My significant other is in the industry and I felt that so much of her time and man-hours were being wasted in the quoting process. I believe that the pricing opacity and having to schedule an in-person quote is also something that potentially deters certain demographics from keeping up with their window maintenance.
So I decided to build a tool to address these problems; prospective customers can go to a public link you specify to enter their job, based off of a list of tasks your business supports. That info then gets emailed to you, with a link to the quoted job on your dashboard. It’s mobile-friendly and optimized on phones, tablets, and desktops.
Here’s a video of how setting up a basic task and quote looks like:
If there’s enough interest, I would like to build in scheduling, booking, and payments down the line.
I would absolutely love to get your thoughts on this. Feel free to head over to soapy.io if you’d like to mess around with the app, and let me know the email you used to sign up with if you’d like an extension on the free trial. Thanks in advance for any and all insights!
Great idea, thanks! How do you usually charge for pressure washing, soft washing, and roof cleaning? I’m planning to add a “custom” task type that allows users to set up any service job they want.
I just did a deep dive on Responsibid; their approach looks interesting. Thanks for sharing!
To be fair, Responsibid isn’t even in the top 10 pages when you search for “window cleaning quote” on Google But regardless, my belief is that building the best possible product for a given sector (such as that of my girlfriend’s and local businesses I’ve spoken to, none of which use Responsibid or Jobber) is likely to be more successful than trying to do a mediocre job of pleasing everyone or following someone else.
The person who created that program is a well known, respected and very much liked by everyone on this forum who’s been here a few years. He’s a friend of ours.
Maybe I should not have came at you the way I did, because I don’t know you or your intentions.
Its a natural reaction many people have when something or someone who is close to them is threatened especially by someone not even in the industry. I know you said your girlfriend is a window cleaner, but you never mentioned her name. Is she someone we know. Please don’t think I’m speaking for everyone, I’m only speaking for myself explaining to you why I replied how I did to you.
Responsibid don’t need to be high up in google. If he wanted it to be ranked well, he would make it that way. Trust me he knows what he’s doing.
He was a window cleaner for many years with much experience. I get what you are trying to do, really. It just feels tacky presenting it here where I grew up with Curt. Its kinda like me going to your neighborhood where you grew up, and I walk right up to your next door neighbors front yard and take a leak.
It just ain’t right. I’m just taking a leak, but it just ain’t right know what I mean?
No doubt he could rank higher if he wanted to. It seems like a truly excellent product. I didn’t know about them before because I didn’t know anyone who used them, nor was I able to discover them on Google.
My intention was to start a discussion with critical feedback that would allow me to build a better piece of software for people. Despite being accused of being a liar and a hippie, not once did I attack Responsibid or anyone else so with all due respect I really can’t agree with your analogy of taking a leak on someone’s lawn just for trying to improve a product on a relevant discussion forum.
So…I don’t know the Responsabid guys, I don’t even use the product for that matter; but this is my two cents on the topic, given primarily due to shelter in place induced boredom.
I understand where your coming from @soapy you had a neat idea, want to help your girlfriend ect. You brought it here to get feedback, yes, but also to give it exposure in the hopes of collecting potential support and customers.
If this were a Facebook group, personally I wouldn’t bat an eye. But I got here a year ago and have found it an all together different environment then Facebook. Its mutual respect, collaboration, shared knowledge, experience and expertise with a lot less nonsense. (It’s the environment that had me hooked.)
But to enjoy it, much like anything, the expression “pay your dues” comes to mind. To hop in, unknown, new guy off the street and immediately hop to “try my product” is a little tone deaf in my opinion.
Is it wrong? No. But it hits the wrong cord.
Friendly advice, maybe stick around, with YOUR time read up on what everyone has written regarding their likes/dislikes on the topic of quoting in other threads first, then adjust your product accordingly. After you have something solid and competitively strong for us to look at, then present it.
This allows people to get a feel for you, build trust, and increase your understanding of what a window cleaning company is looking for in a product.
Just my 2 cents of course, take it with a grain, Eh?
sorry you’ve had a rough intro here but i’m afraid it’s not uncommon. responsibid is great, i use quoteflare less powerful for follow up but way more customizable. i am building a shopping cart using opencart and would love an app that would connect to it.
lot’s of people poo pooed wfp when it came out and a soap argument can almost come to blows.
keep working on your app there is plenty of room for more window cleaners and window cleaners who turn into software gurus.
Then I hope you can accept my apology. Sorry about that man. I’m going stir crazy and talking outta my booty when this ain’t even my forum. Jeez. My bad man.
Thanks for the perspectives and I apologize if this post came off as tone deaf or insensitive. I’ve been a lurker, am still learning the industry, and definitely intend to stick it out for the long run and contribute to the forum in meaningful ways. Very much appreciate all the support and suggestions so far. Love y’all.
If you spent the time developing this and haven’t heard of Responsibid, I don’t think you did enough market research to warrant trusting my bids to you.
But regardless, my belief is that building the best possible product for a given sector (such as that of my girlfriend’s and local businesses I’ve spoken to, none of which use Responsibid or Jobber) is likely to be more successful than trying to do a mediocre job of pleasing everyone or following someone else.
