As one might imagine, the business of selling and installing fireplaces in Sweden is a competitive one. As a relative newcomer to the field, Värmekoncept and its co-founder, Edward Ernebäck, knew they would have to do two things to pull ahead: deliver best-in-class customer service and keep their operations lean and efficient. They achieved both using Glide.
"Before we started using Glide, we made about $200,000 in revenue total our first year. Today, we're doing around $200,000 a month, all without increasing our admin or planning staff at all."
The problem
Värmekoncept originally managed operations with pen and paper, following SOPs manually. It worked fine when they had one or two customers a week, but as soon as volume increased, problems started piling up. Things fell through the cracks, leading to delays and frustrated customers.
“I started looking for a customer management system, but nothing offered the flexibility we needed,” said Edward. “Then I tried using Bubble, but I quickly realized that building anything usable took way too long. I spent more time fixing design and front-end issues than building actual functionality. I knew there had to be a better way, so I kept searching, and that’s when I discovered Glide. Glide emphasized speed from idea to finished product, and that message resonated with me."
"Within one day, we already had a system that was better and clearer than our old pen-and-paper setup."
The impact
Two years later, what started with a CRM has grown into a full operational system for Värmekoncept. “Our Glide apps are basically our entire customer journey from first lead to installation completion and every step of the way between,” explained Edward. “It's 100 times better than it was before.”
"Glide has really transformed how we run our company."
Värmekoncept’s revenue has increased from $200,000 a year to $200,000 a month since adopting Glide, all while maintaining strong profitability. “We just can continue to scale because all the systems and processes run so extremely smoothly. And all that with no extra headcount, without buying any expensive software licenses. We have no IT at all and no expensive consulting. We do everything in-house, and whatever we need, we can just make. Very quickly.”
It’s also created new opportunities for Edward and his team. “Today, we have the highest customer satisfaction scores among competitors in our market, while still being quite new.” With these tools in hand, they are now expanding into new parts of the country. “Our goal is to 10x from where we are right now in a couple of years. We’ve already done it once using Glide, and I don't see a reason why we couldn't do it again.”
Building Glide apps without hiring engineers
“I built everything myself, which I think is very fun, because I don't have a software engineering background. I don't know how to code. I just learned Glide by doing,” said Edward. He’s been able to ship new apps and improvements in a couple of days, often even in just a few hours.
Whenever we encounter a problem, we ask two simple questions: Can we streamline or automate this in Glide? And if an issue occurred, could we prevent it by adding a feature in Glide that makes this mistake impossible? Most of the time, the answer is yes.”
“We’ve just kept building, optimizing, and improving. As a result, we now have an extremely clear and foolproof customer journey, from first lead to signed customer, containing hundreds of built-in SOPs, powerful automations, data checks and quality controls, and process optimizations at every step.”
Scaling from the first CRM to a full operational system
The first app Edward built was a CRM. “It was basically just like an advanced Excel sheet that we used to keep track of all our customers,” he explained. Now, they have more than twelve different apps that automate various parts of the business, all of which are available on mobile devices while on-site for sales or installations.
Salespeople have an app on their iPads so they can do all the calculations and create offers while on-site during home visits. We have an app that automatically generates quotes for customers that they can sign from home. When a customer buys, the app automatically generates a to-do list for sending invoices, initiating the permit process, and verifying that all necessary parts are in place, allowing them to delegate to the right installer.
Installers have an app that allows them to listen to recordings from salespeople explaining the installation and view images and descriptions on their phones while en route to the installation. Warehouse workers have another app, used to track warehouse operations and provide visibility into what materials are in stock, allowing the company to identify which customers are ready to start the planning process based on real-time inventory levels.
"Previously, checking on and ordering all the parts of a specific project took at least two hours per customer. Now it’s maybe 10 minutes, maximum."
"With our Glide software, we’ve automated the entire process, so it's just one click and everything is done. All the different departments just see what they need to see, and when they have done something, it automatically delegates to the next department without the need for excessive meetings or internal communication,” explained Edward.
Breaking down Värmekoncept’s operational Glide apps in detail
Edward walked us through the twelve core Glide apps that run operations Värmekoncept:
1. Lead Capture and CRM
When a lead fills in a form on our website, it’s automatically sent via API straight into our Glide CRM. The assigned salesperson receives an instant notification so they can call the lead right away.
In the CRM, we see:
- Full customer info
- The ad campaign and platform (Meta or Google) that generated the lead
- Which ad they interacted with and what message caught their attention
This gives the salesperson all the context needed for a highly professional and personalized first call. When we call the lead, we instantly know what resonated with them, enabling a targeted and relevant conversation without digging through multiple systems.
"The lead data flows directly from our website into Glide, so our reps can contact customers within seconds with full context about which ad they saw and what motivated them to reach out."
