I don’t why hcp hasn’t built a rule for estimate follow ups.
Julia was great i guess I’m used to customer factor. I’m not computer savvy at all but finally figured out how to permanently add my disclaimer to my estimates.
I absolutely LOVE HCP! However, as @bc_window_cleaning pointed out, there is nowhere to trigger a phone call or an email in 6,12,or even 18 months. That’s something I really need. HOWEVER, HCP is one slick machine, and they are building our companies as they build their own. I tried to leave them once and just couldn’t relearn what has become so comfortable to me. I, too, jumped on the SuperPro bandwagon. Right now it’s more hype than hook. One thing that’s impressive is their participation with Zapier, which integrates almost ANY automation with over 1000 apps participating and more coming on board every day. One must be a Superpro to utilize Zapier with HCP right now.
Yes, I may be spending more than I need to with HCP, but it’s still the greatest bargain I have found for simplifying my life.
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No shop, where you going to put all your stuff?
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What financing are you’ll talking about. For the customers?
Yes. They’ll have a 3rd party offer financing the job as an option. No liability on you, just an additional payment option for the customer if they need it.
Thanks. I use Paypal and they’ve had that for years. Never ever had a customer that needed it though.
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Creating a job/work order is optional as well as the email. When you add each customer you define how they will be contacted. If you prefer to hand them paper you just view it and print it. I didn’t find the work order option viable for me simply bc I have no employees.
In this case you use the schedule module, then the invoice module. Everything can be converted from each step without having to duplicate the work.
I haven’t used HCP or TCF. I’ve heard only good things about them. I’m really feeling the automation that Markate is offering from estimate to thank you post cards, to review request, from beginning to end. The only outside tool I will use is eddm for bulk mailers
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Me either but I thought Brodie was asking about it. I could have misunderstood him though. I think it is a fairly new feature of joist
Line of credit to yourself…
Based on previous invoice$$
A lot of banks do it with businesses, it would be a nice feature to help you grow. Especially payroll in the beginning of the year
I like that automated follow up for quotes tho. Will have to put that bug in TCF 's ear. Though it’s rare I bother sending quotes unless I’m pretty sure I’m going to get except on commercial occasionally
Quotes are rare for me as well. Mostly I’ll just get an address and tell them how much, schedule then do the work. some of my customers insist on me coming out bc they have patios, balconies, etc. when I come out it almost always cost more so I just go with it now.
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I have a good sized garage and the only thing that’s currently in the shop that wasn’t in my garage prior is 2 big steel racks, a huge workbench I made and a second bench vise. All of which I can fit in my garage again with minor modifications as well as the trailer which I was already doing before.
I’m prepared to downsize already so I can start building a HUGE space in 2020. One I can also live in.
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Bingo. And it looks really good on your business credit report as long as it’s reported. I’m switching to US Bank for the same reason. The lady I talked to there said there shouldn’t be any problem getting a pretty sizeable credit line to go with it and they report to Dun & Bradstreet. Even if I never use it, it’s nice to have.
Thought you had about 3 rigs now? Where’s the flatbed?
The Chevy I bought essentially to resell then got busy. It’s going back onto craigslist and autotrader tomorrow. I wasn’t really active about it. The Tundra isn’t technically a work rig even though it’s all I’ve used.
The F-250 flatbed I got a service bed for basically pennies and turned around and sold it for over 2x what I paid for it on the same day.
Once the F-250’s flatbed is finished, I’ll move everything over off the trailer so officially it will only be one work rig and my Tundra will stay my personal vehicle. The F-250 is parked in the shop now, but it can stay in the driveway.
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I think HCP is freaking fantastic as far as service software goes, but they made some promises they just couldn’t keep up with I think. The credit line integration for one. They made a comment over a year ago about how they were going to become more of a CRM than just service software, but not a word since.
The online booking doesn’t let you upsell, it’s very black and white, and I’m sure there are booking softwares that do. Square has a pretty popular online booking platform and my website host has options too. Also, the automatic email sequences are just text. No clickable links or HTML.
I’m about to scrap Broadly too. For $200 a month it lets people message you through your site and does review follow up. I can do review follow up from my phone by copying and pasting texts from my notepad for free and immediately. Broadly waits 4 hours to send it, which I think you can change, but it will only do one per day. I can also send emails through Mailchimp which integrates with most CRMs EXCEPT HCP. There are less expensive website plug ins that let people text you through the website.
If I want to automate things from start to finish I’m not sure HCP is that great for total automation. Again, I absolutely love both for what they do, but I don’t think they’re right for my end goal officially. Which sucks because I do really like both.
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@squidkc ive been using markate about a month or so. I was with hcp on the same $123 plan you are on, and in my opinion markate does everything plus some. It took a little getting used to but for the cost difference its worth it. I have the online booking add om (extra 5 bucks) and you can also add the request reviews feature as well, another 5 bucks. If you added every single add on they offer, you would still only be around 50 bucks a month
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It would be awesome to be able to lock in this rate. I can see it going up in the future. Glad to hear from someone who had experience with both.
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I was hesitant to switch at first just because I was used to hcp already, but I dont regret it a bit. All the features for the cost was worth it to me.
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