Okay. Hey guys. Hey Candice, how are you? How’s it going? Good, good. Doing great. Doing great, thank you for joining and taking the time. It’s been a little while since we connected. I know we’ve been sending emails back and forth, but how’s everything going? Everything’s going good, no complaints. I can’t believe it’s already the middle of September, it’s insane how fast everything has gone. But everything’s going really good. That’s crazy.
When we first started talking, it was back in March, and I think you guys just turned on LoadProof in May, and here we are in September. The time’s just flying. But yeah, we just wanted to get on a feedback call, and we’re recording this call just to let you know as well because my boss likes to get this feedback too. He likes to see how these calls go, and we want to ask some basic questions about LoadProof and start from the beginning.
Starting from the beginning, what were you doing before we engaged? What job were you trying to do? What problem were you trying to solve? What were your frustrations at that time? I think we are a different customer for you guys. We did not have anything in place prior. We use LoadProof for our machine facility. We sell insulation to places like Lowe’s and Home Depot, and for some smaller customers, we have a machine program. Green Fiber owns the machines, and you have to use the machine to spray our insulation.
We own the machines, and we loan them to Lowe’s and Home Depot. But since we own them, we are in charge of repairing them. So, we have a repair facility, and if a machine is at a store and stops working, they get in touch with us, send us the information, and ship it back to be repaired. We ship them another one at the same time because they can’t sell our product without a working machine. Where we have LoadProof set up is at this repair facility.
When I first started looking for a solution, the problem was that we were shipping machines to Lowe’s or Home Depot, and they would receive it, but within a day, they’d report that something was broken — wheels missing, no hoses, various issues. They didn’t refuse it with the carrier, so we had nothing to go on. We have four guys fixing machines in the shop, and they weren’t taking pictures or documenting. Honestly, I manage our big box accounts, including Home Depot and Lowe’s. My first thought was, I needed something to prove to Lowe’s and Home Depot that we weren’t sending them broken machines.
I Googled for a solution because I wanted to send pictures to show what the machine looked like when it left us. It’s not beneficial for anyone if machines are damaged. That’s really where it started, trying to communicate to our merchants that we’re good partners. After we began, I realized we could also use LoadProof to go back to carriers. We could show them proof if a machine was damaged during shipping. However, even with pictures, if Lowe’s or Home Depot doesn’t refuse the shipment, the carriers tend to push back, saying it was received.
The issue is that the people receiving these machines at Lowe’s or Home Depot don’t know what the machine is for. They’re just checking it in without a thorough inspection. Still, having the documentation has helped us have better conversations with the carriers. For instance, we’ve received reports that machines were missing from pallets or had significant damage. Having images allowed us to hold carriers accountable and challenge them when needed, although we haven’t had the best luck getting refunds.
We work with a broker that handles a lot of our freight, so we’ve been able to pass this information to them and tell them to fight the battle with the carriers for us. Now, we say, “Here’s what we have, find us better people to handle the shipments.” It’s not just helped with external partners, though. Internally, we’ve also improved accountability within our repair team. With LoadProof, we’ve set up a checklist for the repair team to follow before machines are shipped out.
The team checks whether the machine is on a pallet, painted, and in good condition before it leaves. This has helped with accountability because now we have records of who signed off on the checklist and took the pictures. Sometimes people get lazy and ship machines that aren’t in the best condition, but now we can track that. If there’s rust or damage, we have the documentation. For us, LoadProof has been beneficial in multiple ways. It’s not just one issue that’s been solved, but a lot of areas have improved.
That’s great to hear. You can prove you’re doing the job right and even use it as a training tool. By having a person’s name tied to the documentation, you can address issues directly and use the photos to show where things can be improved. When you first engaged with us, where did you first hear about LoadProof? Do you remember? It was literally through Google. I was searching for a solution like “photo documentation tool,” and LoadProof came up. I found you guys because we’re both in Atlanta, so I reached out, and that’s how it started.
When you reached out, what kind of results did you see? You mentioned that issues would come up every week, costing $200 to $300. Have you seen an improvement? Well, that cost is when Lowe’s or Home Depot ships machines back to us. They pay for the return shipping, which usually costs about $200 to $300. When we ship a replacement machine, we pay around $300. So, if a machine arrives damaged and it’s our fault, we’re paying $300 again to ship it back. That adds up to $600, and when we send another replacement, we’re at $900.
We used to get calls saying machines weren’t working just a few days after delivery. Now, we have documentation showing that the machine was in good condition when it left. I’d have to look at the numbers to see if our costs have gone down, but I believe there’s been an improvement.
Um, but I do know that we are not previously experiencing that because a lot of times our guys doing the repairs were not doing them correctly. Right now, if we do have any issues, it’s not because our team isn’t fulfilling the repair process, but because it’s getting damaged in transit. Like I said, we’re not having great luck getting reimbursed by the carriers, but we are moving around carriers. I can go back and see how much we were paying before compared to now and let you know if we’ve seen a significant decrease.
I’m not sure it’s a lot, but it’s not due to any issues with Load Proof. Load Proof is still doing everything we need it to do. It’s more about the nature of the situation we’re dealing with, if that makes sense. Yeah, definitely. I understand this is a different use case compared to typical retail charge packs. I would be interested to see what kind of savings you are seeing and how Load Proof is helping there. As Candace mentioned, you’re not just using Load Proof for one thing but for multiple processes, and getting even more value from it.
Saving money is one aspect, but optimizing time and avoiding the usual problems contributes a lot to the organization. That’s great to hear. Absolutely, and having peace of mind is a big thing for me. When I get a call from an angry merchant, I can confidently log into Load Proof and see pictures of what was shipped. I can say confidently, “We didn’t ship it like that.” That alone is huge for my peace of mind. Load Proof also has custom categories, which might be helpful for you guys.
Shiv sent some emails, and I’m trying to figure it out. You should be able to share your screen now. We can set up multiple checklists and forms in Load Proof. I don’t think we had this feature initially, but many people requested it. We can add it for you. It’s called custom categories, and you can set up to ten forms for different processes like inbound, outbound, and safety. For example, if you say “inbound,” we can capture similar information like we do for outbound.
We’ll set up a specific form for inbound, and you’ll have a library just for inbound. You can categorize and store the information, making it easier to access and retrieve specific results. The way it works is that you select a category, and it pulls up the corresponding form.