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Lately, I have been spending time each week researching various business software, seeking to find the key features that residential service businesses need.  I have been finding multiple applications that have what are needed if they are all used together…but the applications can’t or won’t talk to each other because the vendor hasn’t chosen to provide that “feature” ( #softwareintegrations ).  

No wonder small businesses #startups fail frequently! Affordable, comprehensive tools that support end-to-end business processes are difficult, if not impossible to find!

What follows is a more detailed look at some of the most commonly “forgotten” features that I have seen. Most every product I have looked at so far (aimed specifically at small- to medium-sized businesses) is missing at least 2-3, if not more of these features.

This list includes a brief description as to why the feature is helpful for a residential service business:

• Integrated customer management #CRM
  • What marketing method has the best return? How fast are you converting your prospects to actual contacts with work on the schedule? How fast do they pay their bills? What friends did they refer?
• Telephony integration
  • When you get a call from one of your contacts, their info pops up on the screen. If you’re not available, the call goes to a corresponding voicemail box for the purpose of the call (request for quote, current job question, payment, warranty issue, etc.)
• Digital signatures
  • Sign an estimate, change order, invoice, etc.
• Both estimation & invoicing
  • Compare the estimate/proposal with the actual invoice to see what was missed, changed or added. How accurate are your initial estimates?
• Project management (with reusable task lists for each type of job)
  • If a job always has the same 5 tasks that need to be completed…can you have those tasks as the default and then manage to them?
• 2-way integration with your Accounting #bookkeeping tool, typically QuickBooks or Xero
  • Can you add a new material/part within the business system and have it flow into QuickBooks, or does it have to be added to QuickBooks to flow into your other systems?
• Document management
  • Attach signed estimates, etc. to each service job, along with relevant permits, inspections, or other documentation.
• Image uploads with markups
  • Before and after photos, markups showing what needs to be fixed or updated, specific questions to/from customers specific to their job/facility/etc.
• Mobile App
  • For use in the field, a mobile app with nearly all the same features needs to be used by your workers. Does it take a ton of time at the end of the day, capturing/logging what work was done, or do they simply click a checkbox showing that a task was completed?
• Data access (We are a data-enabling business, so there’s extra stuff in this one) for
  • 1) Data backups
    • Does the vendor hold your data hostage, or if you ever want to go somewhere else, do they allow you to download all of your information…or do you have to submit a request and wait for days?
  • 2) Offline access
    • If you are at a customer site that doesn’t have internet, can your employees still make updates to the job, so that the corporate office knows the status?
    • If your power goes out, can you still run your business?
  • 3) Consolidated reporting across multiple systems
    • Since it is rare to find an all-in-one, affordable (for small- to medium- businesses) business system, how do you build reports across your multiple systems to keep track of everything. Is it all manual because it has to be that way?
    • How profitable were you with each job? How much unproductive time did each technician have this week?
  • 4) Security
    • Is your data encrypted when it is just sitting in your business systems (at rest) and when it is being sent to a mobile device or web application (in transit)? If not, then someone might be able sniff out your customer list, estimates, etc.
      • If your web application site address starts with “https:” then that is a good thing.
• Flexible job and technician scheduling
  • Is the calendaring drag-and-drop simple, by day, week, and month? Can you look at the schedule by technