn’t receive the right documents.

Automation helps you grow your business

The biggest benefit of your projects running smoothly is that you will build a reputation for good service and professionalism. But this door swings both ways, and all it takes is one or two mistakes to kill the reputation you’ve worked hard to establish.

This impacts your ability to win new work, grow your business, and maybe even stop you from being able to break even.

You need to find a way to reduce these errors, and provide the most professional service you can for your customers. This includes things like your customers being well-informed throughout the whole process, everyone being where they’re supposed to be, and a seamless project end-to-end.

All while making your life easier…

How automation works

When we talk about ‘automation’, it’s easy to assume we’re talking about some super-complex thing that’s hard to understand, and even harder to explain.

But actually, it’s quite straightforward. Each automation has a ‘trigger’, which prompts an ‘action’ to take place.

Triggers

When we talk about ‘triggers’ in automation, we’re talking about the thing that sets the automation in motion. Think of it like pressing the start button on a pod coffee machine — it’s just the thing that kicks off the coffee making process. 

In Albi, these triggers are based on milestones within your restoration project:

• Project creation: We can configure automations to run when you first create a new project. For example, you might want to automatically create the same project in your accounting tool.
• Status change: We can also configure automations to run when the status of a project changes. For example, maybe you want to notify the insurance company when the project is complete.
• Date: Automations can also be configured to run based on pre-configured project dates. For example, your team could be notified if things are running behind schedule.

Actions

Continuing the coffee machine metaphor, the ‘actions’ are the actual making coffee part of the process — heating the water, puncturing the capsule, pushing the water through, etc.

But instead of making you a disappointing coffee, Albi can send messages and texts to key stakeholders and interact with over 2000 different external apps via Zapier. It’s more like having a coffee machine that can brew you an amazing coffee, cook you breakfast, and service your car. All at the push of a button!

Automation use cases for restorers

To give you a better understanding of how Albi’s automations can save you time, reduce errors, and look more professional, let’s run through some example use cases. These are all automations we’ve configured for clients, to help them deliver projects more efficiently.

Client communication

Project kickoff email: When a new project is created, an email is automatically sent to the customer providing all the key information. This email explains what the service is, what they’ve signed up for, and what it’s going to look like from start to finish.

Progress texts: Every time the project moves from one stage to another, your client will receive a text message informing them of the change. This keeps them well informed, without needing to constantly update them manually on progress.

Accounts receivable

Automated reminders: Albi can automatically remind the client by text, email, or both, that payment is due soon. This can be configured to whatever intervals you like, to make sure you’re paid on time.

Late payment warnings: A lot of restoration businesses don’t have a dedicated collections team. Which is fine, because the software can automatically chase missed payments, including pre-configured warnings and reminders of the potential consequences of not paying, such as a lien on their property.

Project end

Google reviews: Google Reviews are a key part of marketing for most restoration companies, but it’s an easy thing to forget. To solve this Albi can automatically send an email or text to the client after they’ve paid their invoice, asking them to leave a review. This will help you build your online presence, and attract new customers, and ultimately grow your business

Referring partner notifications: If there is a referring partner involved, this is also a good time to automatically let them know the work has been done. For example, if you often get referrals from a plumber you’ve worked with, you might want to let them know another referral job is complete, and that they can expect to receive their referral fee.

Audit log

Investigating problems: Every time an automation is triggered, a note is added to the project record. So if there is a problem with an email for example, you can go back and see exactly what was in the message, and the email address or phone number it was sent to.