HCHTech
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 3,848
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA - USA
I'm a mobile break-fix company with 2 techs and 1 office employee; just passing 11 years in business. I'm doing an average of 135 tickets per month. Our split by revenue is 70% residential and 30% SOHO business customers. We have a growing RMM customer base, but are still primarily break-fix and I don't see that changing (which is ok with me, by the way). A question in another thread about followup emails prompted this musing. I would love to do followup contact after service, but it ends up being just one more thing that isn't easy with my current systems = another job to add to the list.
Let me describe my systems currently in place and maybe someone will have some good advice that I've missed along the way.
My basic problem is that I already have enough places where I'm duplicating data entry. If I add one more, I think my head will explode.
I have a customer database that I have been using since the day I started. I wrote it myself, and use it for multiple functions in my business. It gives me a lightening-fast way to see all of the calls I have had with any particular customer, and I use it to calculate ROI for my various advertising sources. (e.g. Show me the total consulting revenue for any new customer from google adwords for the period 6/1/15 through 6/30/15 - I printed this report this morning, it took me about 45 seconds to get the answer). I use it for many other summarizations that I just can't get easily in Quickbooks or Mhelpdesk. Revenue per technician is another number I get from this source. Also, I can calculate total miles that a particular tech should have traveled to compare it to the mileage sheet they turn in. I update this every day with the calls completed for the day. This is the easiest system to answer the question "What did I do for X customer the last time we saw them". I can answer that question is about 3 seconds. Have you tried that with Mhelpdesk, for example? It's not pretty.
I use Mhelpdesk. I export to Quickbooks at the end of every day. This is my job-management system and I also use it in the field to create invoices and take payments using iPads. It does that function well, but it is NOT a CRM or PSA. If Mhelpdesk would add the ability to send or schedule emails based on a definable trigger, it would be the obvious choice for doing the followup emails. I don't think that will happen, though.
I keep a spreadsheet that has totals for the month for every month I've been in business. I use this to get month-end and year-end projections, easily see graphs of my customer base, income by month for consulting, hardware sales, RMM, stuff like that. Again, this is not easily doable elsewhere. I track income, ticket count, total customers, new customers, total expenses, profit/loss, etc. I can easily calculate the average revenue per ticket and track that over time. I can easily see the average numbers for all of my past "Julys", for example to see whether this month is extraordinary for one reason or another. I can compare this year's year-to-date with last year's year-to-date for the same time period. All things that are just not easily doable in Quickbooks, for example. I update the current month's numbers a few times per week to keep an eye on the month-end and year-end projections. I can also easily see revenue per day for the current month. Because I know we need $X/day to meet our overhead, this is a quick look at how it's going.
I use Quickbooks for my accounting. I update it every day so my bookkeeping is always up to date. I generate my RMM invoices directly from Quickbooks (it was the easiest place to schedule recurring invoices), but most all other invoices are generated in Mhelpdesk and exported to Quickbooks. I also do invoices for business customers where I accumulate time during the month and bill at month end directly in Quickbooks because Mhelpdesk sucks at that.
I use Google contacts and Google calendar. Mhelpdesk integrates with Google calendar but not contacts. We all have android phones and this keeps all of the customer and calendar data instantly updated and available for everyone.
I use Mailchimp for newsletters, and export names and email addresses from my database for this purpose. This would be the second choice for sending followup emails, but it can't be automated because there is no way to integrate it with anything else.
So, for every ticket, I'm putting some information in up to 4 locations. Someone changes their email? I have to put it in 4 places (5 if you count Mailchimp - but I normally create new list every time as that is easier than updating an existing list). It's maddening, but I can't see giving up any of the data I get from the multiple sources. I just don't think there is a way to make it more efficient without loss of clarity. and I hate loss of clarity.
How are other people doing all of this? Maybe there is some Magic Stars all-in-one Computer Repair practice management software I don't know about that just does everything all in one place, but I doubt it. I already know that I'm creating my own data-prison by maintaining these systems, but I'm worried they will start to collapse under their own weight if I don't let go of some of the details that I love so much. Maybe I need an analyst, not a business coach!
Let me describe my systems currently in place and maybe someone will have some good advice that I've missed along the way.
My basic problem is that I already have enough places where I'm duplicating data entry. If I add one more, I think my head will explode.
I have a customer database that I have been using since the day I started. I wrote it myself, and use it for multiple functions in my business. It gives me a lightening-fast way to see all of the calls I have had with any particular customer, and I use it to calculate ROI for my various advertising sources. (e.g. Show me the total consulting revenue for any new customer from google adwords for the period 6/1/15 through 6/30/15 - I printed this report this morning, it took me about 45 seconds to get the answer). I use it for many other summarizations that I just can't get easily in Quickbooks or Mhelpdesk. Revenue per technician is another number I get from this source. Also, I can calculate total miles that a particular tech should have traveled to compare it to the mileage sheet they turn in. I update this every day with the calls completed for the day. This is the easiest system to answer the question "What did I do for X customer the last time we saw them". I can answer that question is about 3 seconds. Have you tried that with Mhelpdesk, for example? It's not pretty.
I use Mhelpdesk. I export to Quickbooks at the end of every day. This is my job-management system and I also use it in the field to create invoices and take payments using iPads. It does that function well, but it is NOT a CRM or PSA. If Mhelpdesk would add the ability to send or schedule emails based on a definable trigger, it would be the obvious choice for doing the followup emails. I don't think that will happen, though.
I keep a spreadsheet that has totals for the month for every month I've been in business. I use this to get month-end and year-end projections, easily see graphs of my customer base, income by month for consulting, hardware sales, RMM, stuff like that. Again, this is not easily doable elsewhere. I track income, ticket count, total customers, new customers, total expenses, profit/loss, etc. I can easily calculate the average revenue per ticket and track that over time. I can easily see the average numbers for all of my past "Julys", for example to see whether this month is extraordinary for one reason or another. I can compare this year's year-to-date with last year's year-to-date for the same time period. All things that are just not easily doable in Quickbooks, for example. I update the current month's numbers a few times per week to keep an eye on the month-end and year-end projections. I can also easily see revenue per day for the current month. Because I know we need $X/day to meet our overhead, this is a quick look at how it's going.
I use Quickbooks for my accounting. I update it every day so my bookkeeping is always up to date. I generate my RMM invoices directly from Quickbooks (it was the easiest place to schedule recurring invoices), but most all other invoices are generated in Mhelpdesk and exported to Quickbooks. I also do invoices for business customers where I accumulate time during the month and bill at month end directly in Quickbooks because Mhelpdesk sucks at that.
I use Google contacts and Google calendar. Mhelpdesk integrates with Google calendar but not contacts. We all have android phones and this keeps all of the customer and calendar data instantly updated and available for everyone.
I use Mailchimp for newsletters, and export names and email addresses from my database for this purpose. This would be the second choice for sending followup emails, but it can't be automated because there is no way to integrate it with anything else.
So, for every ticket, I'm putting some information in up to 4 locations. Someone changes their email? I have to put it in 4 places (5 if you count Mailchimp - but I normally create new list every time as that is easier than updating an existing list). It's maddening, but I can't see giving up any of the data I get from the multiple sources. I just don't think there is a way to make it more efficient without loss of clarity. and I hate loss of clarity.
How are other people doing all of this? Maybe there is some Magic Stars all-in-one Computer Repair practice management software I don't know about that just does everything all in one place, but I doubt it. I already know that I'm creating my own data-prison by maintaining these systems, but I'm worried they will start to collapse under their own weight if I don't let go of some of the details that I love so much. Maybe I need an analyst, not a business coach!