2. Sales Rep Notes & Memos
Sales reps can also add unlimited notes or record short voice memos directly on the customer card. This makes follow-ups faster and ensures that nothing gets lost between calls.
"Instead of guessing why someone clicked our ad, Glide tells us. That insight makes every conversation sharper and more human."
3. Automated SMS Communication
Every time a salesperson marks a call attempt, Glide automatically sends an SMS to the customer. The message adapts depending on how many times we’ve tried to reach them. This ensures no lead ever falls through the cracks, and every customer gets a consistent, polished experience.
4. Meeting Booking Integration
When the salesperson books a meeting, Glide automatically sends all customer data to YouCanBookMe via API. That creates the booking confirmation, sends email and SMS reminders, and allows the customer to reschedule if needed. Any changes made by the customer are instantly synced back to the salesperson’s CRM view, ensuring nothing is missed.
5. On-Site Visits and Offer Generation
During the home visit, the salesperson enters project details directly into Glide. The system instantly calculates prices and generates a comprehensive, interactive offer and contract, customized for the customer. This replaced a 45-minute manual process. Now it takes 5 minutes, saving ~40 minutes per customer, or 33 hours per month across the team.
Customers can sign the agreement on-site or remotely through a secure link using Glide’s signature function. For those who don’t sign immediately, a professional follow-up sequence with branded customized PDF offers is automatically generated via DocsAutomator integration.
Impact:
- Offer creation: 45 min to 5 min
- Sales hit rate: +300% since implementation
- Signature & CRM software cost savings: ~$2,400 per year
6. Data Tracking and Ad Optimization
Every lead includes a unique click ID from Meta or Google. This allows us to report back offline conversions directly from Glide, such as when a lead becomes a meeting or a sale. Before, we optimized ads for form submissions only, which attracted poor-quality leads. Now we optimize for quality meetings and actual sales, which has dramatically improved results.
Impact:
- Hit rate: from 5% to 33%
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC): reduced by ~75%
"Glide gave us full-loop visibility. We stopped optimizing for clicks and started optimizing for real sales."
7. Post-Sale Automation
When a deal is signed, Glide automatically creates a customer in our project system and assigns tasks to different staff:
- Finance: send the first invoice
- Administration: submit documentation to the municipality
- Project Manager: review the order and order from suppliers
Material orders are created automatically using pre-written email templates that add the actual parts from the quote that are sent to all relevant suppliers.
Impact:
- Project planning time: 2h to 10 min
- Weekly capacity: from 3 installations/week to 4 per day
"Without Glide, we could handle three installations a week while still feeling stressed. Now we easily do four a day with the same team and a feeling of control."
8. Building Permit Process
We handle around 50 active building permit cases at once, with just one administrator. Glide manages every step automatically based on each customer’s stage in the process.
Example flow:
- When a sale is registered, Glide assigns a task to request drawings from the municipal archive.
- Once drawings are received, a new task is generated for the salesperson to sketch the installation.
- That triggers another task for the administrator to finalize drawings and submit the building application.
Each municipality in Sweden has different permitting routines. Glide automatically detects the customer’s municipality and displays the correct SOP, contact information, and links. This replaces hours of manual lookup for each project.
"Every Swedish municipality has its own building permit routine. Glide shows our admin the exact steps and links for that specific municipality, fully automated."
9. Logistics and Warehouse Coordination
All material orders are logged in the system and sent to our Warehouse App. Warehouses can mark received goods directly in Glide, or via their own system integrated through API. Once an item is marked as received:
- A task is assigned to the Project Manager to schedule the installation.
- They can assign installers, view all open calendar slots, and confirm dates with the customer.
- Deliveries are auto-scheduled to arrive at the customer's home a few days before installation.
- A chimney sweep inspection is booked automatically right after the installation.
Impact:
- Time saved: ~25 hours/month in coordination.
10. Installer Tools and Quality Control
Installers see all their projects in their Glide view:
- Job details
- Images
- Audio recordings from the salesperson describing the project
- Checklists for safety and completion
They can upload photos after installation and record material deviations (used more or less than planned).
This automatically updates:
- Inventory balance
- Customer cost records
"Our installers get everything they need in one place: photos, instructions, even audio notes from sales. It’s like having the project manager in the passenger seat."
11. Finance App and Expense Tracking
All expenses throughout the project (materials, local purchases, inspections) are uploaded via our Finance App in Glide. We take a photo of the receipt, select the customer, and it’s automatically synced to our accounting system and linked to the project.
12. ROT Tax Automation (Swedish Tax Credit)
The final step is applying for the ROT tax deduction. Previously, it took 2 hours per customer to gather documents and enter data manually into the Tax Agency portal. Now, Glide automatically generates XML files containing all relevant data, including materials, labor, mileage, and more. We upload them with a single click, and payment is processed instantly.
Impact:
- Time saved: 2h to 5 minutes per customer.