So I finally got the customer factor. I think it is pretty awesome. I feel that it will benefit my growing business.
I am just going to go through the pros and cons of the software and give my honest review.
Pros
Simple to use
Easy to take payments
Can connect to quickbooks
Mass text / emailing of selected or all customers
Send texts to customers letting them know you are on your way
Automate tons of small tasks that make your business look more professional
Ability to create an online proposal that shows your insurance, certifications, before and afters, greeting, salutation, and a few other things. Its like an online folder you can send to your leads with all of your good stuff that will help you convert a nervous or unsure buyer.
Excellent customer support. The owner was willing to walk me through the software and have a lengthy conversation about how it can benefit my business.
Ability to send before and after photos with an invoice to the client. You might get your payments before the client gets home!
Super easy to get started.
No need to use multiple pieces of software to accomplish one goal. Example: Mailchimp for email subscribers, paypal for payments, etc.
Easy export of your data if you ever decide to leave. You can also back up your data. Which you absolutely should.
Cons
It’s not free. However the price is affordable and I strongly believe that the ability to manage your customers and send mass emails will lead to a few extra sales that will most than cover the cost. The price is 449 per year.
The proposal item could be confusing for some at first. There is an article that explains it though.
Single upload of photos. So one at a time kind of thing.
I think the user interface looks a bit dated.
I don’t like how some things pop up in new windows.
I think the customer factor is a good investment because it lets me record all my pressure washing clients throughout the year and then when it comes time for gutter season I can easily text and email every single one of them with a few clicks. I can let them all know that I am now offering gutters and the price. I believe this option alone will let me make up for the money I spent on the software. I am also really looking forward to using their proposal software. It seems like it will help me with conversions for the big clients.
I also like how you can see all the times you contacted each customer or lead.
I think @MrSparkleVA would agree that this was a wise investment. I would also like to thank everyone that helped me make my decision in the other thread I created asking about this software.
Edit: Ask for a demo if you are interested. Steve is a really cool guy and was willing to answer all my questions. Contact - The Customer Factor
I am not sure what you mean by a one stop shop. I am going to integrate my quickbooks online with it. I also have an account do my accounting things.
Get an accountant for accounting if you can. As for everything else though, this program will meet your needs. Get a hold of steve and have him set you up and demo account. Maybe even have a phone call with him. You can view the software for free and have a demo of it. Best bet is to just test it out and see if it will work for you.
No problem at all. I was hesitant to spend the 449 first and then @MrSparkleVA said he called him up, had him walk him through the software, seen a demo of it and then got it.
I did the same thing and it convinced me that it was well worth the investment. My only issues are that some things open in new windows, and the user interface looking a bit dated.
Here are some more things I like about this software.
You can automatically schedule everything and have it link to your google calendar. Pretty much just create an appointment and it does everything for you.
You can create email templates for each situation you face, commercial prospects, customers etc. This will save tons of time.
Big proposal is awesome, you can email a customer a link that will let them view all of your data in a consolidated place and then click accept. You can even see when they view the proposal.
The ability to view a map with tons of filtering options for your customers is coming soon. You will be able to compare this side by side to something like the EDDM map and see where you can improve and figure out more about your market.
Really cool software. Anyone else have anything they like about it that I am missing?
If you are a HouseCall Pro client like me and Brodie @squidskc, The Customer Factor starts out clunky, and they are making changes that will allow for a greater incorporation like adding customers and prospects from phone contacts and the same integration with Zillow that HCP enjoys. It’s really great to be able to know the square footage and value from within the CRM while quoting a job, and although that does not appear with TCF, Steve assures me that it’s coming.
OTOH, the automated processes that come with TCF blow HCP out of the water. This thing is slick, and every time I get on the phone with Steve Wright he peels away another layer and it gets slicker still. I mentioned customers and prospects earlier in this post. TCF allows you to target market to these different groups differently, and distinguishes them separately. I can group email or drip email on a regular basis, all automated.
Enough for now. Thanks, AWII @awesomewash2 for bringing this CRM to my attention as well as those who shared your experiences.
Now, I’m going to admonish you here AWII, because NOTHING is free. Not really. AND, I want to pay the man who can do so much for my business. Just sayin’.
Thanks for your input. I see the customer factor being a better option for the most part. With that said you are 100% right on a lot of things seeming clucky at first. This software is lacking in the user experience department, but even with it being that way it is still super functional. I personally think this software has a lot of potential and is pretty good for what it does.
What would take this software from being good software to great software would be
Updated design, User experience testing etc.
More focus on making the pages load a bit faster.
Make this a single page application. Right now the pages reload every time you do something. It would be much faster for them to load things asynchronously within the web page already loaded.
Pretty solid software though. I think it will help my business. I’ll update you and everyone else when I get it running and use it for a few months. That’s when we will know for sure. As of right now I think it’s pretty awesome. Once Steve gets the google maps marker screen going it should be awesome.
It didn’t work well for me. I just attended the Mastermind Conference in Atlanta, and Housecall Pro is going all out to push their Pros to become greater. They want us to take our businesses beyond where we can take them without the digital assistance that goes far beyond where a simple CRM can take us. While there I took HCP to the next level.
I will make this claim: Housecall Pro is the second-most valuable service I use. The most valuable? Ask @squidskc, he’ll tell you. (Hey Rowdy, currently looking for the right BNI group to join).
Lisa Renz is your BNI director in your area. I know that because I was in BNI in Virginia Beach when I was in finance. Don’t let her put you in a start up group. They’re slow to start. I’m sure there is nobody else like you in the more established groups.
Nobody likes to hear that home advisor works for other people. LOL. I got a pretty heated argument one night at the convention when some folks tried to talk Chris Overman out of using or at least trying Housecall Pro in favor of the customer factor. Look at Customer factor reviews. There is next to no support. Also, I’d gladly pay double For Housecall Pro for what I get out of it. To each their own though.
It works fine. It is more suited for residential than recurring route work, my business being mostly the latter. Many of the features are designed for a Residential based business - drip emails, reminders, followups etc.
Nice featues for keeping track of crews, Big Proposal allows you to create multipaged estimates with w9, Insurance Cert, Before After photos, other customer reviews. You get notified when prospect views the estimate and they can accept with a click of the button.
Thanks for the info, It seems HCP and TCF are the go-to’s for our industry. I’m leaning towards tcf at the moment for all the automated tasks that save little daily hassles. But I do need to research what hcp has in that department first…
