Mycroft Heating and Plumbing Testimonial

"Without Commusoft, we wouldn't have been able to grow to as big as we are. It's amazing."

In April 2025, we visited CS Heating & Plumbing, based out in Ramsgate. They’ve been around for about 16 years and since 2011, have been using Commusoft to help run their business.

While Calvin Smith, Director at CS Heating, began his career using traditional methods like paper diaries to run his business, he quickly saw the need to embrace technology.

By going down that route, Calvin and his wife were able to rapidly evolve and grow their business.

They embraced digital transformation and adopted Commusoft, and it’s clear to see the incredible growth has that’s impacted themselves, their employees, and their customers.

Below, you can learn all about their journey with software, so let’s dive right in:

Before Commusoft: The Challenges of a Paper-Based System

Before integrating Commusoft, CS Heating & Plumbing, like many plumbing and heating businesses, relied heavily on manual processes.

Calvin Smith, Director at CS Heating, recalls the early days of working with a paper diary to help him keep track of jobs, and wearing a headset to make sure he could answer calls, even whilst out on a job.

A chance encounter with a friend, though, gave Calvin the inspiration and motivation to go digital and seek out tools that would save him from a lot of extra admin.

It meant that he was able to see jobs on his phone and respond to customers remotely; this made it so much easier to avoid missing jobs and keep himself on track.

Since adopting Commusoft, Calvin has been able to grow beyond where they began, as a husband and wife team working in their conservatory.

They have a large fleet of vans and employ 25 people, carrying out a mixture of domestic and commercial-scale work.

Reflecting on the growth of CS Heating, Calvin says that:

“Without Commusoft, I wouldn’t have been able to grow as big as we are. I thought it would be me and three guys, and it probably would be if I was still using my written diary.”

This dependence on paper records presented significant hurdles, including inefficiencies in job scheduling, lack of real-time field updates, and a more sluggish customer service process.

This meant it was all to easy to lose track of who owed money and delivering on the promise of a high-quality service, something that motivates Calvin to this day:

“I founded CS Heating on some very basic principles of: never lying to customers, turning up on time every time, and answering the phone. It sounds very basic, but as a plumbing and heating company, that’s a USP. “

Since adopting Commusoft, delivering on those principles has been easier than ever, not just for Calvin, but for any employee on his team.

They have access to an all-in-one platform that provides them with essential data that can help them deliver excellent customer service.

Without a centralised system, Calvin says they simply wouldn’t be able to manage their workload.

Instead, with software, it’s like having double the amount of office staff, but half of it’s a software system.

This means one team member can complete more work, with less difficulty. Engineers in the field face don’t face difficulties like accessing job information in the field, either and everyone can easily keep track of appointments which leading to more efficient job management.

All in all, there’s a cumulative, positive impact on customer satisfaction and this helps boost the company’s growth potential, too.

The Turning Point: Implementing Commusoft

The decision to implement Commusoft marked a pivotal turn in CS Heating’s operational strategy and since 2011, Calvin has seen his company transform.

Commusoft’s wide array of features enabled CS Heating & Plumbing to address their pain points effectively and efficiently, meaning the principles that Calvin mentioned above can be acted upon and delivered, every day.

Automation features within Commusoft transformed how CS Heating handled routine tasks. Processes that once required significant time investment became streamlined, freeing up the team to focus on more critical tasks and strategic initiatives.

Innovation hasn’t stopped there.

More recently, Commusoft launched the Job Dashboard which gives the entire team the ability to easily manage and monitor all active, planned, and completed jobs from a single interface.

Paul Deadmon, Operations Manager at CS Heating, spoke highly of this new addition, saying the dashboard has been a gamechanger.

“It’s a new release, but probably one of the best you’ve ever done. It’s one of the two features we could not do without.”

This dashboard became a cornerstone for both office staff and field engineers, ensuring everyone is on the same page, see what they need to see, and ultimately, it reduces the likelihood of errors.

New Era of Customer Service and Team Efficiency

One of the most profound impacts of adopting Commusoft was the enhancement of customer service. Both Calvin Paul spoke of how much good customer service means to them, and Commusoft helps support that drive.

“Commusoft is all about the customer journey, and that’s what we pride ourselves on,” says Paul.

With instant access to customer histories, timely updates from field engineers, and automated reminders and follow-ups, CS Heating improved their customer interactions significantly.

Customers now enjoy a seamless experience, which in turn bolsters customer loyalty and referrals.

A Future Powered by Commusoft

Today, CS Heating & Plumbing’s success stands as a testament to the power of digital transformation.

When we visited, they were in the middle of upgrading to a new office and expanding their fleet of vans (including those powered on renewable energy), and with awards decorating their walls, it was easy to see the genuinely positive impact they’ve had on their industry and their customers.

All in all, Calvin says that it’s:

“because of Commusoft, because of using a CRM, that I’ve been able to expand the business.”

with Paul elaborating by saying that:

“Without the system, I don’t think we would be where we are. It’s all the little implementations that we make on the system: It just makes us better.”

There’s no doubt that it’s the graft and determination of their leadership and staff that has got them to where they are, but helped along by using the right tools to overcome inefficiencies that would have otherwise got in their way.

The future of CS Heatign & Plumbing is right indeed and as they look to the future, Commusoft is excited to work with them in a partnership that will help their success and growth continue.

