Perfect 10 Process

Step 1:  Client, Site, System, and Needs Assessment 


     Whether you are a first-time client or you have been with us before, the first step to our proven process is to assess your needs as a client. To do this, we gather information about you, your facility, and your history. What problem are you looking to solve with an upgrade or a new system? Where is this project happening? What is your history with previous projects? What are the details of the structure where this new system will go? What is the timeline for developing the solution? What is the timeline for executing the plan? Are there any other considerations that we should accommodate in our plan?

    We then focus on three types of questions that help us determine what our solution should include, avoid, and plan for accommodating in the future:

     The Good: What do you like about what you have now? Are there things in your current system that you want to keep and use in your next system? Are there things you do now you want to still do or be able to do in the future?
The Bad: What do you not like about what you have now? Are there things you do now that you don’t want to have to do in the future? Is there anything you’ve tried in the past that you want to avoid this time?
The Future: What do you want to be able to do with the new system that you can’t do now with your current system? Are there any emerging trends or technologies that you want to be able to utilize when this project is complete? Are there any trends or technologies that you aren’t ready for right now, but that you want to make sure this new system is “future-ready” to accommodate?


  While one of our key objectives is to gather the necessary information about your project, history, and goals, we also want to build a relationship with you and make sure we are a good fit for you and you are a good fit for us. Our priority is to work with our clients over the long term instead of just this one time. To do that we have to build and keep a solid relationship as well as build the trust and respect that is essential to our mutual long-term happiness. To help measure this, we ask you a short list of survey questions to establish a baseline for your general happiness with your system and your previous provider. We want to see your happiness score go up as we work together.



Step 2:  Design in Concept 
     
        After assessing your needs, we collaborate as a team to curate a design concept for your new project. Your design concept will establish that we are operating with a realistic budget, scope, and timeline. Our goal is to give you a realistic idea of what your project will cost, what questions remain to be answered in the final design and/or the construction process, and how long we think it will take to finalize the design.

     By designing in concept first, we avoid wasting your time by ensuring you get to weigh in on the accuracy and feasibility of the project much faster than if you had to wait until the end of the full design process. This also means that changes can happen quickly. Perhaps most importantly, designing in concept first allows us to provide this information without charging for design time.

Step 3:  Review, Revise, and Confirm

        As your partner, we want to make sure we are all on the same page. When we meet to review the concept, we will review our notes outlining your needs and objectives, review each part of the concept, and note any feedback or revisions you provide so we can revise our plan as needed. Once all necessary revisions are identified, we create a formal proposal outlining the details of the project including the price, the scope, coordination items, the anticipated timeline, and if we need to break the work up into multiple phases. We then review the formal proposal with you to ensure you are comfortable with the finalized project and that all of your questions are answered.

Step 4: Contract and Deposit

     Once the proposal for the project is approved, we import the terms, scope, price, and timeline into a contract and provide the contract with an invoice for the deposit. We then review the contract point by point to ensure you are fully aware of our terms, have an opportunity to get any questions answered, and only sign if you are comfortable with both what we promise to provide and what we require from you.
 
    Once the payment is received, we produce all of the documentation needed to get the project moving! These documents may include purchase orders, design drawings, schematics, rack layouts, software configurations, control panel layouts, rigging details, acoustic design drawings, coordination drawings for other trades, and more. These documents specify all of the details that we will be managing throughout the preparation, installation, and support phases of your project. These documents also give you a clear record of the installation work, the system design, and configuration of your system so you will know where everything is, how it is connected, and how it is configured. That means that you never have to use us to work on your system if you don’t want to.

    Unlike many other companies, we don’t hold any information back if you want someone else to take over the project. That means you are never trapped or held hostage by hidden passwords, wiring, or proprietary information. We want you to choose to keep using our service, and we know it is your choice because we build your system to ensure you always have that choice. Even though our clients can opt-out any time, the vast majority of our work is with repeat clients.


Step 5: Equipment and Scheduling Document, Test and Schedule


      With documentation in hand, we meet with you to go over any coordination items like network details, coordination with other trades, and the integration of owner-furnished equipment. This coordination locks in the details of what you as the client are responsible for managing and/or providing, the details of what the other trades are expected to provide to support our work, and how we will need to interface those items into our plan. Note that many times other trades are operating as part of a different contract with our clients or through their General Contractor. When we provide other work through subcontractors we pay directly, then we coordinate that work as if it is our own.

    Once the coordination details are nailed down, our salesperson works with you to confirm scheduling for the pre-build, testing, and installation phases. We pre-assemble and test nearly all of the components in your system individually and as close to how they will be connected in your system as possible. While this may seem like a lot of extra work, pre-building allows us to uncover hidden compatibility issues and dramatically accelerate our installation timeline. Moreover, identifying issues on-site becomes significantly faster. The net result is we have fewer issues, much shorter installation times, and avoid many unexpected delays.

