Best Software recomendations.

[Noel]

Lads, Ladies & Gentlemen.

I am looking for advice on which software to get. I have been using MS excel for the last 5 years and it has been simple & done the job.

However as we are scaling up i'm looking for software that will make life easy for our team.

We use GoCardless so perhaps something that works with GC? 

Sugestions Pros & Cons welcome!!

 

[Wind o kleen]

Lads, Ladies & Gentlemen.

I am looking for advice on which software to get. I have been using MS excel for the last 5 years and it has been simple & done the job.

However as we are scaling up i'm looking for software that will make life easy for our team.

We use GoCardless so perhaps something that works with GC? 

Sugestions Pros & Cons welcome!!

Aworka.com £12 a month first 6 weeks free 

 

[Base Window Cleaners]

For the last 6 months we have been using a simple, nice fast, powerful computer program called Jobber to manage our window cleaning customers.  We trialed a few others and this was by far the most suitable. 

Here is a link to Jobber and a free month referral subscription:  http://share.getjobber.com/mQgcv6B

What do we like about it:

- New website customer details are in the system from the beginning, we can click a link to see their property on Google Maps
- All types of scheduling options
- Email appointment reminders (Text Appointment Reminders in Canada and other parts of the world, not yet available in Ireland)     
- Scheduling using the map to plan the best route for the vans - we increased the van income and reduced daily working time from Day 1, by doing more jobs and less driving between jobs - paid for the subscription in 1 or 2 days.
- Quote sending and auto follow-up reminders (presently surprised at how well this works to get jobs in this busy email inbox world - I would say this has covered the cost of subscription 5 times )
- Invoicing and late repayment reminders - super fast and easy
- Phone App is fantastic
- Incorporates Stripe so we can take card payments on the job - what's better is that it allocates the card payment to the invoice
- The user interface is relaxed, fast, straightforward


Cost:

We are on the top subscription level at ~€200 per month, possibly rising to €250 per month later.  I know this is expensive but it pays for itself in 1 or 2 days and it manages the customer and jobs from start to finish.  We have hours more free time and increased income.  New Requests, Quotes, Jobs and Invoices are just a click to see on the system.

Why did we change:

At the end of every day i had a bunch of new customer leads to follow up on.  I then had to schedule the jobs on the calendar.  I then had to correlate the payments to the customers.  In short it was a days work after doing a days work - I was shattered trying to keep it all in order.  Now this is all managed in the program and I enjoy running this business.  Life changing investment.  

Click on the link to give it a try.  We negotiated a lower price for 6 months at the start.  

Here is the link to Jobber and a free month referral subscription:  http://share.getjobber.com/mQgcv6B

In fact - if you go to our website you can see the information we collect direct into Jobber (you can copy and edit this this for your jobber form) from customers when they enquire - test it, submit a test Job Enquiry and we will send you a reply : )  

Hope you, your family and team are all well during this time where Covid is making life difficult.

 

[D-avid]

Aworka works for me £12 a month and trial period. You can link it to GoCardless too. It can txt customer at an extra cost (I just use pulse sms ), also invoicing, route planning, expenses, mileage etc. Questions on use are answered in good time.

 

[Iron Giant]

For the last 6 months we have been using a simple, nice fast, powerful computer program called Jobber to manage our window cleaning customers.  We trialed a few others and this was by far the most suitable. 

Here is a link to Jobber and a free month referral subscription:  http://share.getjobber.com/mQgcv6B

What do we like about it:

- New website customer details are in the system from the beginning, we can click a link to see their property on Google Maps
- All types of scheduling options
- Email appointment reminders (Text Appointment Reminders in Canada and other parts of the world, not yet available in Ireland)     
- Scheduling using the map to plan the best route for the vans - we increased the van income and reduced daily working time from Day 1, by doing more jobs and less driving between jobs - paid for the subscription in 1 or 2 days.
- Quote sending and auto follow-up reminders (presently surprised at how well this works to get jobs in this busy email inbox world - I would say this has covered the cost of subscription 5 times )
- Invoicing and late repayment reminders - super fast and easy
- Phone App is fantastic
- Incorporates Stripe so we can take card payments on the job - what's better is that it allocates the card payment to the invoice
- The user interface is relaxed, fast, straightforward


Cost:

We are on the top subscription level at ~€200 per month, possibly rising to €250 per month later.  I know this is expensive but it pays for itself in 1 or 2 days and it manages the customer and jobs from start to finish.  We have hours more free time and increased income.  New Requests, Quotes, Jobs and Invoices are just a click to see on the system.

Why did we change:

At the end of every day i had a bunch of new customer leads to follow up on.  I then had to schedule the jobs on the calendar.  I then had to correlate the payments to the customers.  In short it was a days work after doing a days work - I was shattered trying to keep it all in order.  Now this is all managed in the program and I enjoy running this business.  Life changing investment.  

Click on the link to give it a try.  We negotiated a lower price for 6 months at the start.  

Here is the link to Jobber and a free month referral subscription:  http://share.getjobber.com/mQgcv6B

In fact - if you go to our website you can see the information we collect direct into Jobber (you can copy and edit this this for your jobber form) from customers when they enquire - test it, submit a test Job Enquiry and we will send you a reply : )  

Hope you, your family and team are all well during this time where Covid is making life difficult.

