Mobile tech software vs workshop - lost?

[smlie4]

How do mobile techs hand their bookings start to finish?

I use Google Apps on the PC and on my HTC Desire.

This is how I roll.

Call comes in
- I take it or I have a lady I pay to take my diverted calls when I am on a job or driving to a job.
- Customer wants to book.
- Open up Google Calendar and find a free time. Fill out subject with Name, Contact number & Problem. In the where box put the address. Set the reminder for enough time to be able to get to job.
- Open up Google contacts and add in as new contact. This help me quickly access the customer to call or sms them if I am running late and also to identify when an existing customer is calling so I can greet them.
- Open Google form which is linked to a spreadsheet. Fill out all the details I need to analyze my business. Such as time calls come in, days, where the customer found me.
- When I go out to a job on my phone I open up the appointment in the calendar, click on the address which takes me to Google Maps and then I can choose Google Navigator as the SatNav.
- When I get to job I quickly open up the calendar confirm the address and customers name and knock on the door.
- When the job is finished I have an app on my phone called MobileBiz which I can quickly add the customer from my phonebook (previously populated). I create the invoice ask the customer for their email address and email them their invoice from the app. I also have by default that the invoice is BCC to my email. When the email arrives in my Gmail account it is filtered into a folder which the book keeper then handles.
- When I get home at the end of the day I go to the spreadsheet I filled out with the new leads and enter how many hours I spent at the house and what parts I sold and how much profit I made on that part/s

I have found this method good as it is cheap, as soon as the appointment is created it is straight away available on phone or vice versa, amazing integration across platforms.

So my gripes.
1. Using a spreadsheet means I can't track lifetime value of a customer because I can't use relationships.
2. Google Calender (at the moment) does not let you add a contact from the address book to the calendar (like outlook).
3. When I am out on the road, andriods do not let you create an appointment from a call you just received so you have to right down the number then create a calendar appointment, sucks when you are caught short without a pen and paper.

In the home workshop I am considering PCRT, but it means as far as data is concerned I am going to have 2 separate business's.

PCRT looks absolutely amazing for the workshop but offer's no support for mobile tech's.

It seems to me Mobile Tech stuff is completely different from workshop software and finding software which can handle hardcore on the go appointment integration vs protecting yourself with jobs that land in the workshop is just not going to happen.

Thoughts?

 

[RichmondTech]

I am mobile with an Android phone as well. Company data stored on my laptop.

Get a call from a new client. Schedule in calendar with name and phone number in subject, location in where section. Like you, this makes it easy to pop into GPS. I put the phone number in the subject for one touch dial, but do not create a new contact in my phone.

Go onsite to do work. All of my work is documented in Quickbooks. Create new customer in QB and populate with info from my phone. I only do this while onsite and not prior to the service call because at this point I know this person is a new client and not someone who had to flake out and cancel, never to hear from again. Quickbooks also has a notes section where the client info is to put things like make and model of computer, when Internet security software expires, wireless network info, etc. I will use this time to make an Outlook calendar appointment for a month before their Internet security software runs out to email them reminding them to have me come out and renew their subscription.

Client pays (check or credit card via Square). Payment gets put into QB. Paid receipt gets emailed to client via Outlook. Since receipts are stored in my Sent folder I don't need to BCC myself, but I also don't do anything special with those other than keep them in my sent folder. If the client needs another copy, I can easily generate one from QB.

There is a QB --> Outlook sync tool that I'll run once a week to add new clients to my Outlook Contacts. I will then use CompanionLink to sync from Outlook to my Android phone.

QB will address some of the issues you are facing like "How much money has that client spent on me this year?", "How PROFITABLE has this client been this year?", "How much in labor have I generated vs revenue from parts sold?" and many more.

This has proven to be a good solution for someone who is strictly mobile. I am looking to expand into a shop and realize this solution won't work. I am looking to start a MHelpdesk demo soon to address this limitation.

Hope this helps!

 

[smlie4]

I am mobile with an Android phone as well. Company data stored on my laptop.

So you use combination of laptop and android phone?

