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De Badmeesters switches from filing cabinets to fully digital with FieldBuddy Go
fully digital work orders
weekly reports to customers
complete seasonal invoicing
- Asset management
- Checklist
- Digital Work Orders
- Inventory Management
- Preventive Maintenance
- Service Contracts
- Installation
- Maintenance
- AFAS
Challenges
- Entire administration on paper
- Reports sent manually, error-prone and time-consuming
- End-of-season invoicing was a slow, manual process
Solutions
- All work orders digitalized through FieldBuddy Go
- Automatic weekly customer reports by email
- Seasonal invoicing in a single export action
Benefits
- Administration done immediately and without errors
- Customers automatically receive professional reports
- End-of-season invoicing reduced to a single action
From filing cabinet to digital
Do you have a swimming pool, sauna or spa and live in the Zeeland region? Then you may have heard of De Badmeesters. Since 1987, this family business has been building and maintaining private swimming pools and everything that goes with them. And they had to move with the times. Because those walls full of filing cabinets? That really couldn’t continue, thought Willem den Baars jr.
He made sure the company switched from handwritten work orders to our brand new field service software: FieldBuddy Go. Our software met all his requirements. What those requirements were and what the switch has brought him? He tells everything in this interview.
Family business
De Badmeesters was founded in 1987 by Willem’s parents. Three years ago, Willem joined the business himself. He explains: “I studied mechanical engineering and then spent about ten years in project management. A construction and maintenance company fits perfectly with my background.
It was a logical choice for me to join the family business. I love making a customer happy with what we’ve built for them, that’s the best part of my job.”
Filing cabinets
Willem initially worked alongside the technicians in the field. Later, he moved to the office to handle administration and work preparation. What did he find there? “A wall of filing cabinets from floor to ceiling. We did everything on paper, it simply wasn’t of this time,” he says. So he took the lead in digitalizing De Badmeesters.
The right service management partner
“At that point, the search for a good service management partner began. A few contacts and former colleagues pointed me towards FieldBuddy. To be sure, I compared them with a few other parties. When it became clear that FieldBuddy was the right fit for our company, I got in touch. Right away, I could tell we were on the same page. That was reassuring.”
Requirements and wishes
When you’re searching for a partner, it helps to know exactly what you need. Willem drew up a list: “I wanted to digitalize our paper work orders, but also have the option for automated summary reports, customer contact through a convenient portal and route planning based on faults.
Most of these features are already in FieldBuddy Go, and a few are still on the roadmap. I’m in regular contact with the FieldBuddy product owner to check on progress. That’s reassuring, I know they’re working on it and I feel taken seriously.”
No more deciphering handwriting
The biggest benefit Willem experiences from our software? “I never have to decipher handwriting anymore,” he laughs. “Before, I’d get a stack of work orders dumped in my hands to figure out what they said. Now that it all happens automatically, it saves me an enormous amount of time.
The maintenance schedule for the entire year is also in the system, so our technicians know exactly what’s coming. That’s useful, because they can combine maintenance visits, for example. At the end of the pool season, we can also produce a full export in one go and invoice all our work. And after a visit, the customer automatically receives a weekly report by email, a feature FieldBuddy added based on my input. Before, we did that manually, which was very time-consuming and error-prone.”
The next step
Is Willem already thinking about further steps in digitalization and automation? “We’re a small company, so we can’t change everything at once. We’ve deliberately decided to work with FieldBuddy Go for a year first. Once we have a solid grip on it, we want to set up an integration with our ERP package. That would be useful, because then we can automatically send work orders as invoices.”
Discover FieldBuddy Go
Do you recognize those walls full of filing cabinets that Willem couldn’t stand? And are you looking for a service management partner to digitalize your processes? Discover the benefits of FieldBuddy Go.
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