Founder of FINTRANO app, Iain Row is set to launch a smart calendar system aiming to bring “effortless professionalism” to local tradespeople.
If you've ever waited in all day for an engineer to come to your house, you'll know the frustration it can cause. The feeling that you could have been doing something more useful with your time, if only you'd known if they were on their way.
Iain, who runs Prominent Media, a local software company, found himself in a predicament when his hot water pipe sprang a leak two hours before friends were due, and the emergency plumber was nowhere to be seen. Unlike the rest of us, however, Iain was able to put some serious resources into solving the problem.
FINTRANO is a break down for Find,Track,Notify. It is used by both tradespeople and customers in order to make appointments and schedules more manageable, and therefore, more efficient.
"I called the emergency call centre twice before the plumber arrived, as I needed to know when they would arrive. It was clear that the call centre didn’t actually know where their plumber was, and it occurred to me that we could build some software to solve this problem.”- Row
After asking around, Iain discovered was that for most people, they were happy with the work their tradespeople did. The big problem was the lack of communication once a job was booked in. And actually, tradespeople had similar stories, of turning up at a house to discover that the person had forgotten the appointment. “I figured I could solve all of these problems with a system that took the pain out of communicating effectively." – Row
And so FINTRANO was born. When a tradesperson adds a job to Fintrano, their customer receives an instant confirmation by text and email. The day before, Fintrano sends an automatic reminder. And when the tradesperson is on their way, they press a button in the app, and the customer gets a text with a live location link.
"We have built similar systems for much larger companies, so the great thing about this is that we get to apply all of that expertise in a package that is much more cost-effective for small businesses. We build and support one system, and our customers get it at a cost they can afford."
Over the coming weeks, Fintrano will launch a Beta version for testing with local companies. Once any bugs are ironed out, the full launch will take place mid-2024.
For more information, visit fintrano.com.
