Hello, this is Matsubara, CRM Evangelist.

The work in the home renovation industry involves building long-term relationships, from the initial consultation and estimate to the contract, construction, and after-sales service.

This time, we'll explain how you can centrally manage this entire lengthy process using EMOROCO CRM Lite.

table of contents

1. Challenges unique to the home renovation industry
2. Why are there limitations to managing things with Excel or paper?
3. Specific Examples of Entity Design
4. Visualize the process from estimation to contract to completion of construction using BPF.
5. Overcoming the barriers to information sharing between the field and sales.
6. Common Challenge Scenarios for a Home Renovation Company
7. Identify customers considering a quote using two criteria.
8. Management of after-sales service and periodic inspections
9. Referrals and word-of-mouth: unique customer acquisition channels in the home renovation industry
10. Managing relationships with subcontractors
11. Visualization of customer satisfaction
12. The challenge of handing over responsibilities when the person in charge changes.
13. How to proceed with implementation
14. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
15. Summary

1. Challenges unique to the home renovation industry

The home renovation industry faces the following unique challenges:

- The consideration period from the initial consultation to the contract is long, and multiple meetings are required.
• A single project often has multiple plan and quotation patterns.
- Multiple stakeholders, such as sales representatives, site supervisors, and subcontractors, are involved in a single project.
• Long-term relationships continue even after construction is completed, through after-sales service and regular inspections.
Referrals and word-of-mouth are important channels for acquiring new customers.

2. Why are there limitations to managing things with Excel or paper?

Many home renovation companies manage customer information and project progress using Excel spreadsheets or paper documents.
In this state, the following problems occur:

- It becomes difficult to remember which file contains which multiple estimation patterns.
- There is a discrepancy between what the sales representative understands and what the site supervisor understands.
- The person in charge forgot to send an inspection notice some time after the completion of the work.
- For customers who come in through referrals, the referrer's information is not recorded.

3. Specific Examples of Entity Design

Using the no-code functionality of EMOROCO CRM Lite, you can design entities like the following for the home renovation industry:

・Customer entity: Manages name, contact information, initial consultation date, and referral source.
・Case entity: Manages the scope of work, estimated cost, contract date, and planned construction period.
・Estimate Entity: Manage multiple quotation patterns and their respective amounts and specifications.
・Field progress entity: Manage the progress of construction and on-site precautions.
・Partner Entity: Manages information and communication history of subcontractors to whom construction work is outsourced.

By using the relationship management function to create structures such as "Customer (parent) → Project (child)", "Project (parent) → Estimate (child)", and "Project (parent) → On-site progress (child)", you can view the entire process from initial consultation to project completion for each customer on a single screen.

4. Visualize the process from estimation to contract to completion of construction using BPF.

Renovation projects typically proceed through the following stages:

1. Initial consultation: Hearing about the customer's concerns
2. Field survey: Check the situation on site
3. Create a quotePrepare quotes for multiple plans.
4. Agreement: Signing of a formal contract
5. Start of construction: Start of construction
6. Completion and handoverCompletion of construction and handover
7. After followRegular inspections and warranty support

By visualizing this process using Business Process Flow (BPF), you can instantly see "which projects are currently stalled at what stage."
In particular, in the home renovation industry, where the consideration period is long, this visualization plays a crucial role in preventing missed opportunities.

5. Overcoming the barriers to information sharing between the field and sales.

In the home renovation industry, there is a structure that makes it easy for information sharing to break down between sales representatives and site supervisors.

- The details of what the sales representative promised to the customer were not accurately communicated to the site supervisor.
- Additional work or specification changes at the site are not shared with sales representatives in real time.
- Additional requests from customers are not recorded by either representative and end up being handled only verbally.

By utilizing the field progress entity and ensuring that both sales and field personnel can access the same information, these discrepancies can be prevented.
Using security roles, it's also possible to design separate forms for site supervisors and sales representatives, tailored to their respective tasks.

6. Common Challenge Scenarios for a Home Renovation Company

To give you a concrete idea, let me share a scenario from a renovation company.

In this company, sales representatives would verbally communicate any specification changes discussed with clients to the site supervisor.
In one project, this communication was missed, resulting in a problem where the construction proceeded in a way that differed from the specifications the customer had requested.
Addressing customer complaints required additional repair work, resulting in extra costs and time.

By using the field progress entity to record details of specification changes, this company has significantly reduced communication breakdowns between sales and the field.
The person in charge reflected, "I realized just how risky it was to rely on verbal communication."

7. Identify customers considering a quote using two criteria.

In the home renovation industry, where the consideration period from presenting an estimate to signing a contract is long, a two-axis assessment combining nurturing scores and emotional temperature is particularly effective.

- The frequency of document viewing and additional questions after the quotation is presented will be accumulated as a nurturing score.
- Record the customer's positive attitude as perceived by the sales representative as an emotional temperature.
If there is a discrepancy between the two (for example, the behavioral data indicates activity, but the person in charge perceives it as passive), align their perceptions.

