Premier Heating Solutions Testimonial

"The cost you might outlay to have Commusoft as an operating system is more than worth it. We haven't felt any limits from Commusoft so far."

At the start of 2025, we caught up with Will Hawksley and PJ Luard from WPJ Heating to learn more about their on-going experience with Commusoft.

Their story begins back in 2004, with the pair meeting through mutual friends.

After working separately for a time, Will and PJ eventually joined forces and established WPJ Heating Services.

They’ve been enjoying a successful partnership for almost 20 years.

Based in South London, WPJ has grown to employ 30 members of staff (25 of whom are using Commusoft) and they have a fleet of 16 vans on the road. 

They’ve been using Commusoft for over 15 years and were one of the first businesses to meet with Jason Morjaria (Commusoft’s founder) and started by using the software to manage daily jobs and diaries. 

Since that time, both WPJ and Commusoft have grown in tandem. It was amazing to talk with them about their journey and understand more about their successful growth over the years.

Adopting software technology has been instrumental to their hard-won and well-deserved success.

Speaking of their early days with Commusoft, Will explained:

Will: It evolved quickly: we started using it for the functions that suited us. Jason was always on the end of the phone. So if there was a problem, or something we didn’t quite understand, he always had the time to explain it and help us bed that in.

As for how support has evolved, thanks to our dedicated Client Success team, it means that help has remained close at hand.

Commusoft’s Help Centre has evolved into a comprehensive online knowledge base, and the recent launch of an online training academy means users can learn in their own time, too.

Alongside our support staff, all this means that clients like WPJ can get support and guidance whenever they need it.

PJ: I think actually every time we ring in, someone will answer the phone. Or we just email and you get an email back very quickly. 

Will: [Commusoft seems] well sorted out with back end support. It’s quick and helpful and you’re not left hanging. Queries and questions and suggestions aren’t left unheard at all.

These days, WPJ is using Commusoft to manage almost every part of their business and its impact is being felt:

PJ: It’s just the convenience, isn’t it? Everything now in one place. Your database, your diary, your invoicing, your debtors. And now it’s moved on, it’s transformed with the automation and self-service tools.

Will: That’s one of the beauties of it, that the product has kept evolving and allows us more functionality as the world moves forward as well. Commusoft has always really kept moving forward. It’s allowed us to progress hand in hand.

For their office staff and engineers in the field, PJ shared that the software has had a huge impact on productivity and efficiency, saying:

PJ: It’s transformed their lives. Shaker (their Office Manager) has used it right from the beginning, so it’s bulletproof with him. And for everyone else, the more you educate them, the more they understand it, the more it clicks.

When it comes to standout features, Will & PJ have high praise for service reminders and invoicing, in particular: 

PJ: Beforehand, you would just print everything off, but now it’s just a question of pressing a button. In the old days we’d go through our diary, we’d do a service, and we’d probably put in next year’s diary a year in advance to chase that client up.

Now, it’s automatic.

And I love that the engineer will leave one year and may turn up the next year without any interaction with the client or office. It’s all done in the back which saves time, money, and makes it so efficient.

For Will, it’s the benefits brought about by Invoicing software:

Will: It’s great because it pulls all the threads together. Using Commusoft we can look at all the diary events against a [customer’s address] and that particular job, and we can call in all the costs that are associated with it. We can work out exactly what we spent and this, that, and the other. It allows us to pull up an accurate invoice at the end of it all. Because all the costs and times are there. 

More recently, WPJ began making use of Commusoft’s automated debt chasing workflows and payment integrations.

These send reminders to customers at a set cadence, all without office staff having to get directly involved, but the system is also able to prompt staff through automated office task, should customers continue to be inactive.

In most cases, though, Will and PJ say that time spent on debt chasing has massively improved. 

PJ: It was incredible. Time to pay has sped up. So has cash flow, it’s brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Giving customers accessible payment options—via Stripe, BACS, and GoCardless—also have had a huge impact on cash flow:

Will: You have to look at it from the customer’s point of view. They want ease, and there’s a level of expectation that they can pay straight away from their phone and not have to think about it again. So you’ve got to facilitate that. And so customers using a payment link is the easiest way to go and cash flow has vastly improved.

