Record keeping is something that I really fail on, I do it using the excel “thingy” that the previous owner was using. It works and is well organized, but I feel like I have to move on. QB seems to be what I need, but looks kinda hard to master it on a short period of time, I know that using it is the best way to learn, but I get frustrated relatively fast
Do you guys know a good tutorial about QB that you’ll like to recommend or just google that and stick to whatever seems interesting ?
I’ve been using the Customer Factor for about a year and a half and it has been a real time saver for me. Steve has been really great and professional to deal with - even answering customer service e-mails within one hour on a Sunday.
I save money using the free web hosting that comes with the service - I have not heard of any other software package that will throw that in. Also, with the referral program you can end up getting your software/hosting package free.
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For those using it. What do you do if your internet connection craps out over night? I have comcast and in my town everytime it rains the internet is on and off for hours. How do you guys handle that?
QB is what I use now along with my yahoo calendar and black berry. With QB on my laptop and a printer in the truck everything is done on site. I would have to pay for a mobile connection to get that to work correctly. But I’m already embeded into QB for 3 years now and changing would be such a pain.
I purchased “The Customer Factor” last week and all I can say is that for the money, I am very impressed with it. I compared products for a while and The Customer Factor has proven to be the best bang for the buck. It’s a very straightforward program and I like that about it. I can access it from any location and on my phone. The calendar is well organized. I also like how you can schedule callbacks and followup appointments. What I liked about it mostly though is the price vs. other similar programs out there.
I was doing this last year until I had my vehicle broken into while I was on a job. Actually I was still doing this after that, but stopped after my second lap top was stolen from my vehicle a month later.
Be careful and back up QB in multiple places!! I almost lost everything.
Okay so this was my second time purchasing the product. I though that I didn’t give it enough time to “really” try it out. So, the second time I purchased it, I played with it for a week or so comparing it to other “Free” web based calenders and my quick books. And again I thought what I had was a better fit for me.
So, this is part of the cancellation email I get. I’m sure I’ve inconvenienced Mr. Wright. Does it offend me? No way. I’ve heard this guy was a jerk. Now we all know. Yes, I’m indecisive its one of my drawbacks. Bite your tongue Steve, bad bad boy. Bad karma dude.
========= GENERAL INFORMATION =========
Merchant : WorldNet Enterprises
Date/Time : 13-Jan-2010 08:47:01 AM
Transaction ID : 2795767371
========= ORDER INFORMATION =========
Type : REFUND
Invoice Number : 925
Description : [B]cancellation due to being a whacko[/B]
Total : US $24.95
Payment Method : Visa
As per your request, your account with The Customer Factor has been permanently closed and all associated data has been deleted. A full refund has been issued and no future charges will take place.
You’re not welcome back here at anytime. Your name and email address has been added to our “not welcome” list, so as the software gets stronger and stronger over the years with more and more features being added, don’t signup and “try” it again. No sense wasting our time. I was actually expecting a cancellation request to come through from you due to it happening before. If the individual is not willing to give it a 100% effort the first time, we sure don’t expect 'em to give it a 100% the 2nd time.
Wow, that was unprofessional for sure. If he isn’t willing for people to have a free trial multiple times he should just state that up front and compile his “not welcome” list quietly. It would have been much more professional for him to say, I’m sorry that you didn’t like our program however 2 trials is the limit, etc…"
I have some opinions on this software. Its OK at best for me, I have quite a bit of experience with computers and I just like what I like. My best advice would be to take a class at your local Junior College to take a QB class and what ever else you may be interested in. I think most people would get more out of learning how to use the software you already have.
Just my opinion for what its worth:)
btw… can we start a jackass list here on the web site, he has a list maybe we should too!!!\
Funny you say this cause I have stopped also. Not for any reason other then laziness. I did not like carrying the laptop out side and setting it up. Now it’s just easier to print stuff and bring it with me from home.
That sucks it was stolen I would hit the roof and I’m sure you did. I often forget to lock my doors. I dont leave anything in the truck that warrents them opening the door. But still dont mean they would not steal the truck. Not that I want that to happen but that’s what I have insurance for. But a laptop can be a very bad thing to lose.
Also on the backup comment. I have lost everything over the last month, 1st time in 10 years I completely lost data. I was on fire in the house. Everything from the last 10 years is gone.
On the comments about the software. If I got anything other then a professional email from a company I would never use their service or product again. I would go with this product if I was a completely nude start up. Then move to quickbooks. https://billingmanager.intuit.com/billing/free-online-invoicing.url
I use quickbooks for my accounting software. It doesn’t work well IMO for customer and sales management software though. If you want Intuits version of the customer management software you would need to get Intuit Customer Manager. I tried it and you can’t even schedule recurring appointments and it pretty much sucks. Quickbooks is great for a customer database but managing callbacks, estimate info, scheduled tasks and managing the overall selling process etc is handled better by actual customer management software IMO. I like to have all of my information in one program/database as well as to not have to continue to put info into multiple locations like quickbooks and google calandar. Also, as for google calandar, it worked great for me for a while but I also have a maid service and was scheduling 10 or more recurring jobs a day. Google Calandar started to get very buggy and was losing information once I started to get over 5 clients a day every day scheduled.
I want all my information in one program too. Actually you can input recurring customers in Customer Manager. I have the older program. I hate it. I think the newer version is online only. Not sure.
Google calender works well for me the solo window cleaner. Quite honestly, Im ready to go back to my trusty pencil & paper scheduler.
A lot of you are saying that the CF is very basic, but you like it because you can access it from anywhere. If you were to design your own customer database, scheduler, etc what would you want in it?
There are many ways to compile a customer database of information. You can use Access, Excel, Quickbooks, Outlook and many others. They do not do anything but store data though (besides Access). What I like from customer management software is mainly the all in one functionality (not including accounting), the calendar and managing the sales process from prospect, estimate, callbacks and final sale. Last but not least the software would need to be able to compile at least a few basic reports and be able to be backed up easily. When I say all in one functionality, I mean that I want to put the customer info in one time. If I go to the calandar and click on the customer in the calendar the info will be there. If I go to the customer list the same info is there. If I pull a report, I can get the same info. The calendar will have to include recurring appointments, employee scheduling for each job, multiple colors for organizing different categories and be able to handle hundreds of jobs per month. If I want to sort by one category in the calendar it needs to be able to show only the jobs sorted on. As for the sales process; 1. Put the customer in as a prospect. 2. When the estimate is completed put in the estimate info and be able to schedule a callback for follow up. 3. When the job is sold, move the customer over to an actual customer and schedule the job easily on the same screen without having to go to a different application. Wow, this is getting long! Let me sum this up here. As for the reports and sorting through the customers. If I want to pull up just the customers in a certain zipcode I can. If I want to pull a report letting me know what advertising is working best I can pull that report. There is more but I’m tired of typing. These should be the basics. By the way, CF does all this. Not saying it’s the best program out there, but for 25 bucks a month, it’s not too shabby.
