Onboarding with ConCntric: Q&A with Head of Product, Andy Leek
We sat down with Head of Product, Andy Leek, to discuss ConCntric’s onboarding process and what success looks like from his perspective. Dive into our Q&A to learn about our white-glove, customer-centric approach.
We sat down with Head of Product, Andy Leek, to discuss ConCntric’s onboarding process and what success looks like from his perspective. Dive into our Q&A to learn about our white-glove, customer-centric approach.
What is ConCntric’s onboarding process like?
We understand that preconstruction teams have very busy schedules and for that reason, our onboarding process was designed to be concise and straightforward. We also know many contractors who have experienced a change in legacy tools for estimating, scheduling, project management, or accounting, which required an extensive implementation program, often taking years and huge sums of time and money to complete. Because of that, we are sensitive to these concerns and empathetic to the busy professionals learning a new solution. We are also confident that their investment in ConCntric will significantly enhance their workflows, free up valuable time, and improve their overall quality of life while increasing their success in securing projects. It’s a win-win-win!
We believe that everything starts with good design and great communication. Our platform is designed to be very intuitive to use. ConCntric was “built by builders, for builders” in part because we have personally experienced too many examples of “solutions” built for our construction industry that are over-complicated, require significant implementation resources, and extensive training before they start to provide value.
ConCntric is different. We onboard in a matter of hours over the course of a few days, starting with a kickoff meeting involving discovery and goal setting, then quickly focusing on project setup and basic training. We go at the pace our customers are comfortable with, and coach them on advanced workflows as their proficiency grows. Our approach is “crawl-walk-run” and based on our customers’ roles and organizational goals. All customers have a dedicated success team member assigned to them to ensure all questions are answered, and they are ready to hop on a call whenever the need arises.
Post-onboarding, our success teams hold bi-weekly check-ins with each customer to review progress on their goals to ensure they are getting the most out of the platform. This pace enables our customers to learn and grow, ask additional questions that arise, and provide us with valuable feedback and suggestions. We also share updates on features and new workflows. Once teams have a good handle on the platform, we transition to monthly check-ins, while still being readily available 24/7 for any questions or concerns.
How is ConCntric’s onboarding process different from other software?
We take on a white-glove approach to supporting our customers in using the ConCntric platform, from the CEO, all the way down. We are all willing to roll up our sleeves because being customer-centric is a core value in our company culture. Our team is forged from industry leaders with decades of experience at large General Contractors. We’ve walked in our customer’s shoes and understand what it’s like to learn new software and manage change, however small.
ConCntric is unlike anything the emerging preconstruction industry has seen before. We’ve created a new product category, so we are very empathetic to the customers we’re working with. Our approach is to listen first. We don’t show up, telling our customers what to do or how to manage their business. We really listen to them. We ask our customers, “What are your pain points?” and sometimes “Are you aware of your pain points?” Often times we shine light in places they would prefer to ignore, and there is a ton of value in resolving the waste and friction in those areas.
On the other hand, we are also there to educate and coach. When taking on a new platform like ConCntric, there needs to be some growth in how our customers approach things. Teams need to think not just tactically, but also strategically about optimizing their business processes and managing expectations. We encourage them to challenge the status quo, and we love to help them take things apart and put them back together in a better way. We are talking about preconstruction, this is where all the money is made, and our customers need tools for that purpose. ConCntric is not an estimating tool, it’s a purpose-built preconstruction tool. We educate our customers on how ConCntric unifies the preconstruction process and how the lifecycle of their data can bring together the big picture in a collaborative and highly communicative way.
How do you unravel what your customers are missing in their preconstruction workflow?
There are a lot of struggles happening in preconstruction that our customers may not even realize. So we ask the big questions. For example:
- How many resources (people, time, money) are you pouring into building dashboards, and historical project spreadsheets, and who maintains them? (What happens if they win the lottery? What then?)
- Do you need a full-time employee just to do dashboards? Or can we build those for you once and then they’re maintained in our platform?
- How long does it take you to go through your value engineering and cost trending process? Are you emailing that around to multiple stakeholders? Who manages that, and where?
- How can we make your processes more efficient?
- Wouldn’t it be nice if we gave you some insights, passively, into what’s going on with your project and with your business? Insights that you could share with your leadership team so they have critical information at their fingertips? (Think of the time that could save!)
As mentioned previously, we take on a persona-based approach depending on the customer and what they care most about. We show you where the value is added from any stakeholder’s point of view. Our customers trust us because we are transparent and provide real value, giving them the ability to stop recreating the wheel for every pursuit.
What happens if I need help with the platform?
If a customer needs help, we are on it immediately. We are hyper-sensitive to our customers’ needs and we know how much pressure they are under to get something out the door for RFPs, presentations, OAC meetings, and project team check-ins. If something goes sideways, we do everything we can to support them ASAP. Customers have direct access to our support team from within the ConCntric platform, and of course, they can always email or call. If for any reason their dedicated customer success team member is occupied, the issue is passed on to the larger team so that we can immediately engage and solve the issue.
What’s unique about ConCntric’s customer service?
First and foremost, we are builders from the industry and we know preconstruction. We have sat at the same table, dealing with the same pressures and the same old ad-hoc spreadsheets. We know the pain inside and out. We pride ourselves on building trust and strong relationships so that our customers know if they have a question, they can count on us to walk them through it. Our customers don’t just call ConCntric hoping to get a helpful employee, they reach out to their designated customer success member that they’ve grown to know and trust as an extension of their team.
We encourage our customers to tell us what we could be doing to improve our product and make our customer service better. For us, it’s not enough for our customers to get into the platform and start using it and adopting new workflows. We need to continue evolving the platform, the workflows, the integrations and other opportunities to produce as much value as possible. We want their ideas and suggestions for improvement, and we need to hear their pain because it matters. We have adopted a philosophy of “progress over perfection,, and we are not afraid to make changes and incorporate customer feedback. We leave pride on the bench and challenge ourselves every single day.
By absorbing customers’ suggestions, we can bring those back to product and engineering, analyze them and strategically prioritize based on importance. On top of that, we keep customers in the loop because we want them to know we heard them, what we plan to do about it, and when we are planning to deliver. And most importantly, if a concern is escalated and we understand the criticality of it, we will re-prioritize our plan.
How do you inform your customers about new updates to the platform?
We are building amazing new solutions and continuously adding to the platform. We update our customers every chance we get through regular customer success meetings, product newsletters, as well as resources accessible through the platform. We are also very active in the industry, attending events and speaking about the topics we are passionate about.
Because we are a customer-centric company, we are intentional about gaining feedback, and through that comes great ideas. While working on customer suggestions, we continue to take note of the things that are important to them and we provide product updates at every meeting—that way they have a pulse on what to expect next. We also look for opportunities to expand their adoption. The calls we have with our clients are not just for feedback and updates, rather they are opportunities for us to challenge them to grow as a team. We never leave a call without learning something new.
I say it all the time, we have a “crawl-walk-run” approach. The goal is not to have all of our customer’s projects in overnight, although we would love that, and will absolutely support them if they are ready. However, a lot of our customers need to crawl before they can walk and run, and we do our best to be empathetic to where they’re at on their journey. These are very busy professionals with a lot of projects already in the business pipeline and we know that change doesn’t happen overnight. So we work with them to identify “quick wins” from using the platform, build their proficiency, and co-develop long-term goals. It’s awesome to see them follow through!
At ConCntric, we begin our customer’s journey by helping them identify the right people, projects, and workflows. As they gain experience, they gradually expand their use of the platform. We envision our platform growing alongside our customers, fostering a long-term, successful partnership. Let’s get started!