Do you pay extra for mobile broadband or do you tether your laptop to your mobile phone so you are only paying once?

Get a call from a new client. Schedule in calendar with name and phone number in subject, location in where section. Like you, this makes it easy to pop into GPS. I put the phone number in the subject for one touch dial, but do not create a new contact in my phone.

Where do you mean the subject? I have What, When, Where and description box on Google calendar. I would love to be able to shortcut from calendar to call.

Go onsite to do work. All of my work is documented in Quickbooks. Create new customer in QB and populate with info from my phone. I only do this while onsite and not prior to the service call because at this point I know this person is a new client and not someone who had to flake out and cancel, never to hear from again. Quickbooks also has a notes section where the client info is to put things like make and model of computer, when Internet security software expires, wireless network info, etc. I will use this time to make an Outlook calendar appointment for a month before their Internet security software runs out to email them reminding them to have me come out and renew their subscription.

I know Quickbooks is popular in US, not so well supported in AUS, do you have a mobile app for quickbooks?

Client pays (check or credit card via Square). Payment gets put into QB. Paid receipt gets emailed to client via Outlook. Since receipts are stored in my Sent folder I don't need to BCC myself, but I also don't do anything special with those other than keep them in my sent folder. If the client needs another copy, I can easily generate one from QB.

Never heard of Square, just had quick look. Something I need to look further at. I have been using mobile eftpos machine. Cost me $800 for the machine and $10 a month.

QB will address some of the issues you are facing like "How much money has that client spent on me this year?", "How PROFITABLE has this client been this year?", "How much in labor have I generated vs revenue from parts sold?" and many more.

This is a big battle for me. Something I am not sure I will be able to solve using spreadsheets alone.

I am looking to expand into a shop and realize this solution won't work. I am looking to start a MHelpdesk demo soon to address this limitation.

You should really look at PCRT, I looked at MHelpdesk it was too generic, PCRT looks a million times more suitable for a PC workshop.

 

[RichmondTech]

I tether my phone to my laptop for Internet access if I'm at a client's place that doesn't have a wireless network. 95% of my clients have wireless and my laptop has all of their networks stored.

Sorry, the subject is the What line in Google calendar.

Quickbooks is installed on my laptop. I don't have a mobile app for it.

 

[stsanford]

We are mostly mobile, so we utilize Apple iPads and an RDP session.
We use ConnectWise which handles dispatching, scheduling, ticketing, even merging bills to QuickBooks for invoice tracking (Invoicing is through ConnectWise as well).

CW makes an iPhone / Android / WM app, but for detailed notes like what we need, it's kind of crap. Wish they made an iPad App, but so far, they're not doing it.

The RDP session turned out to be a godsend. My main tech came up with the idea because he had to leave a Bomgar session running, but wanted to check in. He started Bomgar in the RDP session and then disconnected, checking in periodically from the iPad. Now we just use RDP sessions on our desktops (We're mostly Apple now, probably going to go 100% apple for OUR desktops even though we support nearly 90% Windows platform). RDP has been awesome, and makes life so much simpler.

 

[RichmondTech]

We are mostly mobile, so we utilize Apple iPads and an RDP session.
We use ConnectWise which handles dispatching, scheduling, ticketing, even merging bills to QuickBooks for invoice tracking (Invoicing is through ConnectWise as well).

I just saw the 3 minute video for CW. Thank you for mentioning that. Reminds me of MHelpdesk. Do you have any experience with that to compare the two? MHelpdesk runs about $50/month (depends on how many users you have) and has a 30 day trial. I see CW has a 120 day trial, but I don't know how much it'll cost after that for three people to use it.

 

[stsanford]

ConnectWise for 2, fully implemented with Managed Service Add-on, Mobile Add-on and Exchange Integration ran me $12K. I purchase rather than lease when it comes to data-centric software. Just something about OWNING my data, shows my age probably...

 

[nightkingdoms]

I use google calendars for my appointments because it integrates very well for me when it comes to scheduling things.

I wanted an easy way to figure out what times I was available and schedule people, including online. I use http://youcanbook.me. I setup a calendar with a recurring time to block off my off hours, then block out times i'm not available.

