How AppExchange Apps Are Helping a Family-Owned Construction Company Enter a New Era of Success

When people are looking to embark on a home improvement project in Minnesota, Lindus Construction is the company they call. Since 1979, Lindus has been a family-owned and operated business with deep roots in its community and a track record of getting the job done for homeowners.

But rather than rest on the successes of its past, the team at Lindus is innovating, utilizing Salesforce and apps available on AppExchange to build an even better experience for customers. From implementing changes in customer communications to researching and updating service pricing, the construction company utilizes Salesforce technology to remain competitive, stay ahead of trends, and offer customers a personalized home improvement experience.

We caught up with Andy, Adam, and Alex Lindus, the three brothers and owners at Lindus Construction, and Lindsay Van Keuren, the company’s Director of Digital Marketing and Salesforce Admin, to learn more about how Salesforce and AppExchange apps are helping Lindus Construction move into a new era of success.

When did Lindus Construction begin utilizing Salesforce, and what drove you to the AppExchange marketplace?

Lindsay Van Keuren: We began using Salesforce in 2013 and we haven’t looked back since. We realized in the beginning of that process that we didn’t have the resources of on-staff developers to build custom solutions, so it became part of our process to always check the AppExchange first when trying to solve a problem or improve a workflow. Apps on AppExchange have helped us advance so many processes over the years.

The beauty of AppExchange is that you can choose what app and what technology you actually need, and you’re not necessarily sold into one solid stack from one specific partner. We’re constantly making adjustments to improve our processes at Lindus, and the adaptability of AppExchange technology helps us do it.

We know you’ve had a lot of success with the SMS Magic app. What challenges did the app help you solve?

Lindsay Van Keuren: SMS Magic helped us improve our communication with clients dramatically. Before utilizing the AppExchange app, we had 30 salespeople running two appointments per day, so we created a full-time position for someone to sit on the phone and make confirmation calls all day. It just was not an efficient process. Eventually, we realized, ‘hold on, people don’t have time to answer calls in the middle of the day. We should be texting these people.’ That was the first reason we turned to the app over five years ago. And it turned out to be the right decision — since integrating the app with Salesforce, we’ve been able to decrease our outbound confirmation calls for appointments by roughly 70%.

Adam Lindus: SMS Magic totally changed how we communicate with clients. When we would get feedback from clients, we started to notice some trends. The responses were typically something like this: ‘salesmen were awesome, in-sellers were great, but communication was terrible.’ It was clear that the client experience was not perfect — and it all came down to communication.

Alex Lindus: Essentially, the homeowners were sitting around wondering if we received their checks, if we’d ordered their materials, and where we were at in regards to progress with their project. Now, with the help of apps like SMS Magic and Digital Engagement (formerly LiveText), the homeowner gets a text at every stage of the process. When we order materials, the homeowner gets a text. When we process a payment, the homeowner gets a text. It has revolutionized our customer experience process. Communication was sort of our weakest spot as a company, now, we can confidently say it’s one of our strengths.

It sounds like you use a number of other AppExchange apps as well. Can you tell us more about them?

Lindsay Van Keuren: The app we rely on most right now is unquestionably SMS Magic. But we also use many of the Conga solutions, including Conga Composer and Conga Grid. The Conga solutions help us with our merging and mass updates in Salesforce with a few clicks of a button, which is crucial to our business when time is of the essence, and Conga really makes it a seamless process.

Adam Linus: We also utilize the FinancialForce app. FinancialForce has made a world of difference when it comes to having our financials integrated into Salesforce, allowing us to be more proactive instead of reactive. Financial Force has allowed us to integrate our financials into Einstein giving us real-time financials that helps us make the best decisions for our employees and our company.

Andy Lindus: Another Salesforce tool we use is Salesforce Maps — we’ve seen great results there. We’ve been utilizing Salesforce Maps for about four years now and it has completely changed the game for us by allowing us to maximize our efficiency for our service crews. Our quality control specialists use it to maximize their time routing, allowing them to hit more jobs in one day than ever before. We had a 36 % increase in the number of weekly visits for our Quality Assurance guys once we started using Maps.

In addition to utilizing AppExchange in your tech stack, Lindus Construction is also developing its own AppExchange app. Can you tell us about it?

Alex Lindus: The inspiration behind our ContractorFlow solution, which is now live on AppExchange, came when we realized other companies were impressed by the analytics we could produce. The insights offered by our analytics helped us identify and fix so many inefficiencies, so we knew it could help other companies do the same.

Andy Lindus: We realized that other companies were having the exact same problems we used to have. There are all these other contractor programs out there, they don’t adapt to you. That’s exactly why we developed Salesforce in the first place. So why wouldn’t we push it out to other contractors? It really is something that nobody else is doing.

Lindsay Van Keuren: We are so excited to have recently passed Salesforce security review and now are live on the AppExchange to help contractors across the world.

The Impact of AppExchange on Lindus Construction

With AppExchange, this family-owned and operated business has been able to not just streamline its processes, but also grow exponentially with the same amount of internal staff. “We’ve transformed our customers’ experience so much that they now say ‘they’re the best I’ve ever had and I only want to use Lindus,” Alex said.

That’s the power of AppExchange.

