So if you want to remind people of ther appts. the day before by phone call or a manual text message you have to be totally aware every day don’t forget to remind people which makes reminders fall through the cracks. If you send an automated text it comes from the wonky phone number and people try and text you back even if you put don’t reply to this number reply to this number. People will message you 3 months later on that wonky number and be like I’m due again and then are all confused when you switch back to your actual number. If you send reminders via email some people don’t check it or it can go to spam or get burried in other emails.
Another issue is giving someone a reminder 24 hours before that booked a week ago is fine, giving someone a 24 hour reminder that booked 3, 4,6 months from there last cleaning its like oh shit we are out of town, oh shit we have company so its like people that booked recent only need the 24 hr reminder and extras could be annoying but people that are booked way out need like a 10 day and 24 hr reminder and customizing all that would be a circus.
How do you invoice people, and remind of appointments. Do you notice these issues?
I don’t put anyone down on the schedule more than 2-3 weeks out. If they want to schedule more than that they have to call me when they are ready.
I simply text when we are on our way the morning of. There are rare occasions when they forget and are in the Maldives, but if they are that oblivious to having a service done in their schedule I’m not interested in them as a customer.
I’m sure your operation is totally different than mine as I only do single family residential and absolutely no invoices.
We use Jobber. They have a dedicated text number that send them notifications 7 days in advance and another 24 hours in advance. They also receive an email reminder at the same intervals…
With Jobber I can text back and forth from bothe desktop and through the app on my telephone.
Although it’s not “my business number” it is my business number for that issue.
If they text me back in 5 months to that number their name appears with the text and the text history is saved in the software.
My one gripe with jobber that they won’t fix is that there is no 30 day calendar view on the app. What this means is if you don’t have a secretary and are out and about and someone calls you when you want to schedule an estimate guess what? You have to swipe 3 days at a time until you find an openeing then if the customer says ok then changes there mind swipe back. Imagine looking at a screen where you can see 30 days at a time(customer factor) do a swipe and see the next 30 days with all your openings, now imagine looking at a screen where you can see 3 days at a time and if your booked out 6 weeks the customer is just chilling there with a bunch of awkward silence while you find a space to schedule them. I like jobber but the 3 day view on the calendar drives me nuts and doing it from the browsers on your phone still sucks.
I have iPad that I use in the work trucks, so that’s not an issue. I also have a call answering service, so I only return the calls I want to return.
As a rule of thumb, if it comes up and I can’t reference the calendar at the moment, I just let people know we are at least two weeks booked out (better to find a spot earlier than tell them they can get in sooner)
I think you may not have read my post clearly I use customer factor and I know that they use automated text message. The problem with communicating with automated text messages is that customers think that’s your actual number and try to have conversations back with you on it and then when you switch to your actual number they are confused why they’re getting conversations from 2 numbers and they don’t understand automation.
I didn’t know you used CF and I’ve never used ithe automated texts so I assumed it just uses my number.
I usually just use my phone to text them with reminders, either a week or the day before, sometimes both.
Sounds like you have a crappy crm or don’t know how to use all its features… at least within Jobber they let me select my number, it’s a local number, and I have the option to set it up as a voice number as well and calls go right to my telephone through the app
What’s so hard about this. Any CRM makes it easy for you to send reminders . Atleast they should , if they don’t, then yes it’s not a good one.
Do it through email most people have an email address. Send it Atleast 3 days prior. Make sure you have in big bold letters to please confirm .
If they don’t call day before for reminder.
Pretty simple !!
ServiceMonster links up with Twilio nicely to send reminders. I don’t even have to think about it.
We are usually booked a few weeks to months in advance. 1 week before the CRM spits out a reminder, as well as 2 texts and another email 24 hours before the appointment.
Correct and people miss email reminders all the time if it goes to spam, gets burried on other emails etc and a phone call defeats the purpose of automation
I think people on here are misunderstanding my question unfortunately. I have the customer factor and I’m well aware you can get a local area code number to send text messages you can set up email reminders you can set up multiple text message in email reminders and you can make phone calls. My question is not how do you send reminders I’m well aware of all of the ways. My point is there is flawes to all of them. Some people do not check their email they get so many emails that your reminder gets buried or the email can go to Spam so that is the problem with sending reminders via email or even quotes or invoices for that matter. The automated text people recieve it and they try and text back, Then you have to switch back to your actual business number to talk with them. Lastly phone calls defeat the purpose of automation the whole purpose of automation is to remove tasks and help you focus on other things in your business if I have to make the phone call then there’s no point in having an email or texts in the 1st place. It sounds like the one solution to this is jobber based upon the fact that you can do text which is automated won’t go to Spam and you can talk back to them on that number the customer factor you can’t talk back to them on the automated number. However changing a whole crm off one feature is a lot of change when Customer Factor has its pros too
Im sorry we havent gotten your email 3 days ago and 24 hours is too little notice we are out of town we will have to reschedule. (Business loses money) Customer oh I found it sorry it was in Spam, sorry it Was under my Verizon bill and I have a bunch of Amazon things that were delivered and I didn’t see it but Hey still canceled on you within 24 hours
Yes automated text are better than emails in the sense that everybody gets their text messages not everybody gets emails which can go to Spam or they won’t check. The downside to automated text is the customer we’ll try to have a conversation with you and you’ll have to switch back to your actual cell phone number and then there’s confused why they’re getting text from 2 numbers. You’ll tell them Hey that’s automated please just message me on the business number 3 months later you’ll get a text on the automated number Hey we’d like to get our windows cleaned and you’re going don’t use that number and then you turn around and give them another reminder on a number you told them to just not use it confuses the f*** out of customers using automated texts
How long have you been in business? It sounds like you’re over thinking this one.
Get a business line, don’t give your personal number out… it’s that easy.
We have a business line that the call center answers, can be forwarded right to me. This number all can send/receive texts.
We also have the number with Jobber used for automated texts as well as sending quotes (we send both email and text PDF link quotes). This number is also great to text back and forth.
We use ringless voicemail as well for marketing thoughout the year.
Whatever solution you come up with, it’s not having a couple different numbers that is a problem, it is the ability to go back and forth with customers that is your problem.
