If you run a flooring business you’re well aware of the importance of being able to quickly and easily create accurate, professional looking estimates. Now more than ever your customers have the ability to find competitors and get competing quotes. While you can’t always win on price, you want to make sure your estimates represent your business well. While some flooring contractors are still putting together estimates by hand, a lot more have made the move to using flooring cost estimator software to create and manage quotes. As you might imagine, we have some strong opinions on this topic and here are two things that we think are extremely important for flooring contractors to consider when deciding on a software solution for their estimates.
It should help, not hinder your efficiency.
This seems clear enough, but when evaluating a flooring cost estimating software you’ll want to ask some pretty specific questions about it to make sure it’s a good fit for your business and your business processes. Here are some things you’ll want to evaluate:
- How much support will you need? A big red flag for software is whether or not you have to pay for support. Companies often have paid support because users have so many questions about a product that it becomes expensive to manage that level of support. If software has support that’s easy to access by phone or online, that’s a good sign that most users don’t have issues using the product.
- Do you get a test drive? Many companies have a free trial or at least a trial version of their estimating software, so make sure the people who will be using it have a chance to see how it works and provide feedback before you sink money into it. With a trial version your team can test it in the field and see if the product fits into their processes, helps or hinders their workflow.
- What specific elements of the sales process will this improve? Make sure you have a full understanding of your sales process and then compare it to what the software offers. Does this eliminate steps? Is this simpler and more effective than your current solution?
- How is information handled? There are a lot of questions in this area to make sure the software meets the needs of your organization. Some examples: If estimates need to be shared between multiple people at your organization, how does this occur? Where are files stored and how do different members of your team access them? How do you update pricing and material lists?
- Does the software require an internet connection to work? If your team works in rural areas, they may not be able to get their computer or mobile device online which could be a big problem.
Consider the full cost.
The first thing most people look at when evaluating flooring estimating software is the cost. The previous section already alluded to support costs, but what other costs might be incurred with the software long term? Here are some other questions to consider as you evaluate your options:
- Will you need to make hardware updates now or later? Depending on the platform your software uses (computer, mobile devices, etc.) will you need to upgrade your hardware to handle the software?
- Does implementation require additional costs? This is another area where there is often confusion when implementing new estimating software. Will you need a representative from the company to install the software? Will you need additional technical support to run and manage the software now and in the future? If you will need to spend money to implement and support the software, you’ll want to take a really close look at the benefits of the software to make sure you’re getting a positive ROI. Is it focused on increasing your sales?
- How long will it take to train our staff? This could fit equally well under efficiency, but opportunity cost is important to consider as well. If software is too complicated and it requires extensive training, you’ll be eating the cost of that training when your staff could be doing billable work or making sales.
It’s all about ROI
Many small flooring contracting businesses shy away from seemingly “expensive” estimating software because of the initial sticker shock. Or, they may settle on a solution that’s less than optimal because it seemed less expensive initially or they didn’t adequately evaluate it. Understanding the increases in efficiency and effectiveness are critical in understanding where you can eliminate waste in your sales process and improve your ability to close more deals. We highly recommend you do your homework, fully consider the costs and whenever possible take a free trial of any estimating software before you spend your hard earned money.
