In a nutshell…
- Process Automation
- System Integration
Remedy First Aid Training came to Squirrel as their business began to grow. They needed a centralised CRM which could facilitate their growth and make their processes, including various course sales and registration workflows, as efficient as possible. Squirrel designed and implemented a streamlined CRM with multiple integrations, allowing their workflows to be highly automated, increasing reliability and efficiency for the Remedy First Aid Training team and their clients.
Remedy First Aid Training
Remedy First Aid Training is a Melbourne based company providing nationally accredited training courses in CPR and First Aid including Mental Health First Aid training, Childcare First Aid Training and Workplace First Aid training. The boutique business administers training onsite at workplaces, and also retails first aid equipment including defibrillators.
The brief
Whilst Remedy First Aid Training had been experiencing a period of business growth, they had been operating using multiple data management systems and spreadsheets to track clients and course registrations, and create and issue invoices, among various other tasks. It was time-consuming to onboard clients and find desired information. They wished to implement a sole streamlined software system where all tasks could be managed. Essentially, the team required Squirrel to tailor a CRM and workflow automation which eliminated the existing double-handling and manual entry of data at each stage, optimising their ease of use and efficiency.
“My business has really grown in the last couple of years and I was still using spreadsheets; I had no system for tracking my leads and everything was in different places…I needed to bring everything into one system or database” – Hayley Meeking, Director & Principal Trainer
The solution
- Mailchimp
- Quickbooks
- SMS integration via BurstSMS add-on
- Zoho CRM
- Zoho Forms
Squirrel collaborated with the team at Remedy First Aid Training to capture their complex processes in simplified workflow maps, identifying where automation of tasks and integration could be effected. Squirrel then implemented Zoho CRM and Zoho Forms, and designed integration between Zoho and Mailchimp, Zoho and accounting software Quickbooks, and Zoho and Burst SMS.
Zoho CRM & Zoho Forms
Squirrel made use of Zoho Forms and various standard and custom modules to organise and automate Remedy’s client and data management in Zoho CRM for all processes. Stages were organised in the following ways:
- Leads, Accounts, Contacts & Deals (Bookings): Leads are created by the Remedy Team and all information is synced across the CRM at appropriate places i.e. from a Lead to a Contact and/or Bookings. Once accepted, the Booking Stage will update automatically to “Ready to Quote” within the CRM.
- Quotes: Quote records are created and sent to the client for acceptance. Once a quote is accepted, an automated confirmation email is sent to the client containing a link to an integrated course Participation Form.
- Zoho Forms: When the client submits the Participant Form, the team has no need to manually enter participant information into the CRM; all applicable data is synced automatically to other modules from the form itself.
- Invoices: Following a Participant Form submission, and using data from across the CRM modules, invoices are automatically created and issued. Invoice and payment records are pushed to accounting software Quickbooks via a specially designed integration, and Zoho CRM tracks payment timelines and provides automatic reminders for payment at designated times where invoices remain unpaid.
2-way Quickbooks Integration
If a client is already registered in Quickbooks, a synced invoice created by the CRM is applied to the associated contact. Where a client has no existing contact within Quickbooks, an Account record is automatically created and the invoice created when pushed through from Zoho CRM.
The integration between Zoho and Quickbooks functions in two directions; actions taken in Quickbooks, such as payments applied, are recorded in the corresponding Zoho CRM record, and actions taken in Zoho CRM, such as invoice deletion, are automatically replicated in Quickbooks.
- Post-Payment Phase: Once an invoice is paid, automated emails containing course details are sent to participants. A reminder task is automatically created within the CRM for 1-day prior to the course start date, ensuring applicable pre-course learning has been completed. Following course delivery (participation noted in the Attendances records within the CRM) further applicable tasks are automatically created for Remedy team members, such as the issuing of participant certificates. Further automated emails function as alerts to participants of qualification expiry dates at designated times, also taking the form of SMS, via a Zoho CRM and SMS integration.
1-way SMS integration
At designated time intervals SMS are sent from the CRM to clients regarding re-training or previous qualification expirations. Remedy team members can allocate relevant settings for client reminders within the CRM. For example, they may assign scheduled dates for client alerts, or allow alerts to be sent triggered by related actions (such as course completion). Records of these messages are stored against the Lead or Contact record making it easy to view communications.
The benefits
- Optimised efficiency: Due to the elimination of manual data entry or need to search for information across a number of disconnected platforms, and a high level of automation and data syncing, ensuring time-consuming tasks are minimised.
- Increased ease of process: Remedy team members are aided by automatic tasks and reminders along a consistent workflow, ensuring no steps are overlooked and complex processes are easily followed.
- High consistency of records and information: Due to the syncing and storage of information in one centralised system.
- High level of client retention: As a result of reliable automated reminders and alerts via SMS integration, clients are easily kept qualified and up to date with First Aid Training.
We automated a lot of our processes, which has been a huge time saver and a huge benefit to our team…It is so much easier to access and record information and our work is much more efficient
Hayley Meeking
Director & Principal Trainer
Remedy First Aid Training
Ask Squirrel
Could your business benefit from a similar solution? We’d be happy to help you find one. Book a free consult today.
Squirrel Business Solutions implements and integrates CRM and other cloud-based systems, and provides training and support, for small and medium-sized businesses all over Australia, including Melbourne, Bendigo, regional Victoria, Tasmania, Sydney and Brisbane. This empowers them to automate their processes and improve their efficiency.