I have been using Software for Window Cleaners, Pressure Washers, Cleaning Services, Carpet Cleaners, and More! the past 3 years. i love it
Hopefully you never decide to leave the service or you could be in for a browbeating courtesy of Steve.
I havnt had any problems yet. I back everything up on Microsoft Excel. i dont agree with everything Steve Wright says, and sometimes i wonder if he ever cleaned windows. What problems have you heard of?
There are a few guys on this forum that used his service didn’t find value in it for their business and after discontinuing received rude and vulgar e-mails from Steve.
Tony, what do you use? I was actually going to ask what everyone was using then I saw this thread.
Mostly Google calendar for scheduling (I can access it from my smart phone in the field) and simple accounting software (Quicken) for now. I’ve been putting off getting Quickbooks for a while now but will probably pull the trigger shortly.
I did have the opportunity to get a free year of The Customer Factor but after seeing how others were treated I decided against it. Just not my cup of tea.
…
Does google scheduler let you setup repeat events every so many weeks/months? I use Quickbooks for my books and love it but my schedule system has me a bit worried.
I have been using Customer Factor for a few months now and I like it. I seen a few problems and emailed Steve and they were fixed. I think for a small to medium business its great. I just don’t feel to safe just useing google calenders.
Yes it does. It repeats daily, a specific day of the week, two days a week, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
Why is that Dejay? If you don’t back up everything you do w/ CF and you upset Steve you won’t get access to those records.
I love it also. How do you back everything up using excell? I would love to know, thanks
I am currently using the Customer Factor. It’s a great tool for keeping track of a lot of otherwise paperwork and other necessary business tasks. It’s real cheap to use and there is free webhosting with Steve’s webhosting company, if you use it.
Regarding Steve Wright’s character. I bought his program when I decided to get into the window cleaning biz. It has helped me a great deal. And he is a great guy to deal with. I call him all the time. If he is not around when I call. I’ll leave him a message and he gets back to me real quick. He is very helpful when I have questions. And I have quite a few. He has also been patient in answering them the best he can. Again he has been nothing but helpful and accommodating.
In late 2008 I retired from IBM after 27 years in the software business and purchased a window cleaning business that was totally paper-based and manual. I selected The Customer Factor and I am very happy with my decision. We have over 6500 customers in the system now and have invoiced over 10,000 jobs in just over two years and the system runs great. No down-time and no real problems to speak of.
My two estimators can get to their daily route schedules from their cell phones and I can get to my data from any computer connected to the net. When I need to hire a new CSR I just have them spend a few hours watching the training videos and they are off and running. If we ever have a question we just call Steve and 95% of the time he answers the phone and solves our problem. (Evenings and weekend, he never stops working – it’s amazing) When we offer suggestions for improvements they usually end up in the next upgrade.
When I was in software sales I always told my customers that my goal once their software was installed was to have them say that our company provided them the best “value for money” of any of their software vendors. I sold $5 million of system to TJ Max, the world largest discount clothing retailer, $3 million of systems to RR Donnelly and Sons the world’s largest printer and many more Fortune One Hundred companies. I have a good understanding of every major software vendor and I can honestly say that The Customer Factor provides more “value for money” than any other software vendor.
Regards,
[email protected]
I’ve been using Customer Factor lately and really like it. I also have Quickbooks Pro 2011 that I’ll be using for the accounting end of things but it’ll be hard to beat the simplicity and efficiency of Customer Factor for scheduling and invoicing.
I’ll know more about it when I’m much more familiar with Quickbooks 2011, but for now I’m staying with Customer Factor.
i could never imagine Steve being anything but patient and helpful. i have used The Customer Factor for almost 2 years now and Steve has never not followed through with responding to questions and has gone so far above and beyond what he really needed to to help with anything i needed, and sometimes it had literally nothing to do with the customer factor at all.i would highly recommend this to anyone. Steve is a great guy, and i imagine we arent getting the whole story on him sending some less than freindly emails or whatever.
pay per month to use? it’s $300 a year…no thanks.
