I use magicplan, and nothing else! | Éco-Courtier Construction

Éco-Courtier (in English: Eco-Broker) is an innovative, network-based construction broker company in France that is focused on heritage enhancement and sustainable development in the housing market. I recently spoke with Sébastian Paumier, the company’s founder, to learn why and how his construction experts use magicplan.

What types of things do your customers want to change or add to their houses when they come to you?

The first one is energy savings in their current homes. They want to know if we can make their homes more eco-friendly – and we often can by doing work on the structure’s roof, under the walls and in the ventilation. And in France, the government gives you money when you improve one of these areas.

Customers who are building new houses also want to know what is feasible, to see if we can do something to make their new homes more eco-friendly during the planning phase.

In your opinion, what is the best thing about using magicplan?

The user experience. It’s simple to use, because everything you need is in one software. Creating floor plans is easier, and the customer can understand it easily.

Also, we can do everything faster. Before magicplan, we needed one day to create a plan with a pen and paper and then sketch it with another software program. Now, with magicplan, we can do everything in three hours, maximum.

How do you and your experts use magicplan to work on a home-renovation project?

In the first meeting with a customer, we do a tour of the house and just listen to what they want, while we use

magicplan to capture photos and define the project. We also ask questions, such as: "How many times per week are you in the shower?" "Do you prefer 19 degrees or 21?" That process takes maybe 10 or 15 minutes, and after that we give our recommendations to the customer and they help us do the plan. Our psychological approach is that we are not helping them, we are working with them.

When we complete the plan and specifications for the project, we have our engineer check everything. Once all the specifications are approved, we print a report from magicplan and add it to our contract.

Then we go back to present it while doing one last tour of the house. If the customer says they want to change things, we take pictures, we ask exactly what they want, and we use magicplan to put their demands in the comments. Afterward, we give an updated report to the customer, and it will have their demands included at the end. However, we do not share a copy of the project plan. That way, the customer can't take the plan to a competing company.

How did you actually learn about magicplan?

When we began our business, we worked with a software program on Windows. But after a while, we realized that solution was not always working correctly with different Windows versions. That’s when we decided to move away from Windows, so, we looked at 12 different software solutions, and we compared those with different mobile devices. Ultimately, we chose magicplan, and we started using it with the Samsung Galaxy tablet. That seemed to be a good solution that was not too expensive.

Why did you end up choosing magicplan?

The first thing, honestly, was the price. It was a very good price. Also, Eco Courtier is a franchise company. And in my first meeting with some franchise candidates, I showed magicplan to them and they were impressed. They could see that all of the magicplan tools are very good tools that will make them look professional when meeting with customers.

Find out more about magicplan's affordable pricing here.
And if you are interested in an individual quote, we offer free, no-obligation consultations tailored to your business.

Does your company use the magicplan cloud service as well?

Yes, because our engineer can use that to connect to our plans and check everything – all the technical details that are captured with magicplan. It's great.

Can you tell us more about how magicplan saves time?

When I go to see a customer, I say just one thing: "I use magicplan, and nothing else. Why? Because if I start to work with other industry-known software, I will spend hours and hours and hours working. I can do that if you want, but it's more expensive. What do you prefer?" They always say, "I prefer the smaller price." So it's perfect.

Besides saving you time, how else does magicplan help you?

It saves us money. Also, the magicplan library is very helpful for adding objects, such as electrical components, into our plans.

If you had to describe magicplan in one word, what would it be?

Easy.

Thank you so much, Sébastian of Éco-Courtier!

You can also check out why magicplan has become an invaluable tool for sketching and estimating on site for Crown Restoration.

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