They pick a service, pick a date and time that's available and that's their official appointment. It adds it to my calendar, sets up the reminders and confirms their appointment.

 

[stsanford]

Tungle works well too...

 

[mortaltech]

You should really take another look at PCRT. Great software with a great forum and support.

 

[roborobs computer repair]

Currently I am doing my Booking with Microsoft Outlook and my android linked together through Google. As for doing accounting, bookkeeping, and inventory I go with BS1 Accounting it has worked for me.

 

[nightkingdoms]

OK, I'm back at a desktop now so maybe I can reply a little better... lol

My process works like this:

1) Call comes in from a client

2) 90% of calls are answered by an answering service, others go to voicemail

2a) Answering service sends Email of message left to my system
2b) Voicemail transcribes the voicemail with link to actual message and sends to my system (Google Voice)

3) When a message is sent to my system, it creates a support ticket for it and notifies me instantly on my phone and I use that to fill out any other information on the call as well as what services were performed, add the time billing info to it, etc. which generates an invoice for the client viewable online, too.

4) When I call someone back I have http://youcanbook.me up in a browser and fill out the booking form for them
4a) Clients can -- and have -- skipped all of this and just chosen their appointment time from the youcanbook.me page directly (love it!)

5) I show up with all of the information that I need to do the job

I integrate youcanbook.me with my Google calendar which I can see on my phone. I setup what times are for business hours with a recurring event that I just call "Closed". I block out whatever times I'm unavailable, out of town, etc. by creating events I call "Unavailable". On the youcanbook.me site it shows those times as unavailable and puts the ones available in green and clickable. It works so well for me that I even use the youcanbook.me page that's meant for the clients to see to schedule their appointments. lol

I've tried tungle.me and while it was very shiny compared to youcanbook.me it just doesn't work for me. Youcanbook.me allows me to have a list of services the client can choose from and allows me to customize the booking form itself along with how long appointment slots are for and auto-setup reminders for the appointment. It's not very polished, but it does exactly what I need it to and I can use it on my Android phone to setup appointments on the spot as well as embedding it on my web site. It only leaves a small logo at the bottom of their pages with their logo on the free version, nothing if you pay.

In fact, I truly think it's the best suited online app for scheduling that I've found that integrates with Google Calendar. If you use Google Calendar for scheduling, I invite you to check out my booking page (http://nk2.us/book) to see what I'm talking about. Just don't submit the booking form at the end! lol

 

[smlie4]

I just gave MHelpdesk a second try to see if I was just being a little bit grumpy the first time.

It is definitely rubbish! I am assuming the "m" in helpdesk stands for Mobile, the app is not an app it's a mobile webpage there as big difference. The dashboard blows too.

 

[smlie4]

Sorry nightkingdoms this not a digg, I like your response. Just want to bounce my thoughts.

My process works like this:

1) Call comes in from a client

2) 90% of calls are answered by an answering service, others go to voicemail

Do you have high drop off rate? Alot of people normally hang up when they get answering service call centres.

Is answering service Indian or Philippine based? Do they just do the standard Name & Number?

I pay extra for a mature age uni student to answer my calls, she has local accent local knowledge and bubbly personality. Customers look forward more to speak to her than me. Of course it probably costs a little more and she is higher maintainence, but if you consider how much each customer costs (divide how much you spent on marketing by the number of customers you got from that campaign). It works out a million times cheaper when customer hang up because of ridge call centres who don't care about your business.

2a) Answering service sends Email of message left to my system
2b) Voicemail transcribes the voicemail with link to actual message and sends to my system (Google Voice)

3) When a message is sent to my system, it creates a support ticket for it and notifies me instantly on my phone and I use that to fill out any other information on the call as well as what services were performed, add the time billing info to it, etc. which generates an invoice for the client viewable online, too.

Is your system a paid for service or did you create it yourself? Is is web based or run off home server?

4) When I call someone back I have http://youcanbook.me up in a browser and fill out the booking form for them
4a) Clients can -- and have -- skipped all of this and just chosen their appointment time from the youcanbook.me page directly (love it!)