To put it bluntly it sounds like you are been ripped off doesn't matter even if you have a multi van operation you can have 5 users with https://www.cleanerplanner.com/pricing/ at a monthly cost of £49 

 

[Noel]

Aworka works for me £12 a month and trial period. You can link it to GoCardless too. It can txt customer at an extra cost (I just use pulse sms ), also invoicing, route planning, expenses, mileage etc. Questions on use are answered in good time.

I have two GoCardless accounts, Is it possible to link up both accounts?

 

[D-avid]

I'm not sure, you'd have to get in touch with Aworka support.

 

[Base Window Cleaners]

To put it bluntly it sounds like you are been ripped off doesn't matter even if you have a multi van operation you can have 5 users with https://www.cleanerplanner.com/pricing/ at a monthly cost of £49 

Good tread.  Cheaper alternative - we will change if we find it.  Not getting ripped off to our knowledge as we have not found a cheaper alternative.

Yesterday we trialed the software you proposed (Cleaner Planner) and also the Aworka software.  These look good for a business that has generally a Regular Round.

For us, not suitable because they do not give the function of showing all the customer locations on a Map.  

Yes we have a Regular Round (say 20% which grows each day).  However, we have in the region of 4-8 new customers booking every day.  We need to schedule the van to travel most efficiently around the city.  It's the visual Map Scheduling function in Jobber that is winning it for us.  

I will say that our jobs are mostly big jobs - we don't take on low price jobs - in case you think we are driving all over the city for no profit.  Of course, using the map scheduler we can do a couple of small jobs in that area or on route to the next job.

 

[Iron Giant]

Good tread.  Cheaper alternative - we will change if we find it.  Not getting ripped off to our knowledge as we have not found a cheaper alternative.

Yesterday we trialed the software you proposed (Cleaner Planner) and also the Aworka software.  These look good for a business that has generally a Regular Round.

For us, not suitable because they do not give the function of showing all the customer locations on a Map.  

Yes we have a Regular Round (say 20% which grows each day).  However, we have in the region of 4-8 new customers booking every day.  We need to schedule the van to travel most efficiently around the city.  It's the visual Map Scheduling function in Jobber that is winning it for us.  

I will say that our jobs are mostly big jobs - we don't take on low price jobs - in case you think we are driving all over the city for no profit.  Of course, using the map scheduler we can do a couple of small jobs in that area or on route to the next job.

I've never seen the value in a mapping integration within an app  as if you know your area well enough then planning jobs out is easy enough, as for organising jobs that are one offs within CP & Aworka you have the option to schedule a job(s) as a one off or whatever schedule suits, I would have thought saving over a £100+ a month by using an alternative app would easily out way a little extra admin 

 

[harunh]

I use cleanerplanner, cant imagine changing to anyone else to be honest

 

[Base Window Cleaners]

I've never seen the value in a mapping integration within an app  as if you know your area well enough then planning jobs out is easy enough, as for organising jobs that are one offs within CP & Aworka you have the option to schedule a job(s) as a one off or whatever schedule suits, I would have thought saving over a £100+ a month by using an alternative app would easily out way a little extra admin 

We service an entire city 20km radius from our base.  Every day a van has a new route.  Most of the income is from new jobs and once-off jobs which come in daily.  

I am not saying you are wrong and I am right - just posting and reading posts to see what other people are using and how they do it.

The daily income for a van increased every day by €100-200 OR the guys finished earlier after we started to use Map Location Scheduling.  The higher cost of the software is actually paid off in 1 or 2 days.  The rest is increased income.

What I would say is that we give customers too many options for the repeat wash (Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly, 6 Weeks, 2 Months, 3 Months, 6 Months, Yearly) but for now we'll let that sit as the schedule is still fine for it.

 

[Iron Giant]

We service an entire city 20km radius from our base.  Every day a van has a new route.  Most of the income is from new jobs and once-off jobs which come in daily.  

I am not saying you are wrong and I am right - just posting and reading posts to see what other people are using and how they do it.

The daily income for a van increased every day by €100-200 OR the guys finished earlier after we started to use Map Location Scheduling.  The higher cost of the software is actually paid off in 1 or 2 days.  The rest is increased income.

What I would say is that we give customers too many options for the repeat wash (Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly, 6 Weeks, 2 Months, 3 Months, 6 Months, Yearly) but for now we'll let that sit as the schedule is still fine for it.

I can fully appreciate what you are saying as you know your business best, thought it was certainly worth mentioning the other options in case you were totally unaware of these as the apps which  I have mentioned as they have been top of tree in the UK for a good number of years and also across Europe and beyond and maybe 10 times cheaper per month.

 

[TruWFP]

We service an entire city 20km radius from our base.  Every day a van has a new route.  Most of the income is from new jobs and once-off jobs which come in daily.  

I am not saying you are wrong and I am right - just posting and reading posts to see what other people are using and how they do it.

