Extent

Introduction

We at ExSol Agency teamed up with Extent, a professional service provider in Dubai, to streamline their customer onboarding process. Before our help, Extent's process was slow and prone to mistakes, causing delays and extra work for their sales and accounting teams. They needed a way to speed things up and cut down on errors.

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Main Goals

Our main goal was to automate the steps from when a customer signs a contract to when they start getting services. This meant creating a system that would handle documents, update customer information, and make sure payments were tracked without people having to do it all manually.

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Challenges

Extent's old way of doing things involved a lot of manual work. After a customer signed a contract, someone had to update the status in their CRM system by hand. The accounting team had to check payments before starting services, and they had to send out payment reminders themselves if a customer didn't pay on time. They used different tools like Slack and email to talk to each other, which made it hard to keep track of everything.

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Solution

We used a robuts and flexible automation tool n8n to create a bunch of automated workflows integrated with tools the client was already familiar with, like PandaDoc, HubSpot CRM and Monday.com, to make the transition smoother. Here's what we set up:

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After a Deal is Closed:

• Step 1: As soon as a sales deal is closed, an offer is automatically generated in PandaDoc using a predefined template.
• Step 2: This offer pulls in the customer data from HubSpot CRM and is sent to the customer for a digital signature.
• Step 3: Upon the customer's signature, a webhook is triggered, which updates the deal status in HubSpot CRM.
• Step 4: The customer's details, along with the deal amount and currency, are automatically entered onto the Monday board for tracking and management.

When a Success Manager is Assigned:

• Step 5: The assignment of a Success Manager in Monday triggers the second workflow.
• Step 6: An invoice is generated, incorporating unique ID, line items, and customer details, and is then stored on an Amazon S3 bucket.
• Step 7: The invoice is attached to the corresponding deal entry in Monday, ready for the accounting department to review before sending it out.
• Step 8: Simultaneously, the Success Manager is assigned in HubSpot CRM, and the customer is emailed their contact details, fostering immediate engagement.

Handling Payments:

• Step 9: Accounting personnel can initiate the third workflow with a click, starting the debt collection process by sending the invoice via SendGrid.
• Step 10: The payment status on Monday is continuously updated and visible, cycling through 'INVOICE_SENT,' 'PAYMENT_REMINDER_SENT,' and 'FINAL_WARNING_SENT' as necessary.
• Step 11: If payment is not received within the set time frames (7 or 14 days), automated payment reminders and dunning notices are sent out, and the status on the Monday board is updated accordingly.

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Conclusion

By implementing a comprehensive automation workflow, we successfully enhanced operational efficiency by up to 15% across sales, accounting, and fulfillment departments for Extent. This not only streamlined their customer onboarding and payment processes but also granted management a clear, real-time overview of payment statuses and cash flow. The result was a significant leap in productivity and a solid foundation for sustained business growth.

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