Well, I bought into The Customer Factor yesterday.
It’s a little generic but definitely user friendly. Unfortunately I got use to using quick books, I’m looking at this thing like "[I]thats it, what else does it do?[/I]"
Quick Books and Quick Books Customer Manager does pretty much the same tasks, actually both together do more but Customer Factor is less intimidating.
The scheduling is totally awesome. Love the calenders. I like how you can add photos to the customer profile too. Transferring quick books customer info wasnt that easy. [knowledge of exel: poor] Quick Books has a much nicer custom invoice format. I’ll do the 30 days but right now, I’m not totally sold.
Its kinda like a song you here. At first, you dont like it but there is something about it and you think it may grow on you.
Josh, thanks for the review. I was thinking with all this customer factor talk that I was totally missing out on something, but I couldn’t figure out what. With outlook and quickbooks, I seem to be able to do everything I need, but was feelin unsatisfied.
Yeah its nothing revolutionary. Its definitely customized for window cleaning but if you have a good system down, I dont think switching is going change much. You can try it out for 30days and see what you think. If you do, I recommend setting up a “test company” in quick books so you can practice inporting/exporting information. I learned the hard way and jacked up my customer list in QB.
I tried The Customer Factor earlier this year. I ended up canceling it a few months later. It seems to be a work in progress. The developer is constantly adding new features, which is great, but for what it does now it just wasn’t working for me. I have a pretty good system now, but I thought I would give it a try because so many seem to love it. I too thought it was a little generic and basic. Maybe in the future it will be the all in one program to use.
One thing I didn’t like was the guilt trip when I cancelled. It was easy to cancel, but the email I received when I wanted to cancel wasn’t in the best of taste I thought. I don’t think you should try to make somebody feel bad if they’re using something that isn’t working for them.
For somebody starting out I think The Customer Factor could be a good program to use and should be considered.
I Agree 100% with what your saying. I was hoping that I could email reminders, proposals, letters, etc just like you would email an estimate with QB, quick and easy. I have a feeling that it going to be some time before everything is up to par if ever. Steve is a great guy but i think i will opt for my money back on this one, at least for the time being.
Hey Tim,
What were you using in the past?
I do all of my own record keeping on QB. Which has most of the features CF has anyways. So I find myself going back and forth between the two.
I think its a cool piece of software but the transition between the two is what Im weighing on. I really need to study my QB customer manager sofeware and then try to compare. You in the office today Tim?
Yip…stuck in the shop doing screens…lol. I gotta venture into the rain here in a bit to check on a couple projects.
Im a terrible book keeper. Tami takes care of all that stuff, but I got the Customer Factor program free for a year for winning window cleaner of the year on the Masters group. I knew we wanted a easier program than quick books customer manager.
The Customer Factors best feature I like and use is being able to view my customer information online in the field.
I’ve been using it for about a year now, it’s alright.
I was in Nicaragua for a week and had my guys running everything. I had ended up staying 2 weeks so all I had to do was email the next weeks schedule to them, well that was a nightmare!
Since I just moved the week before the credit card on file rejected it, because it had my old address. I couldn’t get into my account at all.
No email, no notification at all.
I called the owner, Steve, like twice (which is kinda hard to do in the middle of nowhere in a 3rd world country) and emailed him like 3 times with NO reply for like 3 days. He then tells me I should have received a notification email…NOPE NOTHING.
Finally it gets worked out and I email the list at the last minute.
Steve was not helpful and I received no “notification”…If I would have I known that was the problem I would have updated the info and gone on.
I’m head deep now in the CF, kinda hard for me just to pull out. The more I think about it the more I feel dissatisfied with the entire program.
I will be slowly pulling my entire clientele out and using something different.
Now, I would advice not spending $25 a month, or $300 a year and use something else.
I tried the CF once about a few years ago. I think it’s a good program. If you are wanting a quick fix and an easy way to manage things real quick, then that’s the program for you.
I just prefer to use Quickbooks and Google. I tried the customer manager for quickbooks NOW THAT sucks! That’s why I use Google Calendar and Contacts for my customer management
you got to be kidding.
Hey Paul remember when you told me to lose the over the shoulder look cause it looks sneaky? Now come on can you really say that Steve looks sneaky here?