Same her. I love it
I love “The Customer Factor”. Steve has been awesome to me.
Hi Everyone,
A current member of The Customer Factor pointed this thread out to me, so I figured I’d take a moment and reply to a few of the posts made.
I havnt had any problems yet. I back everything up on Microsoft Excel. i dont agree with everything Steve Wright says, and sometimes i wonder if he ever cleaned windows. What problems have you heard of?
Kyle, it’s always a good idea to back up anything you do or any data you have, so you can do this easily within The Customer Factor from the bottom of the search results screen.
That’s no problem on agreeing with everything I say. I’m the first one to admit that I most definitely don’t have all the answers. 
However since I can’t remember what I may or may not have said that might have created a disagreement, perhaps your statement applies more towards some of the features that have been released into The Customer Factor?
If so, then it’s only natural to not agree with some of the features released. No one software product will be perfect for each and every user. We create new features though based on member suggestions, so overall we try and create features and tweak existing features to accommodate everyone. Does it work all the time? No. But that’s no problem because anything within the software can be enhanced for the better.
And yes…I did clean windows. I was in the window cleaning business from 1997 to 2002. This is the only reason why The Customer Factor was created. I started working on it in 2003. So although when the software was first released in 2004, it was very basic, it has grown up over the years with more and more features being added to enhance the functionality.
But if you see something that you need in the software for your business, then give me a call. We’ve spoken a few times about your website and hosting, so as you know, I can be easily reached at 256-546-2446. Or you can send us a support ticket when you’re logged into The Customer Factor.
There are a few guys on this forum that used his service didn’t find value in it for their business and after discontinuing received rude and vulgar e-mails from Steve.
Hopefully you never decide to leave the service or you could be in for a browbeating courtesy of Steve.
Tony, this is untrue as I’ll show you below. However there is a former member who I did let have it after he requested a refund (twice), so I’ll talk about that in a minute.
First…here is an exact email that I sent a user last week who made a cancellation request:
[I]Hi Mike,
As per your request, your account with The Customer Factor will be closed and all associated data deleted. It’ll remain open however 'til the end of the current billing period which is 12/27/10. And no future charges will take place.
If you took advantage of our free hosting plan offered through 5.88webhosting.com, that’s not available to non-members, so please go through regular channels at 5.88webhosting.com by 12/27 in order to avoid an interruption in your web hosting. If you don’t have your website hosted with 5.88webhosting.com, please disregard.
Thank you for your patronage and best of luck in future endeavors.
Steve
The Customer Factor
If you have any questions, you can reach our support department at:
Ph: 1-256-546-2446. Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm CST
Email: [email protected]
[/I]
Not sure how the above email could be termed “rude”, “vulgar” or a “browbeating”.
I fully understand that a subscription based product will not keep 100% of the people who sign up. That’s just not possible. Some folks will leave because maybe they need the product to have a feature that is currently not in the software, some folks may leave because they’re getting out of the business, other folks may leave because maybe they have a business that is more product focused, etc. etc.
I never ask “why” someone is leaving because that’s none of my business. I simply refund the payment in full if it’s within 30 days of them signing up (we have a 30 day 100% money back guarantee) or I cancel their account at the end of their billing period if it’s after 30 days of them signing up.
Now the above was an email sent to someone canceling their account. Below is an email I sent to someone requesting a refund recently:
[I]Hi David,
As per your request, your account with The Customer Factor has been closed, the account data (if any) has been deleted, and we’ve eliminated your email address from our database. Plus a full refund has been issued and no future charges will take place.
If you took advantage of our free hosting plan offered through 5.88webhosting.com, that’s not available to non-members, so please go through regular channels at 5.88webhosting.com right away in order to avoid an interruption in your web hosting. If you don’t have your website hosted with 5.88webhosting.com, please disregard.
Thank you for your patronage and best of luck in future endeavors.
