Patrick Crowley is the Director of Sales & Operations at Electrum, a company based in Los Angeles dedicated to helping homeowners adopt clean energy and choose the best electrification solutions for their homes.

Electrum currently has close to one hundred active Salesmsg numbers, and that’s why Salesmsg’s Justin Zimmerman wanted to talk with Patrick about how his company is using Salesmsg to grow and manage its daily operations.  

“These days, it's tough to keep track of our growing team,” says Patrick, “but everybody who’s in a client-facing role has a Salesmsg number. That includes our biz dev, fulfillment, and installment teams. And of course, our sales team, which plays the traditional, B2C customer-facing role.” 

Almost every day, Electrum’s teams have multiple text interactions with customers as they gather information and educate them on the company’s electrification solutions. 

Based on the feedback its sales team collects from customers, Electrum designs and sources solar proposals from its vast network of installers. The company guides customers every step of the way, from the moment they register on its platform until their solar system is fully installed and operational.

Switching from RingCentral to Salesmsg + Aircall

To make everything run as smoothly as possible, having efficient back and forth communications with everyone involved in the process is key. Before Electrum started using Salesmsg, its teams used RingCentral for both calling and texting, but they needed more flexibility and options when it came to integrations with other software. They were also searching for a solution that provided more accountability.  

Pipedrive is Electrum’s CRM and integrations within the platform are integral to the company’s operational success. “Reducing administrative and manual work allows our sales team to focus on what they do best, which is selling and educating folks on what we do,” explains Patrick.

“From an individual user’s perspective, being able to send text messages or make calls directly from our CRM saves lots of time,” he says, “From a management perspective, having the ability to see within the CRM which activities have been completed has a huge impact on productivity.” 

“When it comes text messaging with customers, you always want to see what the tone of the conversation was, and exactly what was said. That way, you have proof of the entire process,” explains Patrick. And because of that, “We adopted Aircall as our calling service. Fortunately, Salesmsg was their preferred texting vendor when we switched over.”

We've used Salesmsg and Aircall for about 2 or 3 years. They blend well together,” he says, “I’m not sure exactly how long it's been, but it's been a good experience.” 

“I think the things our sales team likes is one, being able to use the Salesmsg from our CRM directly. And two, having all the information you need to know about a conversation with someone.” 

“Plus, being able to send a text message right then and not have to switch to another platform is great! You can close out everything you need to do without leaving the deal inside the CRM.”

“Reducing administrative and manual work allows our sales team to focus on what they do best, which is selling and educating folks on what we do.”
‍Patrick Crowley - Director of Sales & Operations, Electrum

Reliable customer communications are key

Patrick continued explaining why Electrum switched to Aircall and Salesmsg, “Another thing that convinced us was; we understand that to ambitiously grow a business, you need to combine a strong phone service with a service focused on doing text messaging the right way.”

“The fact that Salesmsg is an innovator in the SMS and business transaction space gave us lots of confidence. It’s proven to be a reliable tool when communicating with our customers,” he says. 

“Fast-growing companies need a phone service, a video conferencing service, a texting service, and an email service. And reliability is the number one requirement. I can’t remember an instance when we've not had access to Salesmsg or when text messaging has been down.” 

“On top of that, I've always also found Salesmsg’s support to be excellent,” recalls Patrick, “The support team is very responsive and has even helped us navigate other vendors that Salesmsg works with.”

“The fact that Salesmsg is an innovator in the SMS and business transaction space gave us lots of confidence. It’s proven to be a reliable tool when communicating with our customers.”
Patrick Crowley - Director of Sales & Operations, Electrum

Reducing no-shows and increasing show-ups

As you can imagine, getting Electrum’s customers to show up for their appointments is a critical part of closing new sales and keeping everything on track. “We’ve leveraged text messaging for appointment confirmations,” says Patrick, “Everybody is sent a text to confirm their appointment and to make sure they’re getting real-time notifications.”

“You know, some people don't check their emails throughout the day, but many people check their texts. So, being able to communicate with the customer quicker than we can with email is a big benefit!”

