RPH
What is an RPH?
From a business perspective, an RPH (Reported Pothole) is like a lite version of a lead.
Earlier, every time that the company went out and found a pothole, the account managers could create a Lead for it but not capture the follow-up events such as: Did it become a sale or not? Is anyone interested in having us fix it? This process created a lot of duplicates and didn't allow the company to track the sales evolution.
As a result, we decided to differentiate and create a sales process that fit our needs- to track every opportunity over time and connect seamlessly with our customers.
An RPH is a reported pothole that exists right now at a site and forms the initial step in our process. We know where the pothole is but we don't know whether it will turn into a Lead or not. Every reported pothole is recorded in our system whether it is a Lead or an Account.
What is the difference between a Lead and an Account?
Leads and Accounts share a lot of information but the major difference is whether we have done business with the customer or not. When a Lead has a quote and the quote becomes a sale, the Lead automatically becomes an Account.
How is it generated and when?
There are several different ways in which RPHs can be created.
- Through external marketing companies: With the help of their database and marketing campaigns, we can reach more people interested in hiring our services.
The external marketing company will use an external portal to create an RPH or Lead every time they get an answer from a potential customer. This action will generate the correspondent record in our system with their footprint and stamps, so we can know the RPH/ Lead proceeds from their database(*).
- Through manual entry: This happens, for instance, when a customer calls us, sends an email, visits our website, etc. Typically, these situations require the RPH to be manually generated.
- Through mobile applications: By far, our mobile applications create the largest amount of records in the system. We hire independent contractors, assign them a territory, and give them a license. This way they are literally paid to go out, visit every parking lot they can find, and report the potholes in the mobile application. These records can be found in the system with the “pothole hunter” label.
(*) It is important for us to know when we get a contact from an independent contractor so they can get paid and credited for it. In some cases, they might also get a response from a past customer where they follow the same process and earn the same pay and credit.
RPH creation through mobile application
There are two different mobile applications to create an RPH:
- Lead Generator used by “Hunters”: Hunters are temporary independent contractors that generate RPHs. As explained earlier, they "hunt" potholes.
- Proposal Maker used by “Surveyors”: Surveyors are full-time employees who visit and inspect sites that have requested a quote.
Both mobile applications allow the user to easily send the RPH information to the system by following a simple process. The Data Analysis Team processes the information and analyzes the likelihood of an RPH to successfully become an opportunity.
The Hunters and Surveyors must complete/upload at least the following information:
- A photo of the reported pothole
- A leasing picture (a reference place to geolocate the pothole)
- Complete site information
Once the information is uploaded, they need to validate the address. The system triggers a whole validation process of the site database, searching for any existing account with the same address/ location, through an integration with Google Maps with geolocation.
If the site already exists in the database, then the system will inform the user about it and automatically link to that existing Lead or Account. As the user finalizes the process of RPH creation, the Data Analysis team will also need to validate it.
If the site does not exist, then the RPH is created without a linked site, which may be added afterward based on the results of the analysis performed by the Data Analysis Team. This event can be easily identified on the screen with the icon "
".
Manual RPH creation (through CRM)
In the scenario where a customer directly contacts us or requests for a pothole repair, the CRM allows us to manually create an RPH through a quick process. To manually create an RPH, the user needs to press the " 
" icon on the top right corner of the menu section.
This option shows a form with the following sections:
General information
- RPH status (Mandatory)
- Owner (Mandatory)
- Assign to
- Company/Site (Mandatory)
- Property Type (Mandatory)
- RPH Source (Mandatory)
- Site Source (Mandatory)
- Region (Mandatory)
- Where Obtained
- Next Follow up
- Upload Damage Images
Contact Information (See contacts)
- First Name
- Last Name
- Direct
- Mobile
Address Information
- State (Mandatory)
- City (Mandatory)
- Street (Mandatory)
Damage Info
- Damage Info (Mandatory)
Once completed, all the information is logged in the system database, no matter the source of the RPH. This action automatically triggers an email to the assigned user, with two possible results:
- If the site exists, the user needs to verify if the location is correctly linked to the site.