I like it too, but.. Aren't you worried about the pitfalls of showing people how busy you are or aren't, people buy, when other people buy, it is a trust thing. If you are having a quietish patch and people see not many other people have booked could have knock on effect. Also your competitor can track how busy you are this has many dangers. Especially if you have someone working the same patch as you and brags to potential customers about many customers you don't have.

5) I show up with all of the information that I need to do the job

I get my info off my google calendar appointment. As I walk from the car to the front door I quickly open the calendar appointment in the 'what' I have the customers name and brief description I make sure I check this before entering the house. I am not to good with names, usually within about 5minutes I have forgot their name again, but not why I am there which is lucky, often if they walk out the room I will check the calendar appointment again to get their name.

I've tried tungle.me and while it was very shiny compared to youcanbook.me it just doesn't work for me. Youcanbook.me allows me to have a list of services the client can choose from and allows me to customize the booking form itself along with how long appointment slots are for and auto-setup reminders for the appointment. It's not very polished, but it does exactly what I need it to and I can use it on my Android phone to setup appointments on the spot as well as embedding it on my web site. It only leaves a small logo at the bottom of their pages with their logo on the free version, nothing if you pay.

Just don't submit the booking form at the end! lol

Do people ever make false bookings? You turn up to job only to find a blank look on the person's face?

 

[smlie4]

You should really take another look at PCRT. Great software with a great forum and support.

I just bought PCRT.

It doesn't have the immediate things I need to working as mobile techy.

The program is just to good not have in the home office.

I don't really want to run two separate customer database (Google Apps and PCRT)

From the 3 months or so I have been looking at different software for managing an on the go business I can not find anything which beats Google free Apps. The speed the portability, the integration between devices, owning my own data, all the software I have looked at falls down in at least one of these.

 

[smlie4]

Had PCRT now just over a week.

I am going to buy a netbook next week, tether it to my smart phones internet and use PCRT for everything.

Main reason for the swing:
1. I can add all my stock (quantity, purchase price, sell price).
2. Onsite as I will be using PCRT I will be able to see what I have in stock and quickly add it to the invoice if customer purchases a part or 2.
3. The repair part of PCRTs 1 click add for common tasks make it easy to keep track of repairs done onsite.
4. The common tasks/actions have when I print out the repair report for the customer it has a little description of why I did task.
5. Lead source tracking. When I add a new customer I get to record where they came from.
6. I own everything, which means I can pull data from mysql tables whenever and however every I want.
7. No ongoing subscriptions. Which means in quiet times of the year I am not burdened with ongoing expenses.
8. It doesn't cost anything to add a new user. Speaks for itself.
9. When I take customers computer I can record all the parts I take which the customer gets a print out. Which means less chance of customer getting upset over missing parts that were their in the first place.
10. All my data is in one place now as I will use PCRT on the road and in the workshop.

I am still using Google calendar to manage my availability for the day. I am heading off using Google contacts as it is just an extra step that is nice to be able to great customers when they call by their name but with now having to fill out PCRT as well it is just getting a bit much.

 

[nightkingdoms]

@smlie I use AnswerAmerica for my answering service. They are based in America with U.S. people answering. So far its worked fine. I'd rather have someone answer and book appointments right then and there but no one who can fill the spot for the price right now.

My business number is through Google Voice so I can see if someone's called or not in real-time. It also rings my phone first, so if I don't answer, AnswerAmerica does, if they don't answer quick enough it goes to voicemail. AnswerAmerica has instructions to state that I am out in the field with a client and my voicemail says the same so the client doesn't think I'm just blowing them off. Haven't experienced any negatives using it yet. I also have a partner on the other side of the country that handles hosting and it rings his phone when it rings mine, so there's another person that can answer.

As far as using the calendar I haven't had a problem. My biggest problem with scheduling is that I have a normal job with rotating shifts so my available times are short. I make it a rule that my business hours are from 10am-8pm and I block out times that I'm working within those timeframes. If anything, it makes it look like I'm too busy. lol And no, I haven't ever had a false booking.