It’s been brilliant to hear how Will and PJ have been using Commusoft over the years and the value it’s brought to their business.

They had these final thoughts for any other service business who might be considering Commusoft’s job management software as a solution for their business:

Will: I would say that Commusoft buys you a lot more time. And, you know, the cost you might outlay to have [Commusoft] as an operating system is more than worth it.

Instead of scrambling around trying to remember things and organise things manually from diaries, this allows you to see it all in one place and to work remotely if you need to. Important information is there with a click of a [button]. 

Commusoft just makes running a business much more efficient and so if you want to grow, if you want to free up your time and make space for working on the business rather than in the business, then Commusoft lets you do that.

PJ: If you haven’t used it, use it. Commusoft will transform the business. It makes everything much more efficient. It’ll save you money. It’ll save you time. It’ll keep the cash flow up. And you’ll regret not having done it years ago. 

Learn more from WPJ Heating

For more, check out the video interview above, or you can click to see their testimonial playlist on YouTube.

You’ll be able to hear from Operations Manager, Shaker, and Admin Manager, Harry, who share their experience of using Commusoft, too (particularly for service reminders)! 

Alternatively, why not explore job management software for yourself, or schedule a call to find out more!

Will
Co-owner

"There is no way we could run our business efficiently and effectively... we just simply could not run it without Commusoft."

Lincoln Smith, a director at Custom Heat Ltd, sat down to discuss why Commusoft is essential for running their heating and plumbing business.

Custom Heat is a family-run business that started with Lincoln’s parents in 1980 and has been operating for the past 40 years in and around Rugby, UK. Since implementing Commusoft in 2016, the Custom Heat team has grown from 60 in 2020, to over 100 in 2023!

How Was Your Business Run Before Commusoft?

“We had a paper-based system that we’d had for many years. The system was not internet based, so you couldn’t download a mobile app. We had engineers that would call in on a Friday afternoon to ask if they could pick another job up, or we’d have a customer that would all in at 3 o’clock on a Friday afternoon and say ‘We’ve got no hot water, can you come fix the boiler?’. So we’d call the engineer and say we’ve got another job. He’d then jot it down on a sticky label or something in his van – or probably not write it down at all. He’d drive there, do the job – but then we’d never get paid.

“We were growing as a business, our customer-base was growing, the demand for our services was growing, so we needed a system that could cope with the increase in jobs.”

What Was Your Biggest Challenge Before Using Commusoft?

“Before we used Commusoft, our invoicing was done manually. A lady in the office would produce an invoice and at the end of the week she would send all those invoices out in the post. So you could complete a job on a Tuesday – by the Thursday or Friday you’re posting the invoice – by the Monday they’ve received it – and a few days later, they’re paying it. The whole process could be a week or more.”

How Has Using Commusoft Helped You Improve This?

“Now, you click a button – and send an invoice! In fact, the engineers do it from site. Not only do invoices not get missed, but the engineer can go to a boiler service, complete the work, and click a button – all within a second. The office staff doesn’t have to do any of it.”

How Has Commusoft Transformed Your Operations?

“We now have customers call our office, who are ready to handle the call and can book the appointment into a live diary. If it’s a call-out for that day, which happens very often, it will appear in real time in the engineer’s diary. The engineer can then travel to that job and carry out the work. If they need a part, they communicate easily back with the office – just click to select who to communicate with. Once they hit complete, it lets the office know they need those parts. The engineer can then invoice and it will automatically send off the after-care email asking for a review. It’s all made very engineer friendly and very easy to use. The communication between the office and engineer is instant.”

Would You Recommend Commusoft to Other Tradespeople?

“The way that Commusoft tracks every part of every single job – you will not lose anything – it gives you complete confidence in the whole system. Complete confidence to grow. Complete confidence to push on with your business. There is no way that we could run our business efficiently and effectively, presenting ourselves the way we do with our customers, with our reminders the night before, with our text messages that say ‘we’re on our way’… we just simply could not run our business without Commusoft, it would be impossible.“

Lincoln Smith
Managing 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