I’m not sure where to post this question so I’ll try here. As I’m gaining new accounts I looking for ways to organize my accounts. And I’m guessing it may become a little difficult to start to schedule them for cleaning when I get up to a certain number of accounts. I also would like to track things like how much I’m making per month, how much is going out in expenses, when I cleaned last, what the work consisted of, contact info, payment types, etc.
Right now I’m doing this on paper and have constructed a crappy spreadsheet to try and sort everything. But I think I’ll need something better and thought I better start thinking about this now as opposed to later.
Would anyone be able to share how they are tracking their customers, scheduling, and generally staying organized?? If you have a good system and are willing to share it would be most appreciated.
BTW I always use the search function because I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but I’m not getting any results. On the other hand I’m sure this has been brought up before so maybe I’m not using the right keywords. Thanks.
“search function is currently down” - Working on that right now. We use Service CEO - Som cheaper options are "george “the customer factor” and Vazing - All 3 are worth looking into.
Hi Tom,
I have been using “The Customer Factor” for about 6 months now and have found it to be a very usefull toll. It tracks prospects and customers, does scheduling, calls to customers and much more. You can do estimates and invoices through and you can also export it to quickbooks. Apparently it was developed by a fellow WCer. You can find lots of good info about it on the web.
On the flip side I think i might be outgrowing the software though and wanted to ask others what they thought of Service CEO. "The Customer Factor is good if you only offer a few services. but we offer more than 10 different services now and many variables of each. Like I have a canvassing crew that i need to track hours on and occasionally if my window crew has down time I give them the option to canvass at a lower pay rate if they want more hours.
Thanks guys. “The Customer Factor” looks pretty powerful. And I know $300/year probably isn’t much to a lot of you, but it is for me right now. Is there some advantage in having a piece of software that you have to pay monthly?? I was kinda hoping for some stand alone software for like $50 and be done with it. Does anyone use something like that or is it available?? I’m only doing window cleaning and gutter cleaning right now so my operation is pretty simple.
Intuit has a Customer Manager software package that is web based and will interface with their Quickbooks software for accounting. I don’t use it now, but have been looking into it. I believe you pay for it monthly.
Hi Tom, The reason I didnt go with a stand alone and chose " The customer Factor"
24.99 a month with no deposit or anything else so I could afford it right away.
I was able to import my excel spreadsheets right away
3.decent stand alone software starts in the hundreds
The best part and what sold me was the constant updates, and additional features, also they have exceptional customer service(If you call they will walk you through anything and everything you have questions about…Took me about a month to really be able to use the full function of the program just cause it has so many features)
5.for the above mentioned features you don’t pay anything more. just keep paying 24.99 a month
6.The feature I like the most is also its biggest drawback and that is that it is web-based software so I can log into it from any computer thats on the internet. I dont like this because occasionally my internet will be down in my home office and it is severely annoying because I cant access any of customer information when that happens. .
So theres my run down on it.Hope it helps.
Nick
In N Out Window & Gutter Cleaning,LLC In N Out Window and Gutter Cleaning, Seattle, WA 206-432-0025
Steve never insulted me when I dropped it. I;m currently looking for a solution to MS Outlook which I dumped CF for and I’m considering returning to the CF.
Eric,
Are you looking for just something to just schedule jobs similiar to Outlook? I am currently using Google Calendar (recommended by WCR Chris) and I find it very useful. You can basically access it from anywhere once you sign up for a google account. I love to be able to check out the schedules in the evening at home instead of having to go into the office. Another great feature is that its stored on their servers and you dont have to worry about hard drive failure. And did I mention that its FREE! you gotta love that!
I’ve also been using Google calendar for a few months now. It’s great. Simply put all the info in when I schedule it and I can get a map to the job right there on my phone. Plus I can call them from that listing instead of needing to save their number on my phone. Very versatile and like Steve said it’s free!
Tony,
I have 4 schedules set up on Google Calendar. I even use it for personal scheduling of all my personal stuff too. My wife and I keep track of our kids sports schedules on it as well as dental and doctors appointments. Its nice to know when and where I need to be at any given time. Personal or business.
Intuit does have the customer manager. It’s under $10 per month. They also have a “Small business Calendar” that interfaces with QB. You can create appointments and invoices right from the calendar and it’s synched right into QB. You can assign different employees jobs. The only thing you can’t do right now that I wish you could is create recurring jobs. It’s free, by the way.
