Bluepoppy

Bluepoppy is a successful independent car and van leasing and finance specialist, established in 2003, who utilise QV Systems’ Accelerate Platform for the running and enhancement of their business. We spoke to Founder Paul Watts-Barnes about his experience of choosing and implementing the system, and how it has assisted business growth to date. QV also spoke with Sales Administrator Gemma, to see how she finds using the system day-to-day.

Paul Watts-Barnes is one of the original Founders of Bluepoppy. Paul has spent the 34 years in the motor industry, undertaking roles from a Mechanic to Paint Sprayer, Salesman, General Manager, and Regional Director.

Having worked for both the dealer and manufacturer, Paul has a vast knowledge of the motor industry. This meant that when he was searching for a system for his own vehicle leasing business, the requirements were simple: to hold the prospect and customer information in one safe and secure location, that could be accessed and edited by multiple team members. The solution, however, was not that obvious.

Bluepoppy initially began using spreadsheets and paper-based documentation, before scrapping this in favour of a more streamlined solution. Paul began asking other brokers for their suggestions, and QV Systems’ name was put forward.

We asked Paul how he settled on QV Systems as Bluepoppy’s platform of choice, and where he looks to take the business in the future:

“When considering QV Systems’ Accelerate Platform, straightaway, we felt that the language and layout was right for us.

To begin with, we did have our reservations. The long-term viability of a business like QV was unknown to us at the time, and we were concerned that this would be another example of developers ramping up the cost once they have you as a customer. The self-service nature of the platform has since mitigated those concerns, and we have found that the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) side of the platform impressive, particularly as you can easily personalise the system to suit your business processes.

Without the system, we wouldn’t have been able to automate and simplify our systems as we have done, and therefore, would not be able to economically manage the volume of sales that we have. Whereas it would have taken us 3 hours to process a short-term vehicle contract, we can now do this in three minutes!

The QV team are very professional and always respond quickly. We are working on improving how close we are as businesses, to further Bluepoppy’s tailored use of the system.

Overall, QV’s Accelerate platform is an adaptive and evolving system that is helping us to achieve the future we want for our business. QV has proved that they are the right partner, and we are pleased to have chosen them.” 

As a Sales Administrator, Gemma is directly involved in the day-to-day running of Bluepoppy and uses QV to do so. Having never used a CRM system before joining the business in 2019, we asked Gemma about her experience of utilising QV’s Accelerate platform. How long did it take to get used to the functionality, how easy is the platform to use day to day, and how are Bluepoppy implementing other aspects of Accelerate to further the business?  

“I use the system for everything, from quoting to sending out online prop forms and merging them with customer files to show a vehicle has been delivered. It’s easy to use, and vital for my day-to-day tasks. The tabs make sense and correlate to each other nicely, almost acting as bookmarks to different aspects of customer relationships and provide a great overview.

The ability to merge with Adobe e-sign has made our lives so much easier, and the automation provided by status changes, trigger templates or task settings for account managers ensures nothing is ever missed.

Bluepoppy has a large customer base and Accelerate has been essential to managing them. Their reporting metrics have massively decreased the time it takes to produce reports, as we now use status updates to get an overview view of projected numbers for the month. By removing this manual aspect, we can see orders or quotes much more specifically, which helps when creating targets.  

In general, Accelerate has given us a lot more accuracy in orders and it’s much easier to spot human errors. We now use a dealer order form where we match OTR pricing with funders, the dealer must then approve this to ensure we order the correct car.

We’re always looking into how we use the system more effectively, and QV allows us to do this as the platform is easily customisable to your business. We are currently developing our own processes to fit alongside QV’s. We have plans to use e-signatures for all aspects of the business and use status to automate responses.

Overall, the functionality of QV is a dream. It’s easy to use and understand. The QV team are easy to work with and are always helping with fixing problems or explaining how to use the system correctly. QV and Accelerate are integral to our business, and we’re looking forward to developing our relationship and functionality further.”