Andrew Ellis, Managing Director explains the reasoning behind changing our name, branding and re-launching as Project Estimator and what that means for the future…
Re-launching as Project Estimator could be considered as Andrew says a fresh start for our business, over the past 12 months we’ve changed and adapted the services so much and we have moved back to basics. We are streamlining our approach and services to focus on what we are good at, estimating.
Taking a more “does what it says on the tin” approach, which brings the name “Project Estimator” into play.
Why the name change?
Andrew explains that a key focus for him as part of the relaunch was for us to be called what we do. Our previous name is ambiguous and doesn’t immediately explain what we offer as a business, we know our customer base like things to be straight forward and self-explanatory, therefore we wanted our name to reflect this. We feel that Project Estimator does this. We recognise that we have built up a customer base who have used the service repeatedly, these customers have got to know us and what we do, and they remain very important to us. As we want to continue to grow our business, we feel now is the time to have a clear offering to encourage new business.
When researching we had mixed views from our customers about changing our name, we also surveyed those who haven’t used our service and found that based on the feedback they thought we could have a clearer offering if our company name reflected our service, after all we’re not actually building planes.
When asked what he would say to those who may argue the name change is unnecessary Andrew says “I understand that people might say there’s no need to change anything, but that’s because they already know us and our service, and for those existing customers the service will still be just as good, if not better.
However, we think we can raise our profile by keeping our offer clear and simple.”
What else has changed?
We want to ensure that moving forward we are more customer focused, as part of this we are continually improving on the pricing used making it easier for our customers to win more work because we include a more competitive price in the estimate, with the support of STARK UK we will continue to improve our pricing.
We are now and will continue to work more closely with our customer, ensuring that we are adapting and tailoring our service to what you need rather than a one size fits all. Especially as we work with a variety of customer types, including individual Builders, SME’s, Multi-national Builders, Self Builders and more.
A key part of ensuring this customer focused service is implemented is through the conversations our experience Ex-Trade Estimators have with each customer. In Andrew’s words “All the estimators that we have on board are builders, they’re not Sales people. They’re builders that have been there, seen it and done it. So, their previous experience is one of the biggest strengths that we’ve got in the business. We aren’t just a basic estimating service, there is so much more support that we can offer including helping with programme of works, so that the customer can tailor their site to the actual estimate.”
What services are available?
In the past the service offering was complicated and potentially confusing, as mentioned above a key part of re-launching as Project Estimator is about stripping back what we do and focusing on our estimating service offering, making it the best service it can be.
As part of this Andrew explains how we have slightly diversified what’s available within the estimating service to ensure we can fit the needs of the customer. This includes our Quantity Take Off service to support you to win the work including plant, labour and materials. An internal service available for Jewson branches to support them with quoting for a full project, when you have won the tender and are ready to start ordering the materials. We have also developed a service for National House Builder’s to provide them with quantities for their project as an alternative to using a QS.
Will anything change for our existing customers?
With our name change to Project Estimator from the 10th March we will also be launching a new website www.projectestimator.co.uk and an updated email address [email protected] so it will be important to save these details, our telephone number will remain the same. We will also be introducing an updated and improved Builder Report, so keep your eyes peeled for a preview of that!
We recognise that this will be a longer-term process, and it will take some time for the new name and branding to become embedded, we foresee this taking around 6 months. But rest assured for our existing customers, very little will change. You will see and hear our new name in our communications to you, but as usual you will have access to all your projects and reports via the online customer portal Co-Pilot and can give us a call on 01359 256311 with any queries.
Final thoughts…
To summarize we are very excited for this change, we feel it is a real opportunity to re-launch our business with a renewed focus on ensuring our estimating service is the best it possibly can be. Simplifying our name by becoming Project Estimator and streamlining our services and processes to ensure we meet our aim to be a straight-forward, easy to use service with a team of Ex-Trade Estimator experts, supporting our customers to save time on their estimating, be more accurate and win more work.