As i am trying to get more organized this year ive been reading a lot of posts on CRM on here, checked out jobber, housecall pro, joist etc and none of them seem to be what i want. I prefer to have a hard copy invoice dropped at each residence with a carbon copy to keep for myself on file. I am however looking to have a place where i can upload each invoice/customers information and keep track of Paid/Unpaid invoices. I want something super simple that will be easy for us to record info while on the go as i still do all the scheduling.
Check out The Customer Factorā¦VERY easy to use, and you can print invoices easily with a portable printer if you want.
Markate sounds promising too, but I really like TCF personally
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Iāve been in the hunt for a simple ārolodexā style program, nobody seems to offer one. We finally signed up for QuickBooks, supposedly it has a decent customer list section.
@theotherguy If you want to use paper just keep a clipboard in the office with all the unpaid invoices on it by date. Then when the checks come in match them to the copies on the clipboard, mark them paid and file them. Thatās what I used to do and it worked fine.
For customer list you can use Google contacts or iCloud contacts and for scheduling you can use Google calendar or iCal.
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Not quite sure what you mean by āRolodex type systemā but it takes me about 3 seconds, literally (because Iām a slow typer) to find any info I need on any customerā¦Even if I canāt remember their name, all I need is to remember SOME piece of info on them and I can find their full job history, etc.
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Rolodex now thatās a blast from the past
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This is what i do now but as i said id like something quick to take down their info on the fly. While i still do all this with invoices now, its a pain in the ā ā ā having to type it all in my phone quick on the go then having to go back and fill out the paperwork when i get a chance to stop. An app that can give me a simple lay out something like
āNameā
āaddressā
āPhone/emailā
āDate work performedā
āPaid/Unpaidā
The customer factor is the way to go. Lots of useful stuff on there for a small cost. Also my customers love it and it helps me keep in contact with them through the years. I can easily email blast all my customers and prospects with any special I may be running at the time with one click.
We did a gutter cleaning campaign in November and from one email we converted over 10k worth of gutter cleaning.
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that sounds great. How many accounts are we allowed to run with it? I will have a part time guy who will hopefully turn into a full time guy this year, being able to schedule him through an app would make my life much easier
I donāt get why you are doing it that way. When I was paper invoicing, I used pre-printed invoices that had a carbon copy and I filled out all that information right on the invoice. Gave them a copy and kept a copy. Then entered the info in the database later. Sounds like youāre doing it the other way around.
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I donāt think thereās a limit, but you can call and talk to Steve and heāll take as much time as you need and answer all your questions.
My ONLY complaint is that when you call, you usually donāt get an answer and you have to wait for him to call backā¦usually after business hours. I donāt like that, but I absolutely LOVE every other aspect of his service.
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I believe I have had as many as 6 users on there at once. I do not think there is a limit. Also all scheduling is done thru there too as well as clock in clock out and they can takes pis or video of the job along with taking payments right from the app on their phone.
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At times i have to take down info when driving (I know not the safest but gotta do what yah gotta do) would be even less safe if i was filling out papers when driving! Lol
The second best part of CF is no more Paperā¦
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I use Housecall Pro so Iām paperless now. When Iām driving I keep a digital voice recorder with me and I repeat the information into the recorder, then input it later.
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Thatās a good idea while driving to use a recorder. I may start doing that.
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I have tried Markate and HP and went back to customer factor. In my opinion itās the best out there
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Voice recorder, great idea!
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Didnāt care for Customer Factor one bit. Joist was great for its limited capability and free. HCP is wonderful, but you get more from Markate for 1/5th the cost. My trial for Markate ends tomorrow and my subscription will start.
Really REALLY impressed with Markate.
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what are the benefits besides the stuff i have listed with using one of these crm companies? I know a lot of them are using email marketing. I find 95% of people dont use their email as much as you would think. Plus id be afraid our messages would get lost in all the spam.
