Founder & CEO Trevor Bouchard began Quick Contractors 12 years ago as a college student and house painter. During that time, he helped develop a website that organized appointments for other contractors, and ultimately found he was getting a lot more work doing that. Bouchard saw an opportunity to capitalize on his niche and decided to start his own business. With the help of one initial employee, the company quickly grew to become one of Canada’s largest networks of independent contractors, employing 90 staff members and creating upwards of 3000 jobs.

Today, Quick Contractors handles contractor bookings for product installations at the majority of Canada’s big box retailers, including Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Rona, Lowes and Ikea. Now, with $30 million a year in sales, the business relies heavily on technology, which is where Square comes in as a valuable partner.

Anyone who has ever hired a contractor knows that things don’t always go according to plan. For Quick Contractors, that means there is often a need to collect additional charges from clients in the home. Traditionally, the method had been to go through a call centre for credit card approvals, a long and sometimes arduous process, or alternatively, an antiquated procedure which involved writing a credit card number on a tri-copy invoice and mailing it to head office. To make matters worse, under the old methods, payments were not always guaranteed, as transactions sometimes failed. With the help of Square however, the payment process has come a long way to bridge that gap.

Now contractors can simply swipe credit cards with the magstripe reader, tap debit cards, or insert or tap credit cards using the Square Contactless and Chip Reader to complete transactions on the spot. That saves an average 10-20 minutes per customer compared to the old phone system, and that in itself has proven to be significantly valuable for workers in the field. It has also been extremely beneficial for the company. “This shift from having to involve our internal support team in the collections process has helped us save over 13% and enabled us to reallocate internal headcount to more value-add functions.”

Efficiency of time and money is important for any business, and in dealing with things like inventory management and the costs associated with devices for each individual contractor, Bouchard knew there had to be a better way. So, he did his research and found that compared to other platforms and hardware solutions, Square was the most cost-efficient for managing the 3000- plus contractors associated with Quick Contractors. “It was just more economical for us to go with the Square model as there was no cost upfront.” And with seven figures worth of revenue coming through Square in a year, Bouchard estimates that Quick Contractors is saving an amount roughly equal to 2 or 3 full-time salaries in transaction fees. That’s not to mention all of the extra jobs we can complete in a day because the contractors aren’t spending as much time in the home.”

Quick Contractors has been using Square for over five years, and in that time, Bouchard has been impressed with how reliably and consistently the platform has updated to grow with the business. Having a remarkable capacity for customization, Square’s nimble application-programming interface allows for quick solutions in keeping up with the changing needs of both customers and contractors. One key innovation that stands out is the auto-login capability which ensures all payments are going directly through Quick Contractors, avoiding confusion with other contractors’ accounts. In addition, the app ensures that each field worker receives his or her profit from individual sales. The simplicity of Square keeps things moving smoothly for contractors, which means they are taking up less of the customers’ time, and ultimately helps to improve the overall customer experience.

For Bouchard, Square has allowed him much more visibility in managing staff and individual sales, and in the end, that means better customer relations. Using Square, he can easily access the customer directory and address feedback around transactions where they may not be happy with charges. “It’s been an amazing sales tracking tool for us and definitely saves us in cost on the reconciliation side.”

The company keeps a record of all invoices on Square and uses the invoice feature to generate receipts for customers so that all parties can see clearly.

For workers in the field, Square is a life saver; steadily evolving with technology to make any preferred method of payment easy and accessible for all customers. In particular, the options to tap for debit or swipe for credit have proven to be valuable functions that customers gravitate towards, and Bouchard believes it’s down to the great job Square has done of making customers aware of it. It is that continued evolution and sustainability of Square that matches Quick Contractors’ definition of success — a company that describes itself as a disruptor of industry, and of the space in which it works. “Square has been a tool that’s enabled us to achieve those goals and kind of stay ahead of the curve from a competitors’ perspective.”

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