Im looking at putting together some content for Technibble and I wanted to get an idea of what peoples most important considerations are when deciding on a CRM or Remote Support solution.
I will try and give you my opinions from both a single out of my home/van business or a shop owner with 4-5 stores and 22 employees.
First, the single most important factor to me is that it not be a cloud solution.
Second, Cost.
Third, very very very easy to learn/use (this means many ways to accomplish the same things and to be very customizable).
Fourth, integrates or at least exports to iif for Quickbooks as I and most people are not going to learn another acct program to accommodate some help desk.
I absolutely do not trust the cloud. I hate the idea of leasing or renting software. I do not trust vendors not to get me on there with low costs and jack them up out of control, knowing switching costs are too high and inconvenient. I prefer to pay a purchase price plus optional training or maintenance and then upgrade when it improves enough that I wish to spend another wad of cash. For me this is absolutely a line in the sand.
Some examples of what I mean are whether it has a mobile app, intergrates with Quickbooks, Self hosted or cloud etc etc..
What are your most important considerations when choosing a CRM? (mHelpDesk, RepairShopr, CommitCRM style)
Not to brag about a similar product but if I tell you what I love about my system maybe you can see what is important to me.
First cost. Usually under $199 for single user and easily upgradeable to 5 users.
I selected QB's because it has plenty of "how too books", support, everyone knows it, easy to learn, easy to train so I knew it wouldn't become an expensive boat anchor.
Specifically I love that I can change a mistake without reversing entries. It is intuitive in that every entry is designed with the task at hand in mind. It is fast with autofill. I can drill down from reports to transactions/invoices. Things like dates can be changed with +/- keys when entering a lot of transactions historically. Completely customizable work orders, estimates, invoices, reports.
I like how they setup the front page. I think they call it home center or company center which has a diagram of how information flows through the software from estimates-invoices-sales orders and purchases and flow through to cash receipts, accts receivable, bank deposits...... It is easy for non accountants to learn bit by bit.
I have long considered having my own service software and the components it would have eventually included are:
1a. It would integrate with phone system to track incoming phone calls (phone numbers) so I could compare our closing ratio of call ins vs show ups or those who eventually become customers. If it is an existing recognized phone number then it would bring up their Name, account, last transaction automatically (with photo possibly).
1b. If not a recognizable customer then bring up a new customer check in which is Easy fast check in (add customers on the fly) which asked all the right questions (assume the guy taking initial phone call or checking it in and working on it are three different people. customizable information requests such as What are the symptoms? Slow, BSOD, Doesn't power on, Doesn't charge....
1c. Since it automatically identifies phone numbers and brings up either a customer acct or new customer entry it would be easy to label each phone number into telemarketer or robo call so future calls can be disposed of with minimal effort.
2. obvious stuff like date in and date promised or date time of promised phone call or followups. Customize invoices of check in receipts with boiler plate type stuff such as "we are not responsible for lost data" or "your computer will be considered abandoned if no contact is made for 14 days"
3. overall management/admin: I would want presentation reports to my screen that allows me to see all the equipment/jobs/appointments in the shop overall as well as in each que by category: checked in/Waiting; diagnosed; on bench; waiting on parts/resources; sent out for repair; available for pickup; shipped/delivered; paid; thank you card follow up invoice closed.
4. I would want this report to be able to also show by store or by technician or consultant. I'd want to be able to track if the employees are taking them in order such as "First in first out" or are they cherry picking the good jobs leaving some jobs in the que longer than necessary?
5. I want to be able to see the time each job/work order is in each category que or in our shop. I should be able to customize the look so that I could make the report present in Green if average turn around time within 8 hrs, Yellow if within 24 hrs, orange if 36 hrs they should turn red after 36 hrs unless waiting for parts.
6. Exceptions reports: for example if I wanted to see all jobs that went into red or stayed in our shop too long so I could make management decisions to reduce the slow turn around. Maybe I should carry different power supplies or more video cards or ram, or more hard drives or notebook HDs...
7. The manager or admin should be able to logon on remotely to see this stuff for each store and/or it should have a web page presentation that can also be setup for customers to see their own equipment and where it is in the que (not necessarily anyone else s information). When busy it is a PITA to answer the phones to tell customers where their computer is at. Having a web page we can email to them with their own logon and temporary password would not only reduce time required to ask many questions but it would also make the customer feel more committed to us as part of our team.
What are your most important considerations when choosing remote support software? (Instant Housecall, Teamviewer, Logmein style)
We bought a package that we host on our server. It uses java or flash and it cost us one time $200 for 2 users. It is simple to install, host and manage, easy for customers to logon, branded in our name on our website.
