- 1. Putting GES to work: what Steve and Mark have achieved
- 2. How a father and son business came together
- 3. From physical customer cards to going digital
- 4. A digital system to help drive customer loyalty
- 5. Automating service reminders
- 6. Digital customer cards
- 7. Keeping everything in one place
- 8. An organised business with a valuable customer base
- 9. Selling a business that runs on GES
- 10. Give the same results to your business.
- 1. Putting GES to work: what Steve and Mark have achieved
- 2. How a father and son business came together
- 3. From physical customer cards to going digital
- 4. A digital system to help drive customer loyalty
- 5. Automating service reminders
- 6. Digital customer cards
- 7. Keeping everything in one place
- 8. An organised business with a valuable customer base
- 9. Selling a business that runs on GES
- 10. Give the same results to your business.
How Steve & Mark turned 40 years of loyal customers into a business worth selling
With Steve & Mark Hall from SMH Gas Specialist, now Mark Hall Heating.
Key takeaway: For decades, SMH Gas Specialists kept every customer on a card in a drawer. Since 2018, every customer, service date and job history has lived in Gas Engineer Software, and the annual reminders go out on their own. When Steve retired after 50 years in the trade, that record was part of what made the business something he and Mark could sell to fund his retirement and Mark’s new business in Hampshire.
Putting GES to work: what Steve and Mark have achieved
BACKGROUND
How a father and son business came together
Steve Hall worked in the trade for 13 years before setting up on his own more than 40 years ago. That business became SMH Gas Specialists, doing servicing, maintenance, and installations.
Steve’s son, Mark, started working for the family business when he was just 15, getting his formal apprenticeship and getting Gas Safe registered when he was 25. The pair ran SMH Gas Specialist together, evolving it from a paper-based business to a digital-first operation with an incredibly loyal customer base, many of whom have been on the books for decades.
THE CHALLENGE
From physical customer cards to going digital
Before platforms like GES were around, SMH Gas Specialist worked with physical customer cards.
“We had cards organised in alphabetical order in a drawer. Each customer had one with their details on and all the times we visited with a history of what we did.“
Each card carried the customer’s service date. Steve filed it back under the month they were next due and rang them when that month came round.
The system worked, but it only existed in one drawer in one office. Finishing jobs to their standards carried a lot of admin/paperwork baggage, and with all the customer information tied up in a folder, keeping everything accessible and up-to-date became increasingly difficult. As business grew, more customers were taken on, and Mark himself joined, they knew something needed to change.
THE SOLUTION
A digital system to help drive customer loyalty
Software offered a more streamlined workflow that the pair didn’t want to ignore. So, in about 2018, Mark asked his father if he wanted him to look into going digital. Modernising the business and transitioning it into the digital world suddenly became his job.
After exploring a few options, Mark landed on Gas Engineer Software.
“GES was a one-stop shop. Customer details, automated annual reminders, invoicing and certificates.
It’s so easy now. The old system worked but everything’s speeded up. You have access to customer details in the office and on your phone.“
Gas Engineer Software offered SMH Gas a way to keep everything together and prioritise what mattered the most: offering a top-tier service to their customers. In fact, they’ve never paid for advertising. New customers came through recommendations, and existing ones stay for years and even decades: “Today’s recommendation is tomorrow’s work,” says Steve.
“We’re very hot on annual reminders, ringing people up, getting that repeat work.“
Here’s how GES helped them run SMH Gas Specialist:
Automating service reminders
"From their point of view they know it's in hand and just wait for us to contact them. It means we control when it gets booked in."
When a gas safety certificate is issued, GES moves the property's service due date on by a year and automatically queues up the next reminder.
Two weeks before the due date, GES emails the reminder to the customer, sends a copy to SMH, and puts the service on their job list. SMH have customised the email to let customers know they'll be in touch to book them in.
Digital customer cards
"We go there once a year, and if we see something that looks like it might need a bit of attention, then we take care of it, or we plan it in for the service next year."
- Steve
The cards in the drawer held each customer's details and a history of every visit. GES keeps the same record, but it's on the phone in the van as well as in the office.
Every customer has their properties, appliances, service due date and full job history in one place, including notes on what's needed at the next visit, such as a strip-down service.
Keeping everything in one place
"It was a one-stop shop. Customer details, automated annual reminders, invoicing and certificates."
Part of the reason Mark chose Gas Engineer Software is because every part of the job runs through the same system, from the customer's record to the certificate, the invoice and next year's reminder. Nothing needs copying from one place to another.
It's the same set-up Mark now runs Mark Hall Heating on. In his words, "it's not overly complicated and very organised".
THE RESULTS
An organised business with a valuable customer base
After 8 years with Gas Engineer Software, the team developed an organised system for SMH Gas Specialist that suited the way they worked. The results?
6 in 10 reminders turn into a service
Across the last 12 months, six in ten of the properties SMH sent a reminder to had a service booked and completed within 45 days.
4 hours of admin saved a week
With reminders going out on their own and every customer’s details kept organised, Mark estimates GES saves him 4 hours every week.
8+ years on Gas Engineer Software
Since 2018, SMH has raised around 700 invoices and sent 450–500 service reminders every year, all from the same system.
THE VALUE IN A CUSTOMER BASE
Selling a business that runs on GES
“It’s been very easy for L J Plumbing & Heating to take over as all the information is there.“
Most heating & plumbing business owners don’t see the value in their business and simply shut down their business. Since Mark lived too far away to run the business solo when Steve retired, they decided to sell up.
“There’s a lot of people who when they get to my age, they just sort of fade away and don’t tell the customer.“ – Steve
“If you’ve got regular customers or regular stream of income, which to survive you obviously have, then that is worth something to someone.” – Mark
All the years of hard work and focus on doing the best job possible for their customers has certainly paid off. SMH Gas Specialist was more than a business; it was a valuable asset, retirement plan, and a springboard for Mark’s new business.
Mark met Luke from L J Plumbing and Heating through social media and they were able to work out a mutually beneficial sale of SMH Gas Specialist. Steve would retire, Mark would be able to start his own heating business in Hampshire, and Luke is able to expand his business while looking after a group of local customers. GES was at the core of this transition:
“We went through, and showed them the process of going through GES, how I deal with an inquiry, how I set the job up, how we do the reports. When servicing comes up, we go back through their notes, see if we’ve gotta take any bits with us, see if it’s a strip down service.“ – Steve
Mark is now building his own business, Mark Hall Heating, closer to home. He’s using Gas Engineer Software the same way to build it from the ground up.
A special thanks to Steve and Mark Hall from SMH Gas Specialist for taking part in this GES customer story.
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