- If the site does not exist, then the user will analyze it and verify its potential.
This is what we call "Detective Work" and it is explained in the next section
What happens once an RPH is created?
After creation, an RPH can have several outcomes: - RPH becomes a sale and we “close it as won”. - The RPH does not become a sale but is closed if (a) the decision-maker cannot be reached, (b) lack of interest, or (c) the Account Manager makes a judgment call.
That is why the system provides the possibility to apply different kinds of statuses to every RPH and Lead, in order to illustrate the level of progress for the sale process.
Every time an RPH is created, by default, the system categorizes it under the “raw” status. At this point, what we call the “detective work” begins. The detective work is the process that will take RPH records through the different statuses.
So what does detective work mean?
Like we explained before, the largest amount of RPHs recorded in the system comes from the mobile apps. But how do we know that every RPH generated is a good one and can turn into a Lead? Well, the job doesn’t end there.
We agree that an RPH is a pothole that exists right now at a specific site. In order to create an opportunity, however, first we need to have contact with a person. This is where the detective work starts. It is the research process by which we determine the contact details of whoever is responsible for the property where the pothole is located. This is how we get to start a conversation with the people to have us fix their potholes.
Statuses: The pathways of an RPH
There is a special team of Data Analysts that is responsible for checking every RPH recorded in the system and doing the detective work.
The first thing they check is that every record qualifies with the conditions we have for a pothole to be valid. These conditions include size, scope, location and property type. The Data Analysts also provide the contact information for an initial property contact.
Then they prioritize these RPHs. Is this customer a tier 1 Lead or a tier 2? And finally they will try to answer questions like, Does it already exist in the system or do we need to do more detective work on it? Is it a duplicate record? Has a hunter tried to upload the same pothole twice to get easy money?
During the detective work and the following sales representative work, there are several statuses and steps that an RPH can go through. Each of these statuses represent a stepway that the RPH takes from being created to its end.
Nevertheless, all come to the following crossway:
- There is either a chance for a sale
- Or there is not a chance for a sale
Nurture P2: a special status
Another very special status is the Nurture P2.
Strategically, from a business perspective, there are some accounts that are more attractive than others.
For instance, Kimco Realty Co. has literally hundreds and hundreds of shopping centers, so we could do a lot of business with them. And this kind of account usually has an account manager who is responsible for several of these properties.
On the other hand, there are some accounts that still are important for us, but way smaller in comparison to Kimco. This could be a small food chain like “Joe’s Pizza” who only has 2 or 3 branches in town.
So from a marketing point of view, it wouldn’t make sense to put the same level of effort into getting Joe’s Pizza to have us fix their potholes, as calling one of Kimco’s account managers. Because if we get Kimco, we can gain more properties that are going to translate into far more work over a larger period of time than getting Joe.
Nonetheless there are heaps of pizza shops, drugstores and independent small businesses. It doesn’t mean that we don’t want to help Joe’s Pizza. We definitely want to do business with them and they are going to get the same quality service than any other of our clients.
That is why we have created a Nurturing program to attend these kinds of customers.
Let us remember, our clients are graded in T1, T2 and T3.
Kimco for instance is T1, since they have properties from the East Coast to the West Coast.
Joe’s Pizza on the other side is a T2, as they have 2 or 3 properties in town. So when a pothole hunter finds any of the T2 or T3 Leads, the data analysis team has to objectively confirm all the data, figure out who owns it, find an email address and put it into Nurture Status.
From this point, the system itself takes over and it instantly triggers a full email campaign. It sends out a series of emails and according to the response of the Lead, it will then send another email taking them through different pathways until it is either rejected or a quote is requested. Then from this moment a sales representative will take care to carry on with it.
The goal of this program is to nurture our T2 potential clients with quality information, giving them the attention they need without having to invest so many hours in the day.
Note: when the detective work team makes an error assigning nurture status to an RPH, the system sends a notification email (see below). This can happen when the provided email is bounced, due to a bad email address, name, seplling mistake, etc. This is why there is a hidden RPH status of “invalid email” that the system applies. When this happens, it is resolved by providing good and complete data and resetting the RPH to a nurture status.