  Another benefit of the pre-building process is that we are able to keep our documentation updated with the configuration details that would normally need to be captured on-site and then brought back to our design team as red-line drawing markups. In the shop these markups can be included in drawing revisions as they happen, making it possible to submit completed drawing sets soon after a project is handed over to the client.


Step 6: Execute the Installation Plan

       Once the pre-build process is complete, the pre-build team meets with the installation team and the sales/project management team to review any notes or changes that were necessary for a successful pre-build. This allows the entire team to remain on the same page and ensures that the most current set of documents is passed along with a conversation about the context of any changes. We then reconfirm the installation schedule with you to ensure your facility is ready for installation as we discussed with you in our coordination meeting(s).

       With pre-build complete and the schedule confirmed, the installation team takes over. Because the system has been fully assembled and tested at this point, issues on-site are generally easy to track down. The installation team, therefore, is able to be in and out of your location in a timely manner.

       Before we show up at your site, you will hear from your salesperson who will contact you to confirm the details of the installation plan, and you will also hear from the installation leader confirming the installation crew’s expected arrival time. At the end of the deployment, you will hear from your salesperson to give you a recap of what has been done, what our next steps will be, and to communicate any issues we may have run into as well as coordinate our recommended solution.

      This cycle of communication will repeat until the project is ready to wrap up. At that time, the salesperson will contact you to schedule a time to walk through the project together so that we can note any remaining issues and/or punch list items, schedule initial training, ask our survey questions to see how your happiness has hopefully improved, and discuss your plans for any items that are slated for a future phase.


Step 7:  Exit Interview and Satisfied Sign-Off


      At this point, the project is substantially complete, and we are talking about the list of little details that we need to complete to wrap up the installation. Common items on this list are a part still on backorder, we may be waiting for another trade to complete some work that is holding us up, there may be something you have decided to upgrade, or we may be working around a compatibility issue with a piece of equipment reused from your previous system. Whatever the case there are invariably some items we still need to attend to that are not keeping you from using the installed system. The important thing with these items is to document them and document our plan for completing them as it becomes possible to do so.

    To that end, your salesperson will walk through the project, note those lingering items, take pictures, ask you our survey questions again to measure your happiness, schedule future training sessions, and schedule our end-of-warranty check-out service. When you are satisfied with our plan for any lingering items, that your new system is performing as it should, that any remaining training has been scheduled, and that our return visit to inspect, update, and provide maintenance to your system at the end of the warranty period is on the calendar you will sign off on the system and the salesperson will submit the final invoice for payment.


Step 8:  Warranty


       As we say from the very beginning, our goal is to work with you again and again, and to accomplish that we expect to provide timely help with any issues that may arise with the system we provided you. Our standard warranty covers our workmanship with on-site repairs for a period of one year from the date of the sign-off or the date of first use while equipment is covered through each respective manufacturer. We also have higher-tier plans to cover equipment, provide free loaner equipment, accelerated service times, and repairs outside normal business hours. Regardless of which plan you may have selected, we will schedule a visit to inspect and verify your system is in working order ahead of the expiration of our warranty coverage. Let us know when you run into an issue and we’ll do what is necessary to get you back up and running as quickly and efficiently as we can. We provide phone, remote, and on-site service as best fits the situation, and with a large inventory of equipment, we can often provide options for temporary equipment to help when manufacturer repair and/or replacement times are slow.


Step 9:  End of Warranty Check Out


          Before your system warranty expires, we provide a scheduled service call to ensure your system has a clean bill of health. In this visit, we update firmware, clean filters, and note any issues that will require an additional visit and/or more extensive work to repair so that there is no question that you are covered even if that repair cannot be completed before the official expiration date. We also ask our survey questions one more time to see if we have been successful at improving your happiness over time. Lots of people are happy the first day with a new system as many issues won’t show up until the system gets used regularly.


        We want you to be happier the longer you own a system we provide because you know we are there with you the whole way through. We want you to want to call us back again and again. Because we want to work with you for years to come, we give your system a clean bill of health before the warranty expires. That way you can be confident your system is in good working order as you exit the warranty period.


Step 10:  Repeat and Referral


     Before your system warranty expires, we provide a scheduled service call to ensure your system has a clean bill of health. In this visit, we update firmware, clean filters, and note any issues that will require an additional visit and/or more extensive work to repair so that there is no question that you are covered even if that repair cannot be completed before the official expiration date. We also ask our survey questions one more time to see if we have been successful at improving your happiness over time. Lots of people are happy the first day with a new system as many issues won’t show up until the system gets used regularly.

   We want you to be happier the longer you own a system we provide because you know we are there with you the whole way through. We want you to want to call us back again and again. Because we want to work with you for years to come, we give your system a clean bill of health before the warranty expires. That way you can be confident your system is in good working order as you exit the warranty period.