“Our salespeople use texts to communicate with our customers on a daily, hourly, and at times, more frequent basis. Sometimes, we have to talk with them in real-time,” says Patrick, “There's an old sales adage that goes, “Time kills deals.” And that’s why being able to fire off a quick text, even if it’s just an update, puts most customers at ease while helping us close more deals.”

“Some people don't check their emails throughout the day, but many people check their texts. So, being able to communicate with the customer quicker than we can with email is a big benefit!”
Patrick Crowley - Director of Sales & Operations, Electrum

Managing multiple inboxes from one platform

Although most Salesmsg customers use a wide range of Salesmsg’s capabilities, they typically have a favorite feature that stands out from the rest. “I'd say my favorite feature is shared inboxes," says Patrick, "We manage different kinds of types of leads and partnerships, so we need to communicate with customers and know which partnership or representative hat we need to wear with each particular customer.”

As he puts it, “Having a dedicated line for each partner within each rep is important. Each of our reps has 3 different phone lines they need to manage. Being able to do all of that from one platform and manage it all from the same account is amazing!” 

“You don't need to have 3 tabs open. You don't need incognito windows. You can do it all from the same window,” he explains, “That allows us to manage all that we need to manage with relative ease. From a management perspective, having shared inboxes and the ability to manage everything in one place, really sets our people up for success.”

“Having a dedicated line for each partner within each rep is important. Each of our reps has three different phone lines they need to manage. Being able to do all of that from one platform and manage it all from the same account is amazing!” 
Patrick Crowley - Director of Sales & Operations, Electrum

The payoff of getting people to show up

Even though it’s an overused cliche, the saying “Time is Money” rings truer now than ever. For companies like Electrum to sustain rapid growth rates, prospects and customers must show up for their appointments, or at least, promptly reschedule them. 

“From a data perspective, I’d say that using Salesmsg has improved the frequency with which people show up to their appointments. As I see it, the biggest cost of when people don’t show up for their appointments is our employees’ time,” adds Patrick.

“If somebody can't make it, they’ll usually respond by text and let us know they can't make it. Shooting out appointment reminders has helped our sales team to have a clear understanding of what their schedules are going look like for the day and reschedule appointments, as needed.”

"I’d say that using Salesmsg has improved the frequency with which people show up to their appointments. As I see it, the biggest cost of when people don’t show up for their appointments is our employees’ time.”  
Patrick Crowley - Director of Sales & Operations, Electrum

Using SMS to keep everything on track

While SMS improves appointment attendance for Electrum and consequently, drives more sales growth. After a sale is made, the company needs to fulfill the expectations that were set during the sales process. 

Fortunately, Electrum uses text messaging to make sure everything gets done on time. “Our fulfillment team manages our installer network and it uses Salesmsg’s texting features to stay up to date with installers,” explains Patrick, “Staying on top of those interactions is vital and the timeliness of it is crucial.”

“We might have an installer in the field all day and we may not get a response to an email or a phone call until they're back in the office or in their car,” he says, “However, if they can fire a quick text back to us and give us a status report. Or, if they let us know who we need to get an answer from, it helps us provide quicker, more thorough service.”

Stronger relationships lead to long-term success

When Justin asked Patrick if he had any final thoughts on Electrum’s switch from RingCentral to Salesmsg and Aircall, he said, “I honestly don't know how we would operate without a reliable texting solution like Salesmsg. If there were a world where SMS did not exist, our business would definitely slow down. We’d just have to wait for phone calls or emails, which is usually going to be slower than text messaging.”

“On top of that, any company’s long-term success hinges on building stronger relationships with its customers and partners. And while texting may be seen as informal communication, it's a great way to build trust and develop rapport with customers and other key people. I honestly don't want to think of a world without Salesmsg and text messaging. Because without it, we'd be in a bit of trouble,” Patrick says laughingly.

We hope you enjoyed this case study about Electrum. Feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues. And if you’re not already using Salesmsg to make more sales, go ahead and try it out for 14 days free.

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This case study was written and published in collaboration with StoryOps.