I did a search on them, but nothing that comes up is recent. I would like input on them from current users. I’m not interested if you are using someone else. I’m currently with Housecall Pro. I have been pretty happy with it up until the past couple of months. What has me intrigued with Service Monster is that it works with Responsibid. Responsibid works with NiceJob (formerly Hatch) and soon with Send Jim.
So…who’s with Service Monster and what can you say about them?
Wow. Nothing but crickets on this one. Lol. I was going to post the same question and thought I would do a search on it first. Looks like no one is interested in said thread.
Did you try out Service Monster and if so how did or do you like it? I’m looking for a good CRM right now and am interested in it. I was using Customer Factor but didn’t like it.
Following
Housecall pro is an option
What didn’t you like about TCF?
There were a few things. I can’t remember everything. First I didn’t like the over all software itself. It just didn’t seem navigation friendly and it wasn’t very visually appealing. You have to constantly click and navigate different places to get done what you need to get done and find the information you need. I had to constantly scroll up and down, open and close windows and links etc. I dreaded having to use it. I was constantly having to call Steve for help with it. I haven’t had the same problem with other software like QuickBooks etc. It just seemed to be overly complicated. It just seems my to me it needed an overhaul as far as the layout is concerned.
I also have some customer types that it didn’t accommodate like a single customer who has a cleaning contract with a company that has multiple locations. I had to create a separate customer just for that one account and manage the customers other jobs on a separate customer profile.
Also when I was using it the mobile app was very slim. When I first started there was no app, only a promise of an app to come which took a year to become available with constant reassurances that it was coming soon.
I didn’t like the overall business etiquette of the app if that’s the right term. Some of the forms and layouts seemed like they were trying to be professional but came across awkward to me.
Again don’t remember everything.
That said Steve was always very helpful and did his best to accommodate me where he could which is why I generally don’t give negative feedback on the software. Some guys love it. It just wasn’t my cup of tea. I wanted to like it as the price is great.
I almost think if he raised the price he could revamp it and make it more user friendly which would be well worth the added cost. Again that’s just my opinion and others seem to feel different. It’s been a year or two since I dropped it so he could have made changes since.
That sounds about like what my experience has been so far. I like it in a lot of ways. The program is obviously useful and there is a ton of functionality on the full site. But some of the operations are awkward and non-intuitive.
Exactly. It’s almost like you can’t put your finger on it. It just seems cumbersome to use when other software that is just as robust has a much smoother and simpler interface that is much more user friendly yet just as robust.
I ended up trying jobber. There were things that I liked. It had a great integration with Responsibid and the job dispatching on the computer was a lot better. But that was about it. The biggest problem was they didn’t import past job history like HouseCall Pro did. I tried manually adding the last job and cost in the notes of each customer. That took forever with 20 customers and I had another 460 to do. So I stopped searching. There are too many things that I like with HCP. I may revisit the idea of switching again in 6 months when my next subscription payment is due. We just have too much going on with hiring 3 part time employees.
What do you like about house call pro?
Scheduling, mobile app, interface, qb online connection, online booking, reminder emails and postcards, reports
But like anything there is nothing perfect and i do think service providers tend to be an overly picky bunch with these types of software systems
with tcf you have to get used to look and yes at times it feels like it’s more work than it needs to be to get somewhere but…
even though steve has not raised the price (yet) he works constantly on improvements.
tcf came out early as far as crm/field service software goes and he built in a lot of powerful stuff that then had to be reenigineered to work with all the new systems. later entries were able to build a few functions but make them look really slick because they started with newer platforms.
i did not try service monster but i did try MANY as listed in other threads.
usually i found they were EITHER good crms or good field service but never both. tcf is the only one i have found that is both. it’s not perfect but it was a big part of significantly increasing my business last year.
That’s been the dilemma as well. We’re with housecall pro but are looking at switching. I like the design but it is lacking many of the powerful features found within tcf. It’s just not robust. Each system has benefits and there may not be one perfect software, to do that, you would probably need to design your own.
yes i hcp was one i tried and many on here like it but it did not have nearly enough crm function as compared to tcf.
What powerful features are you looking for that HCP doesn’t have? We are always monitoring threads and suggestions on our Facebook group to build!
Hi Roland, we decided to continue with housecall pro. After analyzing the different crms we wanted to stick with that platform. It was the best from what we saw. Initially we were looking for a program that had more marketing features and additional crm functions. There are easy work arounds in hcp that will do what we do need done and for more robust email marketing campaigns, we’ll just use a dedicated software for that (mailchimp) and export and import files into it
Yeah, it’s best to use Mailchimp. It’s free forever for 2,000 customers and 12k emails a month. Also, when using them you don’t have to worry about invoice email deliverability rate going down from doing blasts since you’ll be doing it from their platform!
With HouseCall Pro we focus on the transactional emails that are triggered automatically and keeping those send and deliverability rates high!
Hello Roland,
The one thing that I wish was added would be to be able to send multiple addresses serviced in one invoice. I know they do batch invoicing but I don’t believe it’s the same thing. I want to service 5 locations and send one invoice that lists the different locations but still totals the price to one invoice. That way I don’t have to make and send so many. Also that way my customer doesn’t have to open and pay multiple invoices each month. Hope that helps. Love the software though, very pleased.
Are all locations billed to one customer? If so you can definitely send it to one person to pay them all in a summed invoice. http://rlnd.co/3I1J083o020W