Competition is not a problem. I'm in a very small town and there was literally 3 people who work on computers when I started. Now one of them is out of business, the other is negligible and I'm the last one. My only competition is a 23 year old that considers it a hobby, works at the local electronics store, has a literal old-school toolbox (lol) with no software and no experience beyond working on his own computers.

I actually talk back and forth by text message with him a lot. He thinks he's God's gift to computer repair, but I'm slowly sucking away his client base because I come off as way more professional, I actually fix problems the first time and speak English to my clients (not geek). I also charge a lot less than him and discuss ordering parts and further charges instead of surprising them with a huge bill. So I'm not worried about it. lol

The system I use is actually intended for hosting companies, but I've personally found that it's very flexible and works for me well with computer repair and just about anything else I can throw at it. The only problem is that it won't do things as specific as PCRT for computer repair like checking in systems, logging scans, etc. I've seriously considered making my own system on my servers. I used to have a custom system that did most of the same things as PCRT circa 2003. I'm hesitant about doing so though because I and my clients like how everything I do is in one place, everything is also online in real-time and it appears seamless to my clients. The system is WHMCS http://www.whmcs.com/fullfeatures.php.

 

[smlie4]

I use AnswerAmerica for my answering service. They are based in America with U.S. people answering. So far its worked fine. I'd rather have someone answer and book appointments right then and there but no one who can fill the spot for the price right now.

So true, never let a call get away!

My business number is through Google Voice so I can see if someone's called or not in real-time. It also rings my phone first, so if I don't answer, AnswerAmerica does, if they don't answer quick enough it goes to voicemail. AnswerAmerica has instructions to state that I am out in the field with a client and my voicemail says the same so the client doesn't think I'm just blowing them off. Haven't experienced any negatives using it yet. I also have a partner on the other side of the country that handles hosting and it rings his phone when it rings mine, so there's another person that can answer.

Sadly Google Voice with number is not available outside US there are lots of people in UK and AUS who are hanging on the edge of their seats waiting for it. My voicemail also say I am just on a job, I really want to talk too please leave a short message and I will be getting straight back too you. I try to make it sound like I really want to talk to them. I suppose coz I do, I want their money!

As far as using the calendar I haven't had a problem. My biggest problem with scheduling is that I have a normal job with rotating shifts so my available times are short. I make it a rule that my business hours are from 10am-8pm and I block out times that I'm working within those timeframes. If anything, it makes it look like I'm too busy. lol And no, I haven't ever had a false booking.

Being a residential tech is a hard one to hold as a full time job, there are so many seasonal ups and downs and with the price of computers always dropping it can be a toughy. My secret is to blow all my money marketing, I am everywhere! It works! A successful business entrepreneur said to me your market budget should be at least 7 times what you can afford.

Competition is not a problem. I'm in a very small town and there was literally 3 people who work on computers when I started. Now one of them is out of business, the other is negligible and I'm the last one. My only competition is a 23 year old that considers it a hobby, works at the local electronics store, has a literal old-school toolbox (lol) with no software and no experience beyond working on his own computers.

I actually talk back and forth by text message with him a lot. He thinks he's God's gift to computer repair, but I'm slowly sucking away his client base because I come off as way more professional, I actually fix problems the first time and speak English to my clients (not geek). I also charge a lot less than him and discuss ordering parts and further charges instead of surprising them with a huge bill. So I'm not worried about it. lol

Well you seem to know you competition, so now you focus on a unique selling point. I much prefer praising my competition when I go on jobs and if customer bags a previous computer tech I still praise the guy and explain some of the reasons why he may have missed what they are complaining about. 1. It makes you look like a nice person someone they would want to invite back. 2. It readjusts the customers perspective if you forget to do something, it happens all the time when you are working to the clock.

Also your 23 tech guy only has to Google your business name or website and he will see this post because you have put your business name and link to your website in it or your customers which would be worse. That is why I have generic username.

