Big Bag O' CRM Reviews

Housecall:
I did a call with Roland at the beginning of the year and it didn’t seem mature at that point, but I did the online demo recently and it looks like it’s coming along as a pretty nice platform.

So I thought I’d collect some reviews from those of you who are actively using it and those who hit it and quit it. I also think this might be a good thread for you to review your current CRM.

What did you like? What did you hate?

When I met with Roland at the beginning of the year, I brought up tags for route management and they implemented that which I like. It would help me to organize routes, commercial vs residential vs storefront, etc.

I like the idea of automatically sending out postcards since I suck at thank you’s. And I think I can implement that as part of my sales process on the front end as well.

I didn’t like the idea that I couldn’t just print out a bunch of workorders at the beginning of the week. I like the signature capture, but I have a lot of route stops where they need the paper copy or it didn’t happen. Some of those would accept the emailed signature copy others want hardcopy. So I’ll have to go through and see how many I’ll actually have to print vs how many I can do electronically.

TCF:
I’m currently using TheCustomerFactor and it gets the job done. It doesn’t do post cards except for Streetbidder types. But what bugs me is the interface. Links are javascript which drives me nuts. If I’m looking at the job list and want to open a customer to edit something it’s a js link to a new window and if I try to open a second one it sends it to that popup instead of second new window. Maybe it’s just me but js links need to go because with hardlinks I can send them to new tabs to do my work especially since it takes so long to load the customer page. But the price is nice at what, 25 bucks per month?

I’m not going to complain too much about anything because franchise crm’s will cost you 50 bucks per WEEK (minimum) and with a proprietary software it’s not open to quick updates or features. I had a list of bug fixes/requests and some of them were pretty critical and they never got around to it before I left. Not to mention the hacks I implemented to keep their software from annoying me (custom css hacks, flash blocks, etc).

So what do you guys have/use?

I signed up with HouseCall and got grandfathered in at the $24/month rate. At that price, I figure I can ride it out and see if it will eventually be the right fit for us. In the mean time, we’re saving a little on CC processing. We’re nowhere near the $3,100+ it would take to completely offset the $24/month fee, but it’s still nice to see a little larger deposit in the account each time we take a card payment.

So here’s what I think is missing from HouseCall right now:

Deposits!! we take a $100 deposit from each new customer upon booking. There is still no clean way of doing this within HC; it completely messes up the workflow to try and make the deposit a line item on the invoice, and then explain to the customer why the invoice says the full amount is due. And forget about trying to do anything on the mobile app. Taking even a partial payment marks the job as completed, which totally messes things up. Anyway, lack of a deposits feature is my number one gripe right now. And I’m betting it’s holding a lot of users back from making full use of HC.

Second, I think there should be more seamless phone integration. I don’t care what they think they know about small business owners and how they save customer’s info, I think it would be incredibly useful to have a contact group that syncs with the phone’s address book. That way you can actually see the customer’s name on the caller ID when they call.

As clunky as it sounds, I currently have all of our customer’s contacts saved in my address book. It’s surprisingly helpful to see the name of who’s calling before I pick up the phone. In that brief 3 seconds I can remind myself of who they are, and not sound like a total dweeb as they’re telling me who they are and I’m trying to put it together in my head. I already know. I don’t let on that they’re on my caller ID, but it’s still helpful in not sounding like I have no memory of who they are. Ideally, this would be a two way sync, that automatically imports a customer’s data into HC if you save them under the HC contact group.

Another advantage of this two way address book/HC sync would be with lead generating sources. ResponsiBid, HomeAdvisor, and ThumbTack all send you an email at some point with the customer’s contact info. This info can easily be added to your address book by simply holding down on the phone number, and it will automatically detect their email address, service address, etc, allowing you to import all of that into a new contact. When I get a ResponsiBid lead, it takes me just a few seconds to add them to my address book, and I don’t run the risk of mistyping the info (apart from their name).

