About

Humphrey & Crockett is a 13-person home heating specialist based in Andover, covering a wide area across Hampshire, Wiltshire, parts of Berkshire & Oxfordshire and down to the coast. The company has its roots in plumbing, heating and solid fuel, and now runs a full renewables operation with in-house electricians and heat pump installers. The team runs each job end to end, from first visit through to MCS-compliant warranties and handover, with Spruce handling the workflow from survey through to commissioning. Before Spruce, Carl was spending a full day on a single heat loss survey and renewable heating report. He now completes them in under 2-3 hours.

"I think we look the part now. We're able to follow through from an initial visit with a customer through estimate, survey, design, proposal and handover. And we're winning a lot more work." — Carl, Director

The Challenge

A day per survey, a week per job

When Carl joined Humphrey & Crockett, one of his first tasks was learning to do heat losses using a spreadsheet. These spreadsheets had 74 rows of measurements and a column per room. Each value was measured individually with a laser, drawn by hand, and entered row by row. One mistake could be buried in the data and never found. A single survey would take at least a full day, and the reports a further half day.

The heat loss was only the start. Radiator calculations were on separate spreadsheets. Hot water calculations on another. Fuel comparisons on another. For a single property, Carl could end up with dozens of spreadsheets, and then everything had to be manually transferred into Word documents to create a proposal.

"Some days I'd probably have three weeks' worth of enquiries lined up. I could only do a couple a day, and even then I didn't tend to send it off the first time I looked at it. I'd go back and check it."

Competing with national providers

The other challenge was presentation. Carl's proposals were detailed and accurate, but they were built from spreadsheets and Word documents. Customers were often comparing them against quotes from larger companies with branded, smartly designed documents.

Carl suspects they lost work because they could have looked more professional. In a market where customers are already anxious about making the right choice, first impressions carry real weight.

"We do very well, with a great reputation and it was fine, but if there was ever a doubt in somebody's mind about whether we were the right company, we probably didn't get those projects. We were probably being beaten by someone who looked more professional."

The Solution

The team tried other software tools before Spruce. These were a good step up from spreadsheets, but none of the tools felt like they were built for Carl’s workflow. The speed of heat loss calculations improved a bit, but doing the rest of his admin, like MCS paperwork, still meant moving values manually across dozens of documents.

With Spruce, the whole process connects. One team member meets customers and starts projects in minutes. Carl picks up the survey and design work. Another person handles MCS documentation. And all three are collaborating at the same time on Spruce.

One of the things Carl likes the most is how nothing is left to chance on Spruce. There are green ticks on elements that meet MCS standards, with clear indicators where something needs attention. Carl can show the homeowner exactly how setting the flow temperature will impact running costs and which emitters need to be replaced. The conversation moves from "trust us" to "here's the evidence and the numbers allowing us to help you make good decisions.”

"People seem to like the fact that when something is done to an MCS standard, it has a green tick. They can see what's been considered. They can understand that there are elements we might want to look at again for efficiency."

The Results

Key outcomes:

• Increased survey speed: Full day → 2-3 hours

• Faster quote turnaround time: Two weeks → 2-3 days

• Higher proposal quality: Professional, branded output that matches larger competitors

Because Carl is spending less time on each survey and design, he has time to do something that previously got squeezed out: follow up with customers and advise properly. Before Spruce, enquiries would stack up for weeks while he worked through the backlog. Now the team responds within days, and Carl has time to pick up the phone to walk customers through their estimates - a personal touch that often helps them win the job and design for efficiency.

That follow-up matters for a company built on reputation. Humphrey & Crockett works almost entirely through word of mouth, serving rural properties where long term savings, trust and local knowledge count for more than a national brand. Being able to present work that looks as thorough as it is, and to respond before the customer has moved on, has changed how they compete.

"Spruce is saving me so much time that I actually have time to engage more with customers now. I get time to follow up with them, which I never had before."