The system I use is actually intended for hosting companies, but I've personally found that it's very flexible and works for me well with computer repair and just about anything else I can throw at it. The only problem is that it won't do things as specific as PCRT for computer repair like checking in systems, logging scans, etc. I've seriously considered making my own system on my servers. I used to have a custom system that did most of the same things as PCRT circa 2003. I'm hesitant about doing so though because I and my clients like how everything I do is in one place, everything is also online in real-time and it appears seamless to my clients. The system is WHMCS http://www.whmcs.com/fullfeatures.php.

I agree you are going to find it hard/impossible to get customers away from the convenience of live booking. I use whmcs for website hosting. I saw the value in the automated billing and did at one point put some packages up on it for re-occurring things like annual checkups but I just use it to host customers I have picked up through repair jobs.

I have this week in fact began subcontracting out work on building a flashy front end store for WHCMS and am going to start marketing hosting to the general public, hoping to sub contact out the running of the site as well so it doesn't interfere with my repairs.

 

[C.Quill]

@smlie I use AnswerAmerica for my answering service. They are based in America with U.S. people answering. So far its worked fine. I'd rather have someone answer and book appointments right then and there but no one who can fill the spot for the price right now.

As far as using the calendar I haven't had a problem. My biggest problem with scheduling is that I have a normal job with rotating shifts so my available times are short. I make it a rule that my business hours are from 10am-8pm and I block out times that I'm working within those timeframes. If anything, it makes it look like I'm too busy. lol And no, I haven't ever had a false booking.

Competition is not a problem. I'm in a very small town and there was literally 3 people who work on computers when I started. Now one of them is out of business, the other is negligible and I'm the last one. My only competition is a 23 year old that considers it a hobby, works at the local electronics store, has a literal old-school toolbox (lol) with no software and no experience beyond working on his own computers.

I actually talk back and forth by text message with him a lot. He thinks he's God's gift to computer repair, but I'm slowly sucking away his client base because I come off as way more professional, I actually fix problems the first time and speak English to my clients (not geek). I also charge a lot less than him and discuss ordering parts and further charges instead of surprising them with a huge bill. So I'm not worried about it. lol

Regarding your answering service, I'm not sure if I'd want them to book appointments for me, if they do how do they know your schedule?
Do you think people would find it off putting to have someone answer and let them know a technician will call to set up a time?

Lucky you, In my area anyone who knows how to install windows, physically install a hard drive, and find the control panel in windows, calls themselves a computer tech. (You wouldn't believe some of the stuff I've dealt with). Other techs sometimes talk about how an A+ cert. is useless and doesn't mean anything, my usual response is "Hey, at least I took the time to get it and had the confidence to know I'd pass it the first time"

Does anyone think an online booking system would be a bad one for someone like me who is in a busy area?

 

[nightkingdoms]

Most of the negative comments about the other tech are actually from his (previous) clients who have come to me. He will keep systems for weeks at a time, never updating his clients on what's going on or what the running tally may be. I have no problem with him or my clients seeing this, it's a known fact to both of them. lol

As far as using the answering service, they don't seem to have a problem with not getting an appointment right away. My instructions say that they are just taking their information so that I can reply properly. I have them state that I will respond and discuss with them what the problem may be and what options they have. Don't want them to schedule a remote session or something if their system can't boot. I personally don't see it as much of a bother as if I actually hired someone to answer the phones, my instructions would probably be the same.

For online booking it actually works out great for me. When I or my hosting guy answers the phone we pop open youcanbook.me and use that to make the appointments. I customized my booking form so it has all the same informstion that I'd be asking, and it adds it to my calendar and my business system automatically. So whether my client uses it themselves or I do, it comes out the same with the same information.

As far as if it would work in a busy area, it just might. As long as you kept your schedule up to date in Google Calendars it could augment your current process by allowing them to book it online immediately with a time that works best for them without having to call. It's been my experience that the younger the caller and the more populated areas that people like to do things online only as much as possible. So it could work well for you. Never hurts to do a test drive!

@smlie I know what you're talking about with the marketing. I have custom flyers, postcards, etc. made all the time so it comes across very professional. I also advertise heavily. In fact, I just changed my ad in the same vein as finding a unique selling point like you said earlier... My ad now states that I'm the _only_ tech in town that's certified and insured, which is true. Might make people think a little when they approach him. lol