Since joining Kojo, Lindsey’s voice has been highly influential in matters concerning our customers. As the VP of Customer Success, it's been a pleasure for her to take on any challenges our customers face and navigate them to the solutions best suited to their needs.

She ensures our Customer Success team operates similarly and has ensured we deliver the best customer experience possible for every contractor, no matter the trade.

Undoubtedly, her many years of experience in construction have helped her succeed in this role. We recently spoke with Lindsey about that experience, where she sees the industry headed, and how Kojo can help prepare trade contractors to take on today's and tomorrow's challenges.

Tell Us About Your Industry Experience

While many of our folks at Kojo have worked directly for trade contractors in the past, Lindsey brought experience from a different side of the industry.

‍“I spent about 15 years in the construction industry. Seven of those years came as a civil engineer for mostly public infrastructure projects. Another 8 of those years came from working on supply chain projects for large utility companies. That included work on electrical power grid infrastructure improvements, regular maintenance, and really anything in electrical utilities. In addition, I was responsible for what oil and gas companies were buying all the way through their supply chain. So, services, materials, really everything.”

Lindesy’s experience working with owners, not necessarily subcontractors, has helped her see the big picture of a construction project and all the details that make it successful.

That high-level view is something she’s eager to share with our team and our customers all the time.

‍What Were The Most Common Pain Points In Those Roles?

Despite working on a different side of the industry, she encountered many of the same routine frustrations as those working on the trade contractor side.

“As a more junior engineer, my job was to consolidate spreadsheets and pull data. Doing a lot of typing up of data that was hand-written or typed into a file. Sealed bids were literally sealed envelopes where you had to pull our a paper and get that information into the computer.” 

“This was before there were as many online RFQ, online bidding platforms as we have today, so that was certainly a technology challenge that I remember facing.”

Automating tedious tasks like this is one of the areas Lindsey sees the industry changing. 

What Are Some Current Trends You’re Seeing In Construction?

In her decade-plus years of working in constriction and/or construction tech, there are two main trends she’s spotted.

Continued Uptick Digital Transformation 

"One major trend is the ongoing digital transformation in the industry. With drawings, specifications, and other project documents now fully electronic, the potential for errors caused by manual duplication is significantly reduced. This shift is streamlining processes and improving accuracy across the board."

"For larger trade contractors is also becoming commonplace to bring in talent from other industries that have been through the digital transformation process. These people know the challenges of making that switch and can help those from the office and field develop a more tech-forward way of doing things.” 

Supply Chain Knowledge Becoming More Valuable

“Another noteworthy trend is the focus on supply chain reliability. Challenges such as material shortages and uncertainty around lead times have become more prominent. In construction, time is money, and delays in getting materials on-site can lead to costly downtime, with laborers unable to install equipment as planned."

"Having clear visibility into supply timelines is more critical than ever. Knowing when materials and equipment will arrive allows contractors to allocate labor efficiently, maintain momentum on projects, and seamlessly transition to the next phase of work.”‍

What’s Your Advice To Trade Contractors Overcoming Common Industry Hurdles? 

‍As the VP of Customer Success, Lyndsey had a lot to say when giving advice to trade contractors who wanted to improve. We distilled that advice into two main categories.‍

Embrace Workflow Changes

"My advice is to embrace change and be open to adapting your business practices. Technology has the potential to save you significant time and money, but the real progress comes from taking a close look at your existing processes. Identify inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement, then use technology as a tool to enhance and enable those refined workflows."

"At Kojo, that’s exactly what we aim to do. We work closely with our customers to recommend modern workflows and best practices that strengthen connections across different parts of their business, ultimately driving greater efficiency and success.”‍

Leverage Your Networks

“There are hundreds of trade contractors all going through the same challenges you are. That’s why places like trade associations can be so beneficial. They accumulate knowledge from working with hundreds of trade contractors all across the country and then share that knowledge with you on a consistent basis.”

“Similarly, Kojo works with hundreds of trade contractors of all sizes across North America. We’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. It’s because of that knowledge that we can give all our customers a custom experience and point them to specific product features or specific business practices that would be most beneficial to them.”

Learn more about Kojo, our product, and our team of experts like Lauren here.