- ZenFire
How Controlled Fire Services Automated Inspections Using ZenFire
Listen to Danny and Kesha Pedersen discuss their business challenges and how ZenFire emerged to become the saviour they sought.
COMPANY
Controlled Fire Services
Industry
Fire Protection & Safety
Years Active
8+
Team Size
25 - 30
Location
Kimberly, Canada
01
Early Business Story
Controlled Fire Services, when started, didn’t have grand plans of being the best in the fire safety world. Danny and Kesha Pederson, the owners, just wanted to ensure that all local businesses in Kimberly, Canada, were safe and sound. With every inspection they conducted, they just had one goal: to make sure the business owners and organizations in their area had peace of mind with respect to sudden and unwanted fire mishaps.
But gradually, with growth, came challenges that became hard to ignore.
Our process for preparing reports, quoting, and invoicing was just too slow. We were growing fast, but the office work became a bottleneck
02
Challenges Faced
Soon, the word spread about their business. The small hands-on company that prioritized every customer started to feel drowned in paperwork and time-consuming manual processes. Be it any document, you name it — reports, quotes, and invoices — everything kept piling up. It started becoming increasingly difficult to focus on the more important things, like taking up more jobs, upskilling their technicians, or even building relationships with the customers.
Danny and Kesha were stuck behind computer screens all day long, glued to their desks to finish off last day’s batch of paperwork, just barely keeping up with things so they don’t spiral out of control.
Their business wasn’t just busy. It was visibly chaotic.
Pain Points
- Reports and invoices took too long to complete
- Growth became a burden as more clients meant more paperwork
- Instead of leading and bettering themselves, the team was buried behind computers.
We were spending too much time in the office instead of being out in the field, training new hires, or building customer relationships. It felt like we were drowning in paperwork. We were stuck behind our computers, just trying to keep things moving. It was overwhelming—like we couldn’t catch up.
03
The Hunt For A Solution
Danny and Kesha, even though they were trying to juggle everything as much as possible, knew that they couldn’t go on like this forever. They needed an efficient and time-saving answer to their problem. They needed something that would help them get their time back and get back on the right track.
They looked for software solutions and even previewed a few demos. However, the functionality and benefits they sought were tough to find in a software solution within their budget. Moreover, software solutions with generic workflows didn’t really cater to the problems these local businesses, like Controlled Fire Services, face daily.
During a late-night scroll looking for solutions to their issues, Danny stumbled upon a testimonial of ZenFire. He showed it to Kesha. They felt like the guy in the video talking was somehow reading their minds — the same headaches, the stress, the chaos, and the never-ending burden of paperwork. They contacted ZenFire, and a demo later, they felt like the software was built for them. Considering how it solves their business problems in a swift swipe, the end played out well, with the software being within their budget, too.
We checked out other solutions, watched demos, but for us ZenFire just made more sense. It had all the same features as the competitors, but the pricing was spot on. Plus, the overall experience just felt right for us.
04
Getting Onboarded
For Controlled Fire Services, switching to ZenFire didn’t exactly feel like a walk in the park. For so long, they were used to doing things the hard way — the long and laborious way with zero fancy systems. Just plain grit and exceptionally long hours of slogging in front of their screens.
However, once they started using ZenFire and getting the hang of the software and the valuable features that automated their redundant work, they started seeing the payoffs roll in.
✓ Reports from the field? Check
✓ More time training and getting new clients? Check
✓ Quotes and invoices sent out in days, and not weeks? Big Check!
Yes, sure, the technicians had to get adjusted, too. They might have grumbled about a few extra steps, but seeing the benefits didn’t take long. They saw that there was less forgotten info, fewer mistakes, and way faster turnaround. The onboarding team at ZenFire ensured that they were assisted at every step and explained each feature and workflow to their entire team. Soon, as visible as their chaos was, the benefits of implementing ZenFire were loudly and significantly visible in their processes. Time started freeing up to attend to the customers and lead their technicians better. All redundant and manual processes were automated, and report creation jobs didn’t take more than a minute, helping techs tick it off in the field.
Onboarding with ZenFire freed up so much time. Now that technicians can make reports themselves in the field, I’m able to spend more time leading the team rather than being stuck in the office.
The Payoff
More time in the field
Employees, staff, and business owners spent more time overseeing essential business processes, which meant less time spent behind computer screens.
Before
Business owners and staff spent 4–6 hours/day on admin work
After
Standard quotes sent in under 1 hour
Quick report generation
Report creation — a tedious, redundant process that used to eat up a chunk of time when done manually- was now done in a few seconds in the field itself.
Before
Reports took 2–4 hours to compile manually
After
Reports generated in under 30 seconds from the field
Instant invoices to clients
Invoices that used to take weeks to be sent to the clients were now done in just a few days, enabling speedy payments.
Before
Invoices sent 10–14 days after job completion
After
Invoices sent in 1–2 days, accelerating cash flow
Efficient technician and staff
Technicians with all the resources needed to finish their jobs quickly are at their fingertips.
Before
Technicians spent 30–60 minutes/day tracking info/tools
After
Job details and tools accessed instantly — 0 time wasted
Customer support even at 3 AM
Reliable software support was available, and it solved their problems almost instantaneously.
Before
Support wait time: 6–12 hours, often until next business day
After
Support response time: under 5 minutes, 24/7 — even at odd hours.
Whenever I need a change on a report, it’s done really fast. One time I couldn’t log in, and after emailing support, I was back up and running within an hour. The support team is quick and reliable. If I ever need a change or run into a problem, it gets sorted out fast. The response time is impressive.
06
Where They Stand Now
Controlled Fire Services is no longer focused on running its business productively. They have now expanded as a fully fledged automated company with double the clients and monthly revenue. They are back in control — and now with more time for training and managing technicians, and not to forget, building customer relationships.
ZenFire didn’t just streamline the process for Danny and Kesha; it gave them control of their time back.
Every week, I’d find something new about the program that made me think, ‘This is way better than what we were doing before!’ It keeps surprising me with how much time it saves.
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