A Zoho One implementation for A Plus Electric Motor Repair, Inc, an industrial electric motor company from Bloomingdale, Illinois. This use case is written in compliance to the Zoho Use Cases requirements.
- Status: Active
- Customer since: 05/2013
- apluselectricmotor.repair
Executive Summary
The company was founded in 2011 by the owner Gilberto Herrera, operating under the name A Plus Winding Services, Inc. Over the years, the company achieved significant growth based on returning satisfied customers and excellent word-of-mouth reputation.
Late 2016 the name was changed to A Plus Electric Motor Repair, Inc. It reflected the expanding electric motor repair services and new investments. Evolving from a small repair shop into a 4500 square foot facility, A Plus Electric Motor Repair offers the full operational cycle for repairing industrial AC and DC electric motors up to 400 hp.
In 2017, A Plus Electric Motor Repair, Inc. became an official distributor of the world-known electric motor manufacturers, such as Baldor, General Electric, Marathon, US Motors, Nidec, and many more.
The Zoho One implementation comprises the customized Zoho Books as the main application along with Zoho CRM, Zoho Cliq, Zoho Social, Zoho SalesIQ, Zoho Inventory, and Zoho Docs (Writer and Sheet).
Introduction
Like the many of us, initially, A Plus Electric Motor Repair, Inc. had maintained their repair, sales, and customer information manually. There was one Quickbooks app, one email address at Google, and many spreadsheets, business as usual for a one-man army in the office.
But the number of orders was continually growing, so was the number of employees. This was the time to establish a good platform for future expansion.
The Business
Gilberto Herrera, CEO and owner of Lakeside CNC Group:
The Challenge
Mr. Herrera realized that they needed a system in place that’ll help them cover all the needs at a time, as well as give the company employees enough mobility and remote work opportunities.
With the recommendations from the fellow entrepreneurs, Zoho One subscription was the answer.
We brought the magic of the modern customer experience, that seems typical for the big companies but rare in small business. As we knew Mr. Herrera and his business well for years, the Zoho implementation was fast and comfortable for both parties.
Gilberto Herrera, the owner of A Plus Electric Motor Repair, Inc.:
Finding a Solution
Mr. Herrera realized that they needed a system in place that’ll help them cover all the needs at a time, as well as give the company employees enough mobility and remote work opportunities. The implementation of Zoho One has been performed by Dmitry Skylark (United Parts of Chicago), a Zoho Advanced Partner, and a long-time IT contractor for A Plus Electric Motor Repair, Inc.
We brought the magic of the modern customer experience, that seems typical for the big companies but rare in small business. As we knew Mr. Herrera and his business well for years, the Zoho implementation was fast and comfortable for both parties.
Gilberto Herrera, the owner of A Plus Electric Motor Repair, Inc.:
Implementation and Results
The implementation phase for Zoho One took about 2 weeks. In the 1st Phase, we have used Zoho CRM, Zoho Flow, Zoho Forms, Zoho Social, and Zoho Books. The result is a clean, manageable office environment with a totally different level of customer service. Zoho Books and its Portal are serving all the daily financial needs. Customers are happy to approve or comment on the new quote without calling the business or negotiating in email.
This, along with the online payment gateway and the automatic past due reminders for the customers and their invoices, are the most significant benefits. After Zoho Books’ implementation, the cash flow became more stabilized. The average number of past due invoices has decreased by 10%.
Zoho Books — WooCommerce Integration
Zoho Books + Zoho CRM + WooCommerce integration ensures convenient lead management: all the website forms were replaced with the appropriate Zoho Forms. They gather all the incoming requests and transfer them directly into Zoho CRM for further consideration.
A unique, custom-made module connects Zoho Books with WooCommerce, working directly through Zoho Books API calls. That module allows the office staff to directly manage the WooCommerce-based catalog from Zoho Books, bypassing the unfriendly WooCommerce web interface. As far as we know, this is an unusual type of integration: while the solutions where the WooCommerce store is integrated with Zoho Books are relatively common, here at apluselectricmotor.repair, we manage the catalog, that does not perform any financial transactions. That is one-way data integration because no feedback is needed from the website catalog itself.
Another unexpected (at least, at the moment of the implementation) but a highly valuable benefit is that thanks to Zoho One, the client was perfectly prepared for the remote work model. While many of the competitors were
struggling to implement the remote work features amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, A Plus Electric Motor Repair, Inc. was all set already: these remote work options are the native part of Zoho.
Gilberto Herrera, the owner of A Plus Electric Motor Repair, Inc.:
“Before I met Dmitry, I was still using paper for everything. He showed me how business is done in the 21st century. He was able to make a website
for us. Customize it and integrate it into our Zoho CRM. We are now able to receive WEB RFQs that automatically show up to our CRM. We just work with comfort, that is it.”