The daily income for a van increased every day by €100-200 OR the guys finished earlier after we started to use Map Location Scheduling.  The higher cost of the software is actually paid off in 1 or 2 days.  The rest is increased income.

What I would say is that we give customers too many options for the repeat wash (Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly, 6 Weeks, 2 Months, 3 Months, 6 Months, Yearly) but for now we'll let that sit as the schedule is still fine for it.

The @Squeegee App has a in built map function that you can optimise the route to give the best order to do it in and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than what you’re currently paying, maybe worth a look 

 

[Dave B]

The @Squeegee App has a in built map function that you can optimise the route to give the best order to do it in and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than what you’re currently paying, maybe worth a look 

I have gone back to spreadsheet with formulas.

All my round apart from commercials are on 6 weekly only nowadays as opposed to the monthly, 2 monthly and quarterly before which was harder to manage.

That and the fact I have been recommending squeegee.app for ages but having issues all the time with it I have given up and gone back to basics.

I have a very good knowledge of excel and access if needed and very good at comples formulas etc so very easy to knock up a spreadsheet to do it all and give me all the figures on a seperate sheet for hmrc purposes. 

Not bothering with software anymore as it's not necessary for me.

 

[dmw]

I've got a tatty old cash book and a pen.

Still stuck in the eighties.

But its free.

 

[Noel]

Good tread.  Cheaper alternative - we will change if we find it.  Not getting ripped off to our knowledge as we have not found a cheaper alternative.

Yesterday we trialed the software you proposed (Cleaner Planner) and also the Aworka software.  These look good for a business that has generally a Regular Round.

For us, not suitable because they do not give the function of showing all the customer locations on a Map.  

Yes we have a Regular Round (say 20% which grows each day).  However, we have in the region of 4-8 new customers booking every day.  We need to schedule the van to travel most efficiently around the city.  It's the visual Map Scheduling function in Jobber that is winning it for us.  

I will say that our jobs are mostly big jobs - we don't take on low price jobs - in case you think we are driving all over the city for no profit.  Of course, using the map scheduler we can do a couple of small jobs in that area or on route to the next job.

4-8 new customers booking every day. How you generating so many leads daily??

 

[Base Window Cleaners]

4-8 new customers booking every day. How you generating so many leads daily??

Google Ads brings traffic to the website
Google Reviews are auto loaded to the website giving people confidence to contact
Over time I've put effort into getting the website to rank higher which is also getting customers

Randomly, we put these big advertising stickers on street boxes - they are immensely good.  Bang them outside schools, supermarkets and public walkways.  Cheapest advertising we have. 

 

[TruWFP]

Google Ads brings traffic to the website
Google Reviews are auto loaded to the website giving people confidence to contact
Over time I've put effort into getting the website to rank higher which is also getting customers

Randomly, we put these big advertising stickers on street boxes - they are immensely good.  Bang them outside schools, supermarkets and public walkways.  Cheapest advertising we have. 

Have you got any pictures of these sticker bud?  I have thought about this before but thought I’d get done for vandalism 

 

[Base Window Cleaners]

Have you got any pictures of these sticker bud?  I have thought about this before but thought I’d get done for vandalism 

Here you go.

Small - First design we started with - worked well but saw that we could go bigger (A4)

Medium - We have 2 designs; one for Window Cleaning (all used) and one for Gutter Cleaning - perfect (A3 i think)

Big - This is what we use now.  Why?  We were putting 2 stickers up each time (2 x A3) so we just combined (1 x A2)

If anyone wants the file or wants the designer's contact to tweak them for themselves message me.  I would say she would charge ~€100.  Then you just email to a good local printer.    

The Medium and Big Sticker work very well.  Some people just call the number.  Other people check the company and reviews on the internet, then call.  Other people see the sticker, read reviews and book through the website.  

These are stickers - peel off the back and stick - Matt Vinyl Finish.  However, we are now going to glue them so they last longer.  You could just get a good quality Matt Vinyl print and then glue them.  Why Glue?  On some locations they tend to peel.  Other locations no problem and they have been there for over a year with no issues.  We do notice some where a person (likely competitor) has ripped off the part with the contact details.

For my business, Google Reviews (Free), Google Ads (high cost) and Stickers (extreme low cost) are how i get 90% of the customers.  There's nothing to touch Google really.  I do have some other adverts running that gather a good few jobs - 1 News Paper for old people not on internet and a few online ads - but having time off to review everything with Covid i think i will stop them.  

One other thing - keep your Google my Business Page updated, post onto it every now and again AND get people to leave Google Reviews (these are free and very valuable for marketing).

There is a set of video courses by a guy called Keith Kalfas online - worth paying for an downloading.

Sun is beating down in Dublin.  Looks like we might be unlocked to work on the 5th of May.  We'll be doing 7 days a week, dark to dark!  : ))

 

[Noel]

Thanks for sharing the pictures! 

Black & white nice & simple! Similar to my signage.

Doddy111 mentioned vandalism, have you had any backlash for putting these stickers up?

 

[Base Window Cleaners]

Got 1 phone call from a residents group in a little private development.  They wanted paint the street box.  I told them to take it down themselves.  They were actually afraid to touch the sticker!   That's it!  Bang them up.  Get customers.