Blake Knoblock of FBH Architectural Security shares how CompanyCam helps his family business deliver doors, train new salespeople, and build trust with commercial clients.
When you’re hauling 150-pound metal doors up eight flights of stairs or delivering $60,000 worth of commercial hardware to a busy construction site, documentation isn’t just nice to have, it’s essential. For FBH Architectural Security, a family-run door and hardware distributor in Flint, Michigan, visual proof has become the backbone of how they operate.
We sat down with Blake Knoblock, who handles marketing and software management at FBH, to learn how his team uses CompanyCam to document installations, prove deliveries, and train new salespeople in an industry where precision matters.
Tell us about FBH. How long have you been in business?
“FBH has been around since 1954. My grandfather started the company. Currently, I’ve got 2 other brothers working here, and my father works here. I am the newest addition in my family to be working here.”
The company operates across mid-Michigan, serving cities like Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint, Bay City, and Saginaw. With about 30 employees split between two locations, they handle everything from fabrication to installation of commercial doors, frames, closers, panic bars, and hinges.
What’s your role at FBH?
“I do the marketing and some of the software management to make us more efficient and to scale up our business.”
Blake came to FBH about three years ago after working in startups and B2C marketing, bringing a fresh perspective on technology to the 75-year-old family business.
How does your team use CompanyCam day-to-day?
“Definitely installers use it day-to-day most, then salespeople second, just making sure jobs are okay.”
For the installation crews, CompanyCam serves as their primary documentation tool. They photograph every step of the job, from the condition of existing doors and frames to the final installation. When working across multiple job sites in a single day, having a streamlined way to capture and organize that work is essential.
But it’s the annotation features that have transformed how FBH’s installers communicate what they’re seeing on the job.
“I know this is not, like, a huge feature, but being able for them to be able to write on the photo what they’re doing, that’s actually huge. Because otherwise, who would know what’s going on?”
The ability to add text directly on photos means installers can point out rust on frames, leaking closers, or misaligned doors right in the moment. They can note measurements, call out specific issues, or explain the work they’re doing, all without needing to write separate reports or make phone calls back to the office.
For Blake, who handles marketing but doesn’t have the deep technical expertise of the installers, these annotations are invaluable. He can look at a photo and immediately understand what’s happening, even with specialized door hardware terminology he might not fully grasp.
The annotations bridge the gap between technical work and clear communication across the entire team. The salespeople also rely heavily on these annotated photos. When a maintenance director calls about a door that’s not working properly, the sales team can pull up CompanyCam, review the installer’s notes and photos, and provide accurate guidance, often solving problems remotely without needing to send someone back to the site.
How did you document jobs before CompanyCam?
“I mean, when everyone had their own system of storing images, you had to rely on, one, those systems making sense, and two, people actually taking the time to take their photo off their phone, put it onto a computer and uploaded it to our [system]…I know that there [are] photos prior to CompanyCam living somewhere…[but] if [the photos] were taken, they’re gone. Whereas [now] I can go back again on CompanyCam and see years in the past.”
Before implementing CompanyCam about six months into Blake’s tenure, the photo documentation process was scattered and inconsistent. Everyone had a company phone and would take photos on job sites, but getting those photos into any kind of organized system was a multi-step ordeal. Installers had to manually transfer photos from their phones to a computer, log into the VPN, navigate to the shared Google Drive, and upload them to what they hoped was the correct job folder.
The bigger problem? Everyone had their own system. One installer might organize photos by date, another by job number, another by location. Finding a specific photo from a past job meant navigating through multiple personal filing structures, assuming the photos had been uploaded at all.
Often, they hadn’t. The extra steps created friction that was easy to skip when installers were already moving on to the next job site.
When Blake needed to reference past work for training new salespeople, building the website, or resolving customer questions, he’d hit dead ends. The institutional knowledge captured in those photos was effectively lost. There was no searchable archive, no consistent tagging system, no way to quickly pull up documentation from a specific project or location.
In the end, most photos simply disappeared, and with them, valuable documentation of FBH’s 75 years of expertise.
Tell us about using CompanyCam for proof of delivery. Why is that so important for your business?
“People have sometimes, you know, a construction site with 15 contractors is very, very busy, and they will claim that we didn’t deliver things. But we’ve got CompanyCam. We take a photo of the back of the truck in our warehouse, we take a photo of all the stuff on the job site, and then we show them, ‘here’s your $60,000 of commercial door hardware, it’s right here.’ If they don’t have it, it’s not on us.”
This is where CompanyCam has become particularly valuable for FBH. On busy construction sites with 15+ contractors, materials worth tens of thousands of dollars can easily get misplaced, or contractors may claim items were never delivered. Blake has been present when their general manager pulls up the delivery photos during a phone call with a contractor. With the visual documentation in hand, they’re often able to help locate the materials, frequently finding them around a corner or in a different area of the busy job site where they’d been moved or overlooked.
