The Challenge

Goodhart Coffee, founded by savvy entrepreneur Justin Goodhart, is a thriving coffee catering company. It serves eight cities in the United States (and is set to expand).

With mobile coffee carts and a team of professional baristas, they serve at all kinds of events, from schools and churches to corporate events, large and small.

Goodhart Coffee employs four full-time staff plus event planners and operations staff. Their 40-plus baristas are all subcontractors.

The company boasts an impressive 5-star rating on Google and is quickly growing, serving up to 100 events every week.

Here’s a quick rundown of the problems:

• In 2020, Justin was receiving between 20 and 50 quote requests per day.

• He had to manually create these quotes in PDF format and email them back to the customer.

• Handling the quotes and bookings was a full-time job in itself.

• Trying to beat his competition for bookings created a lot of stress.

• The company was losing time and money manually quoting for jobs.

• They were even occasionally overbooking themselves.

• This caused customer disappointment and looked unprofessional.

Additionally, Goodhart needed to keep track of travel costs and contractors' hours, while finding a way to automatically delimit their service areas to control costs.

Justin Goodhart, Director at Goodhart Coffee, knew he needed to find a way to automate and streamline processes. He began searching for online software that could help him achieve those goals.

I just needed a booking and quote form that was usable. One that was powerful, had Zapier integrations, and visual customizations. I needed a form that I could embed into my website, one that would look really good and have amazing functionality. And Convert_ was it.

Justin spent weeks researching solutions on Google. He signed up and tried every possible form builder he could find, including Convert_.

"Convert_ just rose to the top because of its features, usability, and speed. You can build very complex forms, whereas on other systems, it's just so slow and so laggy. The calculation engine of Convert_ is super fast."

Goodhart’s New Setup

Justin uses Convert_ forms and calculators across multiple business processes. On the front end, Justin has fully automated quoting and booking, while organizing and streamlining operations, inventory, product management, and staff on the back end.

I'm delighted by the functionality and power of it, along with the simplicity.

Goodhart's powerful website booking and calculator form looks simple and inviting...

The setup takes advantage of Convert_’s  Google Places function, with autocomplete address fields to eradicate input errors...

Here's what's so cool: you can build a completely self-service platform for your customers with Convert_. I can have a new lead come in, which can convert to a booking on autopilot — from start to finish.

How the setup works

After a customer submits an instant price quote on the Goodhart website, a few things happen automatically.

• Their data is sent to the CRM, so the sales team can connect with them.

• They get an email containing a PDF version of the quote.

• They get an instant text message.

Then, if needed, the recipient can get budget approval.

Convert_'s query parameter function is amazingly powerful. I take all the data from the initial form submission using query parameters to track conversions with Google Ads.

Using Zapier integration, Justin can create a custom booking button in the automated response email sent to each inquirer.

When the customer is ready, they hit the “Book Now” button, which brings them to their prepopulated booking form. They can then complete their booking with confidence, knowing all their information is recorded correctly.

The booking form (also created in Convert_) connects to invoicing, their calendar, Stripe, and email to send confirmations. It then sends all that data into the Goodhart Coffee database.

It's just the only form builder I use, and I use it in every single part of my business, both customer-facing and with internal tools. I also used it to build a huge number of bespoke internal tools that are extremely powerful.

Automating Internal Processes

Goodhart can automate internal processes across the business using Convert_. They don’t have to pay developers to build and maintain systems, and they can create automation workflows in a fraction of the time.

If I had technical skills and could build all these internal automations for myself, I feel like it would take me weeks (if not months), whereas I can get it functional in days or less with Convert_. And that's just remarkable.

Calculating travel time and costs

The Google Places API feature allows for real-time travel time and distance calculations. These calculations are then used to automatically calculate travel costs and charges, as well as to assign staff and resources.

Our service areas can be up to 150 miles. We will travel a long way, but the only reason I feel comfortable doing that is that I know I can get the exact mileage using Convert_'s Google Places API and get a good estimate of driving time. So I can pass all that cost on to customers, who see the instant quote with travel included.

Demand-based pricing

Demand-based pricing is something Justin has recently been able to automate using Convert_. As fewer and fewer coffee carts become available, their prices rise. During slower periods, their rates remain competitive.

To me, demand-based pricing is like the holy grail; together with real-time availability booking, it's crazy powerful.

Staff systems

After each event, Goodhart subcontractors submit a report. The company uses it to calculate mileage and travel charges, wages, bonuses, and to keep track of any equipment used on the job.

After the report has been submitted, the subcontractor receives a return email detailing exactly how much they have earned for that event.

Inventory and product calculations

Justin uses Convert_ for almost every part of his business, including inventory and product calculations. With high staff numbers and locations, keeping track of inventory is essential.

Wherever an event takes place, and however many staff are involved in it, Goodhart's system has automated the necessary processes.

Sharing software with coffee catering businesses

As it's such a niche industry, Justin is aware that options are limited for coffee catering businesses. He has decided to package and sell his bespoke software solution to other companies like his.

Called 'Flash Quotes,' his software is specifically designed for coffee caterers to streamline their business and enable them to offer their customers a convenient, consistent, and trustworthy service.

None of this would be possible if it weren't for Convert_, you know. We can really customize it to make life super, super easy for coffee caterers.

Goodhart's results have been astounding

Goodhart Coffee is in it for the long haul with Convert_. After Justin put in the legwork to set up the software to the quality and consistency he wanted, he then spent two years refining and adding new systems and tools.

Now, everything is on autopilot, and the results have been spectacular.

• Bookings doubled within the first year of implementing Convert_ (from 2021 to 2022).

• Quotes and bookings are fully automated, so Justin no longer has to spend time manually doing them.

• Achieved consistency and reliability across every location, no longer relying on multiple systems or staff to manage administrative details.

• Real-time cart availability means overbooking is no longer possible.

• Demand-based pricing enables them to maximize profits while staying competitive.

• Automation of backend staffing systems has eliminated errors, reduced stress, and increased efficiency.

• Quick response times and professional service build a strong customer base and a lot of repeat business.

• By reducing errors and manual labor, Goodhart can scale while maintaining a professional brand image and the highest service standards for customers.

In Conclusion...

Justin discovered that if you don't take advantage of instant quoting, especially in the service industry, you struggle and get left behind. You're going to lose quotes. You'll lose business to competitors.

The good news is that automating your quoting and booking process is possible.

Get more information on setting up your instant quoting and booking system with Convert_.

It's just a pleasure to use - both when you're completely new and more experienced. I now consider myself to be a power user, and I'm still impressed by the usability.

Justin Goodhart, Founder Goodhart Coffee.