By sharing their experience, CS Heating hopes to inspire other businesses facing similar challenge.

If you’re considering how how a digital tool like Commusoft can unlock new opportunities and drive sustainable growth for you business, don’t hesitate: reach out below!

Watch Calvin and Paul’s full Testimonial on Youtube, too.

Calvin Smith
Director

"With Commusoft it just helps streamline the office back end. And having a good CRM system is a must when you have multiple engineers. It just creates a better customer experience."

In February 2025, we visited Premier Heating Surrey Ltd. and caught up with their owner, Keith Richards.

As well as Keith, we also spoke to Leigh Lush, Maintenance Manager, and Charlotte Wignall, Installation Administrator, and learned how the company is using Commusoft to enhance daily operations; from scheduling, payments, reporting, and more!

To see how far they’ve come, it’s important to jump back a bit and look at Premier Heating’s past.

For over 60 years, Premier Heating has built up an incredible reputation and delivered award-winning services to customers across the Guildford area.

Established in 1963 by Keith’s father, Keith has continued to build on an already successful business and led the company from strength to strength ever since his father retired 20 years ago.

Keith spoke to us about how important customer relationships are to them and shared how, since adopting Commusoft a decade ago, they’ve been able to improve communication and streamline their daily operations, too.

Today, Premier Heating has over 20 employees (including 5 office staff, 9 maintenance engineers, and 3 installers) and provide a wide variety of heating services; including gas, LPG, oil, and air source heat pump installations.

Maintenance is also a huge part of their business, and their specialism with oil engineers gives them an edge over other businesses in the area.

With so many customers to look after and a wide variety of specialist jobs to manage, they needed a CRM tool that let them do more than simply store data: they wanted to win back time.

That’s where Commusoft came in.

Our software gave Keith and his team access to specialist tools specifically built for the trades and it has allowed them to put their data to use and streamline everyday operations.

Having a good CRM system is a must when you have multiple engineers. It creates a better customer experience. They’re kept up to date with what’s going on and should customers need to call us for a problem, then it’s easy for the office staff to look into the background history of what’s been done.

What’s great to hear is that despite taking on more work and increasing the amount of engineers they’ve hired, Premier Heating haven’t need to hire the office staff to match: using Commusoft gives their current team the tools they need to easily manage their workload (and then some), even during busy periods.

Keith explained that:

As we’ve grown, we’ve managed to keep the same number of office staff [but] we’ve reduced the admin by using Commusoft. We can get more engineers, but have kept overheads at a similar cost.

As a result, they can invest time and money elsewhere.

Adding to this, Charlotte explains that:

 For my job role personally, it saves a lot of time.  Commusoft is so helpful [it] makes my job easier.

From the diary management used to track engineers and assign jobs, to booking surveys, as well as sending quotes to customers; Charlotte explains how much she appreciates the speed and efficiency that Commusoft brings to her daily routine.

We also spoke to Leigh, who manages the maintenance team and office staff at Premier Heating.

He highlighted the ease of use of Commusoft’s mobile app for engineers, as well as the desktop version for invoicing, estimates, quotes, and stock ordering.

Leigh has been at Premier Heating for 16 years, and after experiencing slower, more traditional methods of managing the business, as well as alternative CRMs, he has found Commusoft to be far superior:

 When we moved on to Commusoft, we found it was a much bigger and better platform for us, a lot more features for the engineers, for the office staff.

Leigh is a fan of Commusoft’s simplicity. It’s capable of helping his teams to manage a huge amount of data, but all without getting overwhelmed. It makes a huge difference to engineers in the field, too:

 It’s so simple to use.  I would recommend Commusoft for day to day use, especially the features for engineers, the mobile app.

But what does the future look like?

Whether it’s taking on more engineers or managing busy periods, the team all agree: Commusoft has the capacity to grow and help them cope with ease.

Keith: Commusoft grows with the company. We can use the system to grow different aspects of the company and going forward, I don’t see a problem with keeping with Commusoft.

It’s always great to visit a client and see with our own eyes the impact that Commusoft is having on their business. Premier Heating Surrey Ltd. are achieving so much already and we’re excited to see where the future will take them!

If you’d like to hear more from Keith, Leigh, and Charlotte, be sure to check out the video testimonial above, or click to jump to our YouTube page.

Commusoft’s Key Benefits for Premier Heating Surrey Limited:

• Real-time job updates via mobile app
• Reduced paperwork and administrative tasks
• Improved communication between office and engineers
• Easy access to customer history and job information for engineers
• Comprehensive reporting and tracking for business management
• Streamlined back-office operations
• Enhanced customer experience
• Scalability to support business growth

Eager to explore more of these features for yourself?

Take a look at job management software or schedule a call with our team today!

Keith Richards
Owner

"The contracts functionality has really helped us ensure all required maintenance visits are carried out and that nothing gets missed."

“Rio Pools have used the contracts functionality in Commusoft to schedule in our regular maintenance visits for both our commercial and domestic customers. This has really helped us ensure all required maintenance visits on our customers swimming pools, spas, and the associated equipment are carried out and that nothing gets missed. The contracts function allows us to plan the various different visits required in a certain time frame, our customers contract periods tend to be 6 months to 1 year.”

Ian Mills
Service Team Lead