The proof of delivery documentation happens regularly. Blake estimates they need to reference these photos about once every two months to resolve disputes.
How does CompanyCam help with sales and quoting?
“The maintenance director for a school, for example, he’ll know what’s wrong, he’ll know that a door’s not working, but he doesn’t know the esoteric terminology, and so having pictures helps so much, and just having them organized, efficiently and correctly.”
For FBH’s sales team, CompanyCam serves as both a learning tool and a communication bridge with customers who may not understand technical terminology. Installers can document existing conditions, like rust on frames, leaking closers, and misaligned doors, giving salespeople the information they need to provide accurate quotes without multiple site visits. Instead of trying to translate complex door hardware issues over the phone, the sales team can simply reference the photos and annotations from the installers.
The photos have also become invaluable for training new salespeople. FBH brought on two new sales team members in the past year, and the historical photo library has given them a real-world education. The team can pull up jobs from two or three years ago and show new hires how experienced installers documented their work. The annotations on the photos explain what’s happening, what to look for, and what certain conditions mean. This historical library has become an incredibly valuable training tool, allowing new team members to learn from real examples rather than abstract explanations.
How do you use CompanyCam for marketing?
“I just redid the whole website for us. It was probably 15 years old, it was bad. And so I wanted to build out city pages for every city we do business in. Well, I go to CompanyCam, I type in the city, and all of a sudden, I’ve got 50 pictures of us doing work in Bay City, in Saginaw, in Bloomfield Hills, in Detroit, in Ann Arbor. I can’t imagine how else I could have done this if we didn’t have that kind of asset categorization.”
As the marketing lead, Blake has found CompanyCam’s Portfolio feature essential for building the company’s online presence and expanding into new markets. When he rebuilt FBH’s outdated website, he needed local project photos to create city-specific landing pages that would help them rank in local search results. Instead of hunting through scattered folders or trying to track down which installer had photos from which location, he simply searched by city in CompanyCam and instantly had dozens of high-quality project photos at his fingertips. The searchable, organized nature of the platform turned what could have been a months-long photo gathering process into a matter of minutes.
Beyond the website, FBH has also leveraged Portfolio links in email campaigns to establish credibility as they expand into new markets. They reach out to potential clients through local Chambers of Commerce and other business networks, sending emails that showcase their work on recognizable local landmarks. Including a Portfolio link gives prospects an easy way to see FBH’s craftsmanship on buildings they’re familiar with.
While an 8% click-through rate might seem modest, it represents real engagement from decision-makers in commercial construction who are evaluating whether FBH has the experience and quality they need.
For a company competing on quality rather than price, being able to show proof of professional work makes a tangible difference with commercial clients.
“I mean, think about how many pounds of metal are being delivered, and if they’re not being tied down correctly, they can get damaged… The contractors who are buying from us, they are so much more comfortable with someone who does things right the first time, than just trying to save $200 on someone who throws expensive material in the back of their truck, and it sloshes all around.”
In the commercial door hardware business, where projects can involve hundreds of thousands of dollars in materials and delays can cascade across entire construction timelines, clients need to trust their suppliers. Being able to visually demonstrate proper material handling, careful installation practices, and attention to detail helps FBH differentiate themselves from competitors who compete solely on price. The Portfolio feature turns their commitment to quality from an abstract claim into visible proof.
What’s been the biggest impact of using CompanyCam?
“It makes communication so much easier. It makes it possible, which is the big thing. It makes it possible, and that’s really, really good.”
This improvement in communication extends beyond day-to-day operations. The platform has given company leadership visibility into ongoing projects without being physically present, which has been particularly important for Blake’s father, who’s getting closer to retirement but still wants to monitor large contract jobs.
Even when he’s away on vacation, he can easily check in on project progress from his phone. For someone who’s built their career on being hands-on and in control, having that real-time visibility into large jobs provides peace of mind without requiring him to be on-site constantly.
Any advice for other companies in traditional industries considering photo documentation?
“Even the fact that sometimes the guys, like, sometimes they’ll go into a basement and they don’t have cell service, but the fact that it still pulls the timestamp when they can just go out and, you know, enter their car at lunch and upload them all at one time, that makes it so much easier.”
The ease of adoption was key for FBH’s success with CompanyCam. Blake trained the entire 30-person team in about 90 minutes, which meant minimal disruption to daily operations. Because the app works offline and automatically syncs when crews regain cell service, it fits naturally into their workflow without requiring installers to change how they work. They can document jobs in basements, mechanical rooms, or other areas with poor reception, then have everything upload seamlessly when they get back to their truck.
For other traditional industries considering photo documentation, Blake’s advice would center on removing friction. The best technology is the technology people actually use, and that means choosing tools that work with your team’s existing habits rather than requiring them to adopt entirely new processes. When documentation becomes easier than not documenting, adoption becomes natural rather than forced.
The result? A documentation system that actually gets used and provides real value across every part of the business.
“People complain about the other stuff, but no one complains about CompanyCam. It’s neat.”