Discover all of the apps mentioned in this article on AppExchange.com

Image courtesy of Lindus Construction

Byline: Christian Connors

Location: Medium

When people are looking to embark on a home improvement project in Minnesota, Lindus Construction is the company they call. Since 1979, Lindus has been a family owned and operated business with deep roots in its community and a track record of getting the job done for homeowners.

But rather than rest on the successes of its past, the team at Lindus is innovating, utilizing Salesforce and apps available on AppExchange to build an even better experience for customers. From implementing changes in customer communications to researching and updating service pricing, the construction company utilizes Salesforce technology to remain competitive, stay ahead of trends, and offer customers a personalized home improvement experience.

We caught up with Andy, Adam, and Alex Lindus, the three brothers and owners at Lindus Construction, and Lindsay Van Keuren, the company’s Director of Digital Marketing and Salesforce Admin, to learn more about how Salesforce and AppExchange apps are helping Lindus Construction move into a new era of success.

When did Lindus Construction begin utilizing Salesforce, and what drove you to the AppExchange marketplace?

Lindsay Van Keuren: We began using Salesforce in 2013 and we haven’t looked back since. We realized in the beginning of that process that we didn’t have the resources of on-staff developers to build custom solutions, so it became part of our process to always check the AppExchange first when trying to solve a problem or improve a workflow. Apps on AppExchange have helped us advance so many processes over the years.

The beauty of the AppExchange is that you can choose what app and what technology you actually need, and you’re not necessarily sold into one solid stack from one specific partner. We’re constantly making adjustments to improve our processes at Lindus, and the adaptability of AppExchange technology helps us do it.

We know you’ve had a lot of success with the SMS Magic app. What challenges did the app help you solve?

Lindsay Van Keuren: SMS Magic helped us improve our communication with clients dramatically. Before utilizing the AppExchange app, we had 30 salespeople running two appointments per day, so we created a full-time position for someone to sit on the phone and make confirmation calls all day. It just was not an efficient process. Eventually, we realized, ‘hold on, people don’t have time to answer calls in the middle of the day. We should be texting these people.’ That was the first reason we turned to the app over five years ago. And it turned out to be the right decision — since integrating the app with Salesforce, we’ve been able to decrease our outbound confirmation calls for appointments by roughly 70%.

Adam Lindus: SMS Magic totally changed how we communicate with clients. When we would get feedback from clients, we started to notice some trends. The responses were typically something like this: ‘salesmen were awesome, in-sellers were great, but communication was terrible.’ It was clear that the client experience was not perfect — and it all came down to communication.

Alex Lindus: Essentially, the homeowners were sitting around wondering if we received their checks, if we’d ordered their materials, and where we were at in regards to progress with their project. Now, with the help of apps like SMS Magic and Digital Engagement (formerly LiveText), the homeowner gets a text at every stage of the process. When we order materials, the homeowner gets a text. When we process a payment, the homeowner gets a text. It has revolutionized our customer experience process. Communication was sort of our weakest spot as a company, now, we can confidently say it’s one of our strengths.

It sounds like you use a number of other AppExchange apps as well. Can you tell us more about them?

Lindsay Van Keuren: The app we rely on most right now is unquestionably SMS Magic. But we also use many of the Conga solutions, including Conga Composer and Conga Grid. The Conga solutions help us with our merging and mass updates in Salesforce with a few clicks of a button, which is crucial to our business when time is of the essence, and Conga really makes it a seamless process.

Adam Linus: We also utilize the FinancialForce app. FinancialForce has made a world of difference when it comes to having our financials integrated into Salesforce, allowing us to be more proactive instead of reactive. Financial Force has allowed us to integrate our financials into Einstein giving us real-time financials that helps us make the best decisions for our employees and our company.

Andy Lindus: Another Salesforce tool we use is Salesforce Maps — we’ve seen great results there. We’ve been utilizing Salesforce Maps for about four years now and it has completely changed the game for us by allowing us to maximize our efficiency for our service crews. Our quality control specialists use it to maximize their time routing, allowing them to hit more jobs in one day than ever before. We had a 36 % increase in the number of weekly visits for our Quality Assurance guys once we started using Maps.

In addition to utilizing AppExchange in your tech stack, Lindus Construction is also developing its own AppExchange app. Can you tell us about it?

Alex Lindus: The inspiration behind our ContractorFlow solution, which is now live on AppExchange, came when we realized other companies were impressed by the analytics we could produce. The insights offered by our analytics helped us identify and fix so many inefficiencies, so we knew it could help other companies do the same.

Andy Lindus: We realized that other companies were having the exact same problems we used to have. There are all these other contractor programs out there, they don’t adapt to you. That’s exactly why we developed Salesforce in the first place. So why wouldn’t we push it out to other contractors? It really is something that nobody else is doing.

Lindsay Van Keuren: We are so excited to have recently passed Salesforce security review and now are live on the AppExchange to help contractors across the world.

The Impact of AppExchange on Lindus Construction

With AppExchange, this family-owned and operated business has been able to not just streamline its processes, but also grow exponentially with the same amount of internal staff. “We’ve transformed our customers’ experience so much that they now say ‘they’re the best I’ve ever had and I only want to use Lindus,” Alex said.

That’s the power of AppExchange.

Discover all of the apps mentioned in this article on AppExchange.com