Regards,
Steve
The Customer Factor
If you have any questions, you can reach our support department at:
Ph: 1-256-546-2446. Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm CST
Email: [email protected]
[/I]
Again, “rude”, “vulgar”, or a “browbeating”? Not at all. The only difference between the two emails is that when someone requests a refund, the account is closed right away because if a refund is issued, the account was technically never paid for. The person requesting the refund should understand that, so if they had any data in their account, I’m sure they exported it or removed it prior to requesting the refund/account closure. If not, we have an extra security feature in place that allows my programmer to reactivate an account after it’s been deleted so that the user can login and retrieve any data he or she may need.
Now the email you may be referring to as “rude” is one I sent to a member who requested a refund twice. This in my opinion is a complete waste of everyone’s time. Why would someone sign up, request a refund, sign up again and request a refund again? That’s just weird.
I’d like to provide proof of what I’m saying by attaching two attachments to this post showing that a refund was issued to this gentleman twice.
Putting it in window cleaning terms, let’s say a window cleaner provides a 100% satisfaction guarantee for their work. A customer comes by and has you clean their windows. They’re not satisfied so you agree to refund their money. Normally at this point you wouldn’t do their windows again. But let’s say they decided to give you another go, so they hire you to clean their windows one more time. They again aren’t happy, so they ask you for a refund a second time. Would you seriously consider doing their windows a third time? Of course not.
So although I probably could have been a bit more politically correct when writing my email, the main jist of the email still stands and that is that he’s not welcome back into The Customer Factor. There’s nothing wrong with declining to do business with someone. Any window cleaner should do the same thing if they have a customer who is out to waste their time. The saying “the customer is always right” doesn’t hold water when dealing with serial refunders.
Why is that Dejay? If you don’t back up everything you do w/ CF and you upset Steve you won’t get access to those records.
This is extremely inaccurate and totally off base. The lifeblood of any business is their data, so the most important thing we can do is protect it and provide access to it 24/7. So upsetting me has nothing to do with anything. I only get upset when someone requests back to back refunds. So please don’t spread these types of falsehoods around. If you knew me or if you knew our company, then you would know that data is treated with utmost importance around here.
I have been using Customer Factor for a few months now and I like it. I seen a few problems and emailed Steve and they were fixed. I think for a small to medium business its great. I just don’t feel to safe just useing google calenders.
I appreciate your comments DJ. By the way, you called last week with a request for an option to assign subuser/non administrators “no pricing” when that subuser is on the prospect and customer profile/search results screens. This will get taken care of, so thanks in advance for your patience. An excellent suggestion.
I am currently using the Customer Factor. It’s a great tool for keeping track of a lot of otherwise paperwork and other necessary business tasks. It’s real cheap to use and there is free webhosting with Steve’s webhosting company, if you use it.
Regarding Steve Wright’s character. I bought his program when I decided to get into the window cleaning biz. It has helped me a great deal. And he is a great guy to deal with. I call him all the time. If he is not around when I call. I’ll leave him a message and he gets back to me real quick. He is very helpful when I have questions. And I have quite a few. He has also been patient in answering them the best he can. Again he has been nothing but helpful and accommodating.
Thanks for your comments Peter. And your business is appreciated. It was nice talking with you this week. If you need any SEO assistance, please let me know.
In late 2008 I retired from IBM after 27 years in the software business and purchased a window cleaning business that was totally paper-based and manual. I selected The Customer Factor and I am very happy with my decision. We have over 6500 customers in the system now and have invoiced over 10,000 jobs in just over two years and the system runs great. No down-time and no real problems to speak of.
My two estimators can get to their daily route schedules from their cell phones and I can get to my data from any computer connected to the net. When I need to hire a new CSR I just have them spend a few hours watching the training videos and they are off and running. If we ever have a question we just call Steve and 95% of the time he answers the phone and solves our problem. (Evenings and weekend, he never stops working – it’s amazing) When we offer suggestions for improvements they usually end up in the next upgrade.