What information is visible on the User Interface (UI)?
The RPH´s list contains basic information necessary to further develop the contact and possible opportunity.
The information visible from the UI is:
- Mgment Account: parent account of the site (if exists).
- Site: name of the site or account name.
- Location: coordinates of the location, supported by Google Map API .
- Property type: the kind of building/ construction, E.G.: gas station, shopping mall, etc.
- Assigned to: the person responsible of this account.
- Related opportunity: in case it has an RPH assign to it.
- Status: these are useful to quickly see the level of progress of the detective work executed by the Data Analysis Team.
- Next Action follow up: shows which is the next action scheduled .
- Creator: the person who uploaded the RPH.
- Options: a set of buttons that allows the user to access more actions.
How to see the RPH list
To see the list of existing RPHs the user needs to click on “Reports” menu, and select “Reported PH report”
Filters are available to refine the search
The available filters are:
- From date
- To date
- Assigned to
- Status
Once the filter is applied and the list is shown, a dynamic “Search bar” is also available to reduce the results.
What options are available?
The CRM provides all users with approved access a list of RPHs and the available actions to analyze and work with each of them. The column on the far right is where users will find available options. The options available will vary based on factors such as RPH status, if the RPH is associated with an existing account, among many others.
By using the Options panel, the users can:
View damage info
Shows the information related to the pothole, provided by the hunter. Such as site name, location and property type, etc. It also includes a description and comments about the pothole like its size, shape and any supporting information like coordinates and google maps search results.
Send Email 
If the RPH contact has an email address registered, it is possible to send an email directly from the system. The user can choose among a set of templates according to the level of progress in which the RPH is. For further information please check the Emails page.
Move RPH to specific Site
Allows the user to assign the RPH to a specific existing site. This site could be an existing Lead or Account. Is used when the RPH reported needs to be linked to a site already existing in the database in order to avoid the duplication of sites.
The user only needs to click on the button and search for the desired site.
Remove Site relationship
Allows the user to make corrections regarding the site assignment in case the RPH was assigned to an incorrect site. Once the user clicks on the button, the system asks confirmation to remove the relationship between the RPH and the Site
Create new lead 
With this function the RPH is quickly converted into a Lead. The system only validates that the RPH has an assignee/owner. For more information please visit the Lead page.
If the conversion is successful the user will receive an in screen notification
Audio files 
In case the RPH has attached an audio (uploaded usually by the RPH creator), the system allows to play those audio files so that the Data Analysis Team or the Owner can capture more information. Also, using the same function, is possible to upload audio files and attach it to the RPH.
View History 
The system saves a log of all the actions that are done over the time for the selected RPH, allowing the user to see the historical information and keep track from the earliest stage until the end of the RPH process.
View RPH Images
Allows the users to see any image that may have been attached to the RPH for further information.
Add RPH Images
Let the user add more images for reference by selecting a file from the local disk
Change RPH Status
The user can change the status of the RPH according to its progress. Each status have a specific meaning and represents a separate stage in the entire process.
Add Note to RPH
The system allows adding a note about the RPH so that further information can be easily captured.
Set Next AFU Alert
Allows the user to set a new action to follow up RPH conversion. The user can select a date and the system will trigger a notification when the date comes up.
Send Info to another email address
Allows the user to add a different email address and send messages (E-mails) without changing the main one assigned to the RPH.
Assign to 
Allows the users to assign RPHs to specific users depending on the needed action for that RPH.
Create Opportunity 
If the RPH is related to an existing Lead or account, the system allows to quickly create an opportunity from the RPH. The system validates:
- The contact of the Site is correctly uploaded
- There is no other open Opportunity for the selected site. In case there is an opportunity in progress, the system will allow to either close the current opportunity and create a new one, or split the existing one to add this RPH.
If the account related to the RPH is protected, the system will inform and ask the user to decide how to proceed. There are two possible options:
- Create Without Splitting: the user creating the opportunity will not have access to work with the Item since it will be protected by the owner.
- Split With Me:The owner will remain the same, but the opportunity will be managed by the user creating the opportunity.
