STARK
Building a landmark case for Webforms as a Service
10x
Thousands
6x
People all over Finland, and indeed, Northern Europe are familiar with the quality services and products of STARK.
For over a century, they’ve been serving industrial builders, independent contractors, and everyday handymen. With the variety of services and expertise they have on offer, they wanted to make their customer’s experience even better. Now, they’re a landmark case in how Oneflow’s digital contracts remove friction from everyday business as they’re the first user of Oneflow’s Webforms as a Service solution.
Being a part of the construction industry, STARK is well familiar with the need for adaptability. They know that having the right tools ensures a project gets done. Their customers often contain a craftiness where they find novel ways to harness the tools around them to solve a problem or improve a process. On the inside of STARK, they have that same spirit as well.
Heli Laakso, Customer Relations Manager at STARK Finland, is a prime example of a crafty spirit inside STARK. She’s been at STARK for fifteen years now and is well acquainted with Oneflow’s digital contracts. Since she is sharp-witted, she spotted an opportunity to improve an outdated process. She recognized that leveraging a new technology could have a huge impact on acquiring new customers. It could enrich their experience and free up time for her fellow employees to focus on core business functions. It also made her job easier, which she sure is happy about.
Webforms as a Service – a landmark case
According to Heli, there was a process in place that was due for an upgrade at STARK. It was the way of acquiring new customers. It’s 2022, and the logical next step was to turn this digital. Before they went live with Webforms from Oneflow, they had mountains of manual paperwork they had to deal with for every single new customer.
What is “Webforms as a Service?”
“Webforms as a Service is a way for a Oneflow user to create an interactive webform that collects information to fit a customized workflow that is then transferred to a Oneflow contract. In the case of STARK, they are using webforms hosted by Oneflow to easily allow their new customers to apply to buy products and services from them. Then go on to sign a contract agreeing to be a customer.
It is true that digital contracts are better for the environment than sending them “Our goal is to give our customers an easy and quick solution to become a STARK customer. We believe that online services and webforms are the future way to serve customers. Digitalization gives us an opportunity to flexibly update the process, and if needed, implement additional features,” said Heli.
According to Heli, their focus is to make everything as easy as possible for their customers. And with Webforms as a Service, they have taken a huge leap towards enriching their customer’s experience.
“We’re registering several thousands of new customer accounts per year. It is a massive number and we’re getting a lot of benefits by shifting from paper to web forms.”
Heli Laakso
Customer Relations Manager
STARK
STARK then:
Before going with Webforms from Oneflow, they had a very manual process when it came to customer acquisition. According to Heli, a new customer had to physically go into their nearest STARK store which could be hours away. Then fill out a paper application and hand it in.
After submission, the accounting department handled the paper form and created a new customer inside their ERP system. It was a bit archaic and time-consuming, to say the least. STARK acquires tons of new customers a year, so it was time to streamline this workflow.
STARK now:
Now with webforms from Oneflow, their new customers can fill out and sign an application from wherever they are. On a phone, a laptop, tablet etc. They can securely sign via their Nordic bankID, or email. And on the backend, a contract agreement is automatically triggered and sent to their ERP where the order is then processed. Their process used to take several days, even up to two weeks at times! Now, a new customer account is opened in one day. So the time they are saving has added up to the thousands of hours that are now spent on other projects.
It’s more efficient in a myriad of ways and has streamlined STARK’s customer acquisition procedure.
Even after Heli came up with the idea and with a solid presentation from Oneflow, she was able to convince the powers that be at STARK that this new solution would be a huge benefit to the company. For her, and everyone else, they were clear for everyone to see.
A successful initiative
According to Heli, the accounting department, sales department, and their customers are very satisfied with how efficient this new way is.
“Our sales reps are quite happy because they are wasting less time with manual paper. While our finance department has been really happy as well because everything is in digital form now.” Heli said. “The new way is saving time and is far more efficient than the old one.”
She also noted that STARK’s customers in Finland have had a few positive reactions to the new workflow, but it’s been quiet. Which in Finland means everything is fine and everybody’s happy.
Thousands and thousands of new customers per year
Since going live with Webforms as a Service, STARK has managed to register several hundreds of new customers. It’s sped up their process by leaps and bounds.
“We’re registering several thousands of new customer accounts per year. It is a massive number and we’re getting a lot of benefits by shifting from paper to webforms,” Heli said.
One of the reasons they initially went with Oneflow was because they needed a solution that worked for them said Heli. They wanted to modify and customize their options, which they have successfully done with Oneflow’s digital contracts and forged them into a Webforms workflow that truly meets their needs and helps them grow their business.
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