When I was in software sales I always told my customers that my goal once their software was installed was to have them say that our company provided them the best “value for money” of any of their software vendors. I sold $5 million of system to TJ Max, the world largest discount clothing retailer, $3 million of systems to RR Donnelly and Sons the world’s largest printer and many more Fortune One Hundred companies. I have a good understanding of every major software vendor and I can honestly say that The Customer Factor provides more “value for money” than any other software vendor.
Thanks for your comments Patrick and thanks for your business. Sorry for the delay on that assignment feature for estimates, but we finally were able to release it yesterday as you know. And we’ve got some additional nifty features being introduced soon, so please stay tuned.
[I]I’ve been using Customer Factor lately and really like it. I also have Quickbooks Pro 2011 that I’ll be using for the accounting end of things but it’ll be hard to beat the simplicity and efficiency of Customer Factor for scheduling and invoicing.
I’ll know more about it when I’m much more familiar with Quickbooks 2011, but for now I’m staying with Customer Factor.[/I]
Thanks for your comments and we appreciate your business.
As a quick note, are you familiar with our quickbooks feature? When you’re logged into your account, run your mouse over the “Business Center” tab in the navigation area. You’ll see a dropdown that says “Quickbooks”. This feature allows you to insert your data into The Customer Factor and then click one button and copy it over into quickbooks. No more duplicate entry for those members who want to also work with Quickbooks in addition to The Customer Factor.
You can copy data over on auto pilot daily, weekly, once a month, etc. So the two software applications actually talk to one another. It’s not like you have to export data out of The Customer Factor and then import it into quickbooks. I mention this because someone recently thought that this is all this feature did. No. It’s much simpler than that. So please contact us and we’ll walk you through it if you’re not familiar with what it’s all about.
i could never imagine Steve being anything but patient and helpful. i have used The Customer Factor for almost 2 years now and Steve has never not followed through with responding to questions and has gone so far above and beyond what he really needed to to help with anything i needed, and sometimes it had literally nothing to do with the customer factor at all.i would highly recommend this to anyone. Steve is a great guy, and i imagine we arent getting the whole story on him sending some less than freindly emails or whatever.
I appreciate your comments and we most definitely appreciate your business. Please let me know if you need any assistance with anything.
pay per month to use? it’s $300 a year…no thanks.
I can definitely understand your thoughts on that. Subscriptions aren’t really a whole lot of fun to pay. However with that said, The Customer Factor is an expensive program to maintain and to create new features for. So there is no other solution except to go with a subscription based pricing model. A one time payment model wouldn’t work for this type of product. At least not if we want to introduce new features regularly.
A couple things to note: We charge $24.95 per month. There are no set up fees and no extra fees of any kind. But yet throughout the years new features are always being introduced. This costs money. So we pay for this from our subscriptions. No member ever gets hit up with a request for extra money.
Some software developers will produce a basic version of their software, but if you want this feature/module, it costs $xx or if you want that feature/module, it costs $xx. Other software products go with a one time pricing model, but when they introduce an updated version, they’ll ask their existing users for more money. Of course you don’t have to buy it, but if you don’t buy an updated version at some point, you’ll eventually end up with an outdated software product that is missing key functionality that is needed in today’s technology driven world.
So we simply eliminate all that stuff and ask our members for a flat $24.95 per month and no extra money or fees…ever. So yes it’s $300 a year, but if used regularly, the software will make that back to any member in spades. We all only have so much time to take care of all the tasks required in our business, so this automates many aspects of our business to the nth degree.
Same her. I love it
Thank you for your comments and we appreciate your business.
I love “The Customer Factor”. Steve has been awesome to me.
Thanks Kurt. I appreciate it. If you have any questions or feature requests, please let us know.
So thanks for reading this loooooong post. If anyone has questions about anything, they can call my office at 256-546-2446 or send us an email at [email protected]. Take care, have a great day, and have a very Merry Christmas.
Regards,
Steve
