7 Ways Plumber Business Software Can Cut Costs and Save Time
1. Keeping All Customer Information Up-to-Date
When you first start your company, you might not yet have any employees and only a limited number of customers, so it's easy to keep track of everyone's details and maintenance schedule. But as businesses grow, it becomes much harder for the owners and workers to remain organized. At some point, you'll have to come up with a system that allows you to easily store, track, and change customer information.
Home service software is the perfect solution. With a program like ServiceBox, you can quickly review each person's details and service history. That way, all your employees are able to offer customers a tailored service, even if they've never worked with this particular person before. You can also track payments to make sure there are no unpaid invoices and generate alerts for recurring work orders.
2. Easy Scheduling
The best home service programs come with an easy scheduler that helps you to keep track of your employees' tasks. You'll be able to see an overview of each person's day and drag and drop tasks into free time slots. When you update someone's schedule with a new work order, they automatically receive this information on their mobile devices, so there's no chance that they'll miss an assignment.
Even better, your employees can give you feedback about the tasks they're working on. If they are running late, or if they've completed a task more quickly than expected, they'll simply send you an update, and you can adjust their schedule as needed.
3. Converting Quotes Into Work Orders and Invoices
When you're approached by a new customer, the first thing you'll do is analyze their request and come up with a competitive estimate or quote. The more professional and personalized this is, the better your chances of landing the job. With home service software, you can create new quotes from anywhere and tailor them to your customer's needs.
Not only is it possible to show or hide a breakdown of the costs, but the program also allows you to add signatures, attachments, and a personal message. Once your customer has accepted your quote, you can turn this into a work order for your employees, and after the work has been completed, the work order can be transformed into an invoice. This saves you an enormous amount of time that would have otherwise been spent on admin.
4. Quick Advertising
Once you've been in business for some years, you'll start to pick up customers through word of mouth and referrals. But it takes a while to get to that point, and in the meantime, you'll need to market your services. Most businesses find that a mix of offline and online advertisements works best. Software for plumbers helps you to improve your digital marketing strategies because the program does a full audit of your website.
That way, you'll optimize your search engine strategies and pick up new customers organically. ServiceBox also allows you to view your social media content, Google Analytics, and Google My Business in one dashboard. Another helpful feature is the "Reviews Generator," which automatically distributes your good reviews to general and industry-specific websites, where customers might be looking for plumbing services.
5. Accessing Information from Anywhere
One of the most important features of home service software is that it is accessible from virtually anywhere. After setting up your system, you and your employees will be able to access ServiceBox from mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. This makes it easy to keep track of work orders and schedules, even when you are out and about or at home.
You can also configure the program to send you notifications reminding you to follow up with customers or pay your bills. With this tool, you're much less likely to forget something or make a mistake that costs you a lot of money.
6. Easy Accounting
Most companies hire an accountant to handle their tax return. By compiling all your information ahead of time and making sure everything's clear, you simplify and speed up your accountant's job, which means that they'll bill you fewer hours. Good home service software connects with QuickBooks and Sage 50 Canada, so you can send information directly to your accountant.
The ServiceBox accounting connector synchronizes your invoices and customer data to your accounting software, and it allows you to add in all your payments. When the time comes to do your annual tax return, you won't have to scramble to find the relevant information. Instead, it'll already be prepared for you, and you'll simply transfer it from one program to the other.
7. Keeping Track of Everyone's Hours
In the past, companies had to provide timesheets, and employees filled them in by hand. But this is no longer necessary because your workers can now simply "check in" and "check out" on their phones or tablets. With the help of GPS tracking, the accuracy of these check-ins and check-outs can be confirmed.
This makes it much easier for you to know how much to bill your customers, and it prevents any misunderstandings or complaints. It also helps you to keep your customers' projects on track and on budget. If a task takes significantly longer than you anticipated, you'll be able to let your customer know right away.
If you have a small plumbing business, or you're hoping to set one up soon, look into home service software. A good program allows you to store your customer data, schedule work, easily create quotes and invoices, improve your advertising strategy, work from anywhere, and keep track of your employees' working hours. Send us a message at ServiceBox to find out more about our plumber business software or to start your free demo.