Phone integration should go for the iCalendar app, as well. I don’t want to mess with the google calendar (a system I’ve never used before) just so I can do a weird daisy-chain sync to get stuff into my phone calendar (and who knows how reliable that would be?). iCalendar has been working pretty well for me, as it lets me know of non-work related commitments before I book a new job. And it also syncs with my wife’s phone, which is pretty handy. Again, two way sync would be the bomb, but I realize this would be much harder to implement than with the address book.

The fact that HC touts itself as being such a mobile-centric platform, I think it’s time they start implementing more mobile-friendly features.

Oh, and my last gripe for now: the card scanner stinks. It only inputs the 16 digits,[I] sometimes[/I]. Lot’s of times it doesn’t read anything. And I have to type out people’s crazy names, and then put in all of the other stuff, as well. This is also not going to go over well when the liability of non-chip transactions is shifted to the business owner, which is happening fairly soon (October, I think?)

I had spent three years trying all the popular platforms and I stuck with HCP.

Overall they have the best platform. They aren’t perfect but none of them are and I have other things to worry about.

More importantly my customers love receiving emails and communication regularly and my guys like working with it on a daily basis.

Man, I so want to agree with you here, and just do it. HC has tons of potential, and probably is the best one out there right now, in terms of cool customer and employee oriented features. But the lack of deposit capability is cutting me off at the knees. :mad:

great, in-depth post.

just a thought- you should really take a second look at google calendar. it’s far superior to iCal, for one main reason. it’s not hardware or ecosystem specific. you can access it anywhere, on any device and it will sync across all platforms. and almost every single third party developer codes to sync with it. iCal- not even close.

sure, it might kind of suck getting it set up (it really doesn’t…) and it might take you awhile to get used to it, but google services are far too powerful and flexible to ignore. you probably don’t realize how hemmed in you are by the iOS ecosystem.

i’m really torn between these two. right now i’m using TCF, and actually giving it a chance. i’m starting to like it more- it’s very powerful and i like the responsibid integration. the iOS mobile app is very close to release, so that should help. but i’m with you- the interface is clunky and kind of slow. at first i felt overwhelmed at the sheer number of data points that are available on each screen, but i’ve learned to ignore the stuff i’m not going to use right now. but i feel like if it flowed better i’d be more likely to use the deeper features and functions. i feel you on the pop-up windows- very annoying. and i think they have fallen way behind on the shift of software toward mobile use. i’m not sure they can catch up either. but i’m willing to give them a chance.

HCP is so slick, i like where it’s headed. the crew functionality is still in gimp mode (not really useful) which has prevented me from using it for much more than CC processing. the crm is still pretty barebones. but man, if they build that side of it out in some kind of reasonable timeframe, it could be the ultimate answer.

and then i have in the back of my mind the myth of the responsibid CRM. i’ve heard through back channels that it’s not dead, it’s in the works and coming down the pipe. if that’s the case and i can have everything all under one roof, that would be my dream come to life.

I think some of us have control issues …

Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Resourceyryx

[MENTION=7230]c_wininger[/MENTION] I get the feeling that TCF would require an actual app that’s ported into the site since it wasn’t designed as “just” mobile friendly. It’s been around so long that it was developed long before mobile was a feature.

[MENTION=3471]Alex Lacey[/MENTION] Yeah, if they still had the $25/month fee, I’d be signing up tonight. But now that it’s $60ish I want to make sure it’s going to be able to do what I want it to do. $60 ain’t much, but if I’m going to jump from one ship full board on another, I want to make sure it’s going to float.

Caleb is still straddling TCF and HCP which makes me hesitate. [MENTION=1736]JfromtheD[/MENTION] had his issues as well.

I do like where they’re going with it and I’m going to keep an eye on it, and hopefully I can sign up this year with it.

[MENTION=3164]Brian_C[/MENTION] Yes, yes we do.