This two-axis matrix analysis can be viewed as a graph on the EMOROCO CRM Lite dashboard, helping you visually identify "genuine promising customers," "assumptions of the sales representative," "hidden interested customers," and "customers who have truly given up on considering a purchase."
In renovation projects with long consideration periods, sales representatives can now use data, rather than intuition, to determine which customers should be prioritized for follow-up.

8. Management of after-sales service and periodic inspections

For the home renovation industry, after-sales service following completion is a crucial task that affects both customer satisfaction and future referrals.
Using the workflow feature, you can incorporate automations such as the following:

- Notify the person in charge of the timing for the periodic inspection after a certain period of time has passed since completion (e.g., six months, one year).
- Create a list of cases whose warranty period is nearing its end so that they can be easily reviewed.
- Record any defects found during inspection and any suggestions for additional maintenance.

These records can also serve as a starting point for future renovation proposals (such as exterior wall painting after the bathroom and kitchen renovations).

9. Referrals and word-of-mouth: a unique customer acquisition channel for the home renovation industry.

In the home renovation industry, referrals from existing customers are a crucial channel for acquiring new customers.

- Add a field to the customer entity to record the existing customer who made the referral.
- Visualize the percentage of deals closed through referrals on a dashboard.
- Follow up with the existing customer who made the referral to express gratitude.

By keeping a record of referral sources, you can understand "which customers are referring how many new customers," and the importance of valuing relationships with existing customers is supported by data.

10. Managing relationships with subcontractors

In the home renovation industry, it is common practice to work in cooperation with multiple subcontractors, such as carpenters, electricians, and interior decorators, to carry out the project.

- Record the service history, areas of expertise, and quality evaluation for each cooperating company.
- For each project, manage and link which collaborating companies were involved.
- We will also keep records of the estimates and proposals from our partner companies.

The "one customer = one ID" principle, which we previously explained in "Dispelling Common Misconceptions about CRM ," can also be applied to managing relationships with partner companies, allowing you to utilize the customer entity for managing partner companies as well.

11. Visualization of customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction in the home renovation industry depends not only on the quality of the work but also on the quality of communication with sales representatives and on-site staff.

- Conduct a satisfaction survey (such as NPS) after the completion of construction.
- Record the relationship with the customer as perceived by the person in charge, as an emotional temperature.
- Accumulate changes in responses from quotation to contract as a nurturing score.

By combining these factors, you can gain insights into whether this customer is likely to request your services for future renovations or whether they might be a good referral.

12. The challenge of handing over responsibilities when the person in charge changes.

In the home renovation industry, there is a risk that relationships with customers will be severed due to the transfer or resignation of sales representatives.
BeforeHow to eliminate reliance on individual sales personnelAs explained earlier, this risk of reliance on individual expertise can be mitigated by keeping records of the information.

- Record the process from the initial consultation to completion as an activity log.
- Store customer preferences and trends in CRM data, rather than relying on the salesperson's memory.
- When there is a change in personnel, these records should be used to enable the successor to take appropriate action based on the circumstances.

13. How to proceed with implementation

For implementation in the home renovation industry, we recommend the following step-by-step approach.

We will start by introducing basic tasks such as project management and estimate management.
- The mechanism for sharing information between the field and sales teams will be added once the system is operational and stable.
• Automatic after-sales service reminders and referral records will be considered last.

14. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q. Can multiple quotation patterns be managed in an easy-to-understand manner?
Yes.
Using the estimate entity, you can manage multiple patterns for the same project in a way that makes comparison easy.

Q. Do we need site supervisors to use CRM as well?
If you want to share the situation on site in real time, we recommend preparing a simple form for the site supervisor.

Q. Should information about our partner companies be managed using the same CRM system?
Yes.
By utilizing the customer entity, you can also centrally manage relationships with partner companies.

Q. How can we track the conversion rate from referrals?
By adding a referral source field to the customer entity, you can visualize the conversion rate via referrals on the dashboard.

Q. Is it possible to migrate from existing customer data (Excel)?
Yes.
You can use the Excel import function to migrate your data while importing existing data.

15. Summary

The home renovation business is all about building long-term relationships, from the initial consultation to after-sales support. With EMOROCO CRM Lite's no-code design, you can manage multiple quote patterns, share information between the field and sales team, automatically remind you of regular inspections, and even record referral sources—all on a single platform.
Establishing a system where customer relationships are preserved as organizational records, even when personnel change, is crucial for building long-term trust in the home renovation industry.

EMOROCO CRM Lite costs ¥1,500 per user per month (minimum 3 users) and has no initial setup fee, with a 30-day free trial.https://www.emoroco.com/You can start from there.
IT implementation subsidy eligible tool number: DL07-0022934.

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Related article

・Complete Guide to Business Process Flow (BPF)
・How to eliminate reliance on individual sales personnel
・Debunking common misconceptions about CRM
・Summary of implementation guides by industry