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customer story
With the sales cycle reduced from 130 days to just 62 days, Rainier Custom Homes’ clients are not only satisfied but also become enthusiastic business ambassadors. These loyal advocates now account for 80% of the company’s lead sources.
For over 30 years, Rainier Custom Homes has been a leading provider of exceptional construction services in Washington. From new builds to remodeling projects, this family-owned business understands that thriving in the competitive construction industry hinges on cultivating strong client relationships.
However, building trust with clients isn’t easy. Rainier Custom Homes not only ensures that every project is managed to meet the highest standards but also prioritizes delivering an exceptional customer experience throughout the sales process and beyond.
Recognizing the limitations of their existing CRM system in streamlining these critical sales processes, the team made a strategic decision to adopt Pipeline CRM—and their decision paid off remarkably.
We chatted with Steve Hettema, CEO of Rainier Custom Homes, to learn how the team leveraged Pipeline CRM to enhance their construction operations. Since adopting Pipeline CRM, Rainier Custom Homes has reduced their sales cycle by 53%. This, in turn, has fostered high client satisfaction, leading to an impressive 80% of leads originating from client referrals.
When Hettema joined Rainier Custom Homes, the team was using BuilderTrend, a vertical CRM designed for the construction industry. However, it wasn’t meeting their needs.
BuilderTrend lacked essential contact relationship management features, functioning more as an internal team management tool. As a result, they struggled to nurture meaningful relationships with their prospects.
There was very little that [BuilderTrend] would do to ensure that projects were moving from one stage to another. It simply wasn’t intuitive to how we work.
Hettema conducted extensive research and tested several construction CRMs, but he found them to be quite similar, often expensive, and burdened with high implementation costs.
That’s when he decided to explore Pipeline CRM as a solution for Rainier Custom Homes. Having previously used Pipeline’s construction CRM at a company he managed, Hettema was familiar with its capabilities.
Unlike traditional construction CRMs, Pipeline CRM’s sales-focused design was a significant advantage. Its high level of customization aligned perfectly with Hettema’s vision for a new sales process that he wanted to implement.
“I need to manage a pipeline of previous clients, referral sources, and active leads while tracking where they are in the process,” Hettema explained.
As one of the best construction CRM solutions on the market, Pipeline CRM not only meets these needs but also delivers additional features to enhance the sales process further.
Hettema created a three-phase sales process for Rainier Custom Homes: Discovery, Pre-construction, and Build.
“There’s a lot of work that goes into a project,” Hettema explained. “Once you got a contract with a client, you can’t just start building, you gotta now have finished plans, designs, and specifications in order to be able to accurately price it and so we take them through preconstruction and end up with a bid-back budget.”
This three-stage process is unique to Rainier Custom Homes. However, thanks to Pipeline CRM’s high level of customization, the team seamlessly implemented their tailored workflows.
First, the team leverages the multiple sales pipeline feature by assigning a unique pipeline to each phase of the sales process. This foundational structure is then further enhanced through the addition of custom fields, automated tasks, and data formatting solutions.
This comprehensive approach ensures that each stage of the sales process is effectively managed and optimized.
“There are many stages that require certain action and reaction. [With Pipeline CRM,] we can create a unique and consistent experience for clients along the way,” added Hettema.
With a significant number of leads flowing through their pipelines, the Rainier Custom Homes team faced the risk of losing track of potential clients. This is particularly crucial in the construction industry, where sales cycles can extend over several months. Without consistent follow-up, prospects may lose interest or choose to engage with other construction companies.
To prevent leads from going cold, the team implemented a sales automation process. Upon adding a new lead to the pipeline, a series of automated tasks are triggered, initiating ongoing communication with the prospect. This includes scheduling appointments, delivering timely, personalized emails through pre-written templates, and sending reminders for on-site visits.
This way, the team ensures that prospects are contacted at the appropriate stage within the sales cycle, facilitating a seamless and efficient sales process.
“Pipeline CRM’s automation has eliminated the need to think about or do repetitive tasks. As a result, we’ve created a consistent pattern of experience for our clients,” commented Hettema.
Furthermore, prior to adopting Pipeline CRM, the team lacked a centralized system for managing all relevant communications related to each deal. This often resulted in fragmented information and difficulty in tracking the history of client interactions.
Pipeline CRM’s robust email sync feature effectively addresses this challenge. By seamlessly integrating with email accounts, it ensures that all client emails exchanged are automatically archived within a dedicated client folder, including any accompanying attachments.
This centralized system facilitates more informed and effective communication with clients. As Hettema explained, “The email sync feature has made a huge difference by giving us a way to compile communication with our clients and partners. Now, everyone is on the same page.”
With a streamlined sales process, the Rainier Custom Homes team significantly increased its productivity and improved the sales cycle length. The team reduced the time to close by more than half. Before, it took 130 days on average to close a deal, and now, with Pipeline CRM, the average is 62 days.
“Improving time-to-close by more than 50 percent is pretty great for a high-end custom home construction project. That has been possible because our sales process is systematized with Pipeline CRM.”
The company has also managed to improve what has always mattered the most: customers. Hettema says customer service and feedback are fueled through Pipeline CRM, too. This, along with other improvements, empowered the company to gain 80% referral leads.
“The compliments and responses we’ve started getting through the Net Promoter Score (NPS) process, which has also been built into the stages and Automation in Pipeline CRM, were great to see. Customers say how they’ve never seen a construction company that was so responsive, organized, and communicative,” commented Hettema.
He also added that with Pipeline CRM, his team knows exactly what to do, when to accomplish specific tasks, and who to follow up with. This way, everyone involved in the projects, including the subcontractors and customers, truly understands what is coming next.
When asked about the challenges of transitioning from the old CRM software to Pipeline CRM, Hettema explained that the team understood they’d have to learn a new software, but they also expected that Pipeline CRM would make their jobs easier.
“We simply didn’t make it an option. People need to understand that when you move into a product, and it runs or touches almost every aspect of your business, everyone has to be on point. Not just kind of but all the way.”
He also added, “True to form, Pipeline CRM proved to help make our team more efficient. They are accomplishing more than ever, and that is why we haven’t had major pushback in adopting the software.”
As for Hettema, he is proud of how far Rainier Custom Homes has come with its sales process, which runs on technology that has proven to be the right fit.
With customizable dashboards, Hettema gains the insight he needs to run the company. He can sift information in any way he needs to make the best business decisions and see how his decisions can impact the bottom line.
Interested in seeing what Pipeline CRM can do for your construction business? Sign up today to start your 14-day free trial!
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