Customer relations in the construction industry

Why medium-sized building product manufacturers are struggling.

The order situation in the construction industry is good, but

The construction industry is booming as much as ever! Rents are exploding, not only in the big cities, and the new construction sector is flourishing. Not even the pandemic was able to noticeably curb the willingness to invest in construction. Although sales within the construction industry declined slightly in the first half of Q1 21, the order situation is on the rise. Supply bottlenecks, shortages of materials, and the associated rise in raw material prices are causing this imbalance. Whether wood, concrete, aluminum, or metal – some people are already talking about inflation in construction.

Regardless of this, there are still enough builders willing to invest who are willing to pay the prices. Many medium-sized building product manufacturers say that inquiries are ever-increasing and that they can hardly keep up. It is therefore all the more important that the relationship with customers and, above all, the overview of the customer base, current offers, and sales figures are always kept in view by medium-sized building product manufacturers. Only then can it be ensured that profitable business is not missed out on.

Day-to-day business prevents a functioning future

The high volume of inquiries also increases the time required to respond to these inquiries with suitable offers. In the process, the offers are partially lost or customer data is lost altogether. Due to the everyday stress, there is hardly any time to organize more digitally, e.g. through a CRM system.

Alone the conversion to a new system costs time and time is not available in a good inquiry situation. But maybe exactly this system would allow a quick overview and let all parties sleep better. If one sleeps better, one also has more time and a clear head for future thoughts.

As long as the order situation is positive, one might think, these fundamental changes can be neglected. But appearances are deceptive, the rapid advance of digital development demands rethinking and action within the industry. For a long time now, this has not meant switching from paper management to digital folder structures on the company’s own server, but rather solutions that are cloud-based, intuitive, and clearly map customer relationships.

Digital helpers are difficult to find or very costly

Many managing directors of medium-sized companies in the construction industry are well aware of the importance of a functioning customer management system, but the search for a suitable solution is often not as easy as one might think. The systems of large CRM providers contain an enormous range of functions for marketing and sales.

However, it is precisely this range of functions that is often not suitable in the construction industry, as learning and adapting to the company can be very complex and may end up eating up more time than it saves. The relationships between the construction project, and the different players, such as architects, craftsmen, builders, etc. – all this is not represented by the large CRM providers and the adaptation is difficult.

In addition, there is a second criticism that we often hear from Craftcloud. CRM systems are very expensive. Not only the recurring license costs can be expensive with a corresponding number of users, but also costs for required interfaces and the massive maintenance effort lead to investment sums of unimagined heights.

Customer relationships in the construction industry are special

A customer in the construction industry is not necessarily a customer. What do we mean by that? The following example will serve to illustrate this point, the sales representative of a medium-sized building products manufacturer learns of a new construction project. This involves the construction of a new office and administration building. In order to place the building product with the decision-makers and ultimately win the contract, the sales representative first has to talk to many people involved in the construction. These include the architect, who puts the respective building product out to tender. The architect, in turn, is in contact with the construction company. The manufacturers should also not be disregarded by the building product manufacturer, because they ultimately purchase the product put out to tender and can influence the decision.

In addition, there are specialist planners, the building owner himself, subcontractors, etc. It is therefore very important to assign all decision-makers to the respective construction project and at the same time to keep an eye on the relationships between them. This shows that customer relationships within the construction industry are very complex and that the focus is primarily on the construction project. It is also important to know whether a construction project has already been realized with a contact person in the past and who can be approached in which way.

The solution for customer relations in the construction industry

What is special about Craftcloud’s CRM system is that the system has been specialized precisely to meet the above requirements. So, in essence, it is about clearly mapping the complex relationships within the construction industry, showing the relationships among the players, and, at the same time, keeping an eye on the sales opportunities based on the assigned construction projects.

In addition to these functions, the cloud-based software also offers the option of individual reporting, automated customer approaches, or other basic functions of a CRM system.

A big advantage of the software is also the favorable price structure. Whereas you have to expect costs of up to 150 EUR per user per month with large providers, with Craftcloud you stay far below half of these offers and have, so to speak, your CRM system already optimally preconfigured to your requirements.

If you are currently looking for a suitable system, please feel free to contact us directly here.