Long time Google calendar user, which syncs well with Quickbooks. In Jan, we went with a much more corporate style package of services from Google, and ROI has been great. We need a lot of documents for our jobs (MSDS, Certifications, Safety Plans, Traffic control plans, blah, blah), and we now have a great setup between QB, Google Calendar (which the crew all has live access to on their phones), and Drive. An unexpected feature is how useful jobsite photos and notes can uploaded into the drive file by anyone on the crew for future reference. Anything from Drive can then be attached to calendar events or QB customer file.
And none of it, including the calendar is attached to anyone’s personal gmail, but rather owned and administrated by the company. Previously, it was too messy with a mix of business and personal email accounts.

We should have done it ages ago.

Interestting…

how do you make in sync with QBO?

There is an appointment function on QB customer info page, which then creates the event on google calendar, Including address, phone number, etc.

[MENTION=38617]HouseCallPro[/MENTION]
Long story, short…
You have people who are sticking with you/giving you a chance.

For ONE simple reason… we see the potential.
(this coming from a origin skeptic)

Do youselves a favor and listen to our comments.

I don’t even bother to add customers anymore.
Because of the “well this is how it IS” responses I’ve received.

Stop thinking you are bigger than you are.
Focus on the customers you have.
Again: You already have our money…now EARN our business.

• because we have really big mouths!

[MENTION=1736]JfromtheD[/MENTION]

With all due respect, we DO listen to your comments. In fact, we have built our entire feature set (this far) based on the comments and suggestions we receive from forums like this one. To say that we haven’t is flat out inaccurate. I can list all of the features we built out for you so you can see if you’re still not convinced.

You have to also understand that features don’t materialize with the snap of a finger. To create new features takes a great deal of engineering resources. As a small business just like you, you must understand that we don’t have an army of engineers. We are a very small start up trying to make really big things, and your patience is required for this.

We currently have many many features on our roadmap that we will be rolling out as soon as we possibly can. It’s not like we are sitting here twiddling our thumbs.

We appreciate your business and value your feedback. And I promise that we will do everything in our power to create a product that works for YOU and YOUR BUSINESS.

That being said, what specifically are you dissatisfied with?

Instead, I’ll start with what I LIKe,
You guys always pop up when called out…
That’s why I do it.

I like to see real time stuff, here.

My gripes are the same as they’ve always been…

• get your branding off my invoices
• or at least off printed ones
• while we’re at it, let me PRINT invoices on the job
• allow me to defalult to ‘business hours’ on my jobs view
• give me the chance to see upcoming/recurring jobs in a manageable way
  Not see a service in 2016 at the top of the list.

Should I get into the tough parts to fix, now?!?

I know you guys think I’m being this "problem cust"
But I really do want you guys to kill it… I swear!

Every software will have a huge drawback so you have two choices and that is to either 1) pay for a custom software or 2) adjust to a program.

I’m not advocating HCP as much as I am saying that people will waste a TON of time searching for cinderellas slipper. The reality is Prince Charming isn’t coming to sweep you off your feet.

Also, you will have to adjust to whatever software you choose because even if it’s perfect now they will/could make a change later and then you will have to adapt.

Just my 2 and very worthless cents

Nothing for me. Keep it up

I totally get this concept, and have come to grips with the fact that fully implementing any software solution will require some changes to my workflow. But there are certain changes I’m unwilling to make, such as our deposits policy. It has done so much good in solidifying our legitimacy as well as ensuring that people take us seriously and keep their appointments. I’ve been told that deposits are in the dev timetable, and I am anticipating it with bated breath

Well said. That has been my experience as well.

Sent from my iPad using Window Cleaning Resource mobile app

We don’t think you are a problem customer at all. I have submitted your feedback to our feature request lists and we will get to your suggestions soon. Keep the suggestions coming.

If you have any direct questions as to how to do something on our platform, I encourage you to log-in and hit that little bubble at the lower right hand corner of the screen. This will put you in direct immediate contact with one of our engineer co-founders who will most likely be able to help you solve your issue right then and there.

For the record, we ARE building that perfect cinderella slipper. I know people are doubting this now, but give it time and you will see. We will become the PERFECT solution. Just takes time. Your patience is greatly appreciated.

[MENTION=7230]c_wininger[/MENTION]

WE WILL BE CINDERELLA’S SLIPPER!