By Drew Slocum
I’ve been heavily influenced by the Six Sigma and lean principles–and they’ve helped me better understand businesses of all kinds, not just my own. One Six Sigma framework that’s been highly impactful and helpful for Inspect Point–and a framework that I use when looking at how we can best support our customers–is DMAIC. DMAIC stands for define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. The five parts take businesses through the process of identifying and overcoming key business challenges to support growth and success over time. This process can work well for fire protection businesses, too.
Challenges Facing Fire Protection Businesses
If your business is struggling or you want it to grow, you first have to identify and define problems or areas of improvement. Start by asking questions: What’s holding your business back? What metrics are you looking at? Do you have enough recurring revenue?
You need to define your problem. And to most effectively define your problem, you need data. But what if lack of data is part of the problem itself? First, you have to improve your data and business intelligence (BI) capabilities so you can effectively understand what’s going on in your business.
We see a few problems crop up time and again with our fire protection customers at Inspect Point. I’ve outlined a few of the most common problems our customers, both big and small, face when trying to improve and grow their businesses.
Business Mix
A big problem many small- to mid-sized fire protection businesses face is lack of visibility and transparency into the work they do–and how they make their money. The question is: What’s your business mix? How much of your business is recurring revenue vs. installation or construction (AKA non-recurring revenue)? If you don’t know how much of your business is recurring revenue, projections and forecasting can be virtually impossible. That means you won’t know what areas of your business are lacking or need more investment, making it difficult to effectively scale.
System & Asset Management
For enterprise companies with widespread operations across multiple locations, system and asset management can be a challenge that limits growth and negatively impacts customer satisfaction. From managing inspection frequencies based on jurisdictional requirements to keeping track of regular maintenance or recall notices for different equipment, it’s your job to keep your customers safe. Ineffective system and asset management keeps you from doing that to the best of your ability.
Collections
If your business doesn’t have a dedicated collections department, collecting payments is likely a major hurdle. Lengthy collection times mean your business doesn’t have as much cash on hand to scale over time. Cash flow struggles can limit your ability to invest in and grow your business over time–or even make it difficult to keep the lights on and make payroll. And chasing down customers for payment or taking trips to the bank to cash checks isn’t fun for anyone. Fire protection businesses that empower technicians to collect payment while in the field have a leg up with lower lead times and an easier collections process.
Business Intelligence
Large fire protection businesses use many platforms to run their operations. But if those platforms don’t talk to each other and work together, key information is bound to fall through the cracks. Business intelligence (BI) is a big deal. Funneling all your data–from financial information to granular data points on in-field operations–into your BI platform is essential. How else will you have visibility into every aspect of your business? And how else can you make data-driven decisions? But making sure data from across platforms funnels into your BI platform and properly synthesizes is often easier said than done.
Proposals
If you can’t get a proposal out the door in a timely fashion, you can lose out big on revenue. On average, fire protection businesses can make up to $4 in service revenue for every $1 in inspections. But to capture that service work, you have to quickly and accurately quote your customers. Attaching the correct deficiencies in a timely manner matters. Research has shown that getting a proposal to your customer within 24 hours of the request can increase the chance of acceptance by over 25%!! And they’ll accept the proposal faster, too. Manual processes make quick, professional proposals virtually impossible, leaving your business stuck in a vicious cycle and leaving customers with safety risks in their facilities.
Labor
There’s been a skilled labor issue across fire protection for the last several years. New, skilled technicians are hard to come by for companies of every size. That means it takes more time and costs more money for every new hire–and leaves more work in the interim for your existing technicians.
Overcoming Business Challenges
No matter the challenges your business faces, the first step is always identification. Next, you have to dive deep into your data to determine the root cause and implement a solution. This is where knowing what your key performance indicators (KPIs) are–and how to track them–really matters. Data is king, but collecting that data is made more challenging with disparate systems.
The Role of Your Tech Stack
Overcoming business challenges means iterating the DMAIC process to drive continuous improvement. That means you have to continuously measure and analyze. And your tech stack plays a big role.
Your tech stack consists of the different software solutions you use to run your business. That could mean anything from spreadsheets to a field service management platform to accounting software to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. It’s true that a more sophisticated tech stack will provide more comprehensive and clearer data than a low-tech solution. But having the latest and greatest technology isn’t necessarily the answer. You need a tech stack that provides critical and relevant insights to help you make better decisions at every level of your business. And, if you have various solutions from different providers, you need your solutions to talk to each other, providing aggregated and synthesized data that you can actually use.
You need a tech stack that provides critical and relevant insights to help you make better decisions at every level of your business.
So, what kind of KPIs do you need to track? What kind of data do you need from your tech stack?
Business Intelligence: Key KPIs
Metrics and KPIs are essential to effectively measuring and analyzing business performance. Each stage of the inspection to collection process has a different set of KPIs that indicate performance and provide insight into how to improve.
- How many visits does each technician complete each day? This varies based on the different sectors of your business (i.e. alarm, extinguisher, sprinkler), and should be broken out by total and by business area.
- How many dollars, on average, does each inspection bring in? Again, this should be calculated as a total and by business area.
- System- and asset-specific data is key in the inspection stage. Do you know what systems and assets you’re servicing for each customer? If you don’t have an effective way to keep track, your business may lack the consistency of operations needed to drive recurring inspection/maintenance schedules and effective equipment recall.
- How many deficiencies do your inspection technicians write up per inspection?
- What percentage of identified deficiencies have a correlated dollar value in service work that makes it back to your business?
- What is your turnaround time on proposals? The faster you get a proposal in your customer’s hands, the more likely they are to accept–and that can make a big difference in growing your service revenue.
- Can technicians provide quotes for service work while in the field? If so, what is the rate of acceptance on in-field proposals? And how much revenue do in-field proposals bring in?
- What’s the average time to acceptance on proposals? Do you have a team that manages the process? How much time does your team spend on manual follow-up?
- What is the ratio of inspection revenue to service revenue your business brings in?
- How much of your service revenue results from an inspection conducted by your business that identified a deficiency?
- On average, how much time does it take your business to collect payments? Do you have a streamlined process that allows customers to pay technicians in the field or through an online portal? Or do you rely on checks or payment information collected over the phone?
Data-Driven Decision Making
Enhanced visibility into KPIs helps drive informed decision making for your business. Data on performance across different sectors of your business–whether sprinkler, alarm, extinguisher, or another trade, or recurring revenue compared to installation revenue–can provide insight into what areas you should invest in. Data helps you identify areas of opportunity and growth, whether it’s expanding into a new jurisdiction, expanding into another trade, or conducting specialized inspections, such as in healthcare facilities. And, data can help you analyze customer satisfaction and staff performance to inform incentive programs, promotions, and more to drive customer loyalty and identify top performers.
How Inspect Point Can Help
I co-founded Inspect Point after seeing challenges just like these across fire protection. From inefficient processes to limited data visibility, fire protection businesses have needed a tool designed specifically for them for years. That’s what Inspect Point brings to the table.
Businesses can use Inspect Point for everything from scheduling and dispatch to collection. That means our platform can be the centerpiece of your tech stack, easily integrating with accounting software like QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online, and compliance reporting software like The Compliance Engine. And, if you’ve got a more robust tech stack in place, Inspect Point slots right in, integrating with other platforms, including ERPs and BI solutions, for a seamless experience.
Either way, you’ll get unparalleled access to critical data points, including a granular look at your inspection and service operations. When that’s integrated across financial data, you can get a clear picture of what’s going on in your business, easily track KPIs, and continuously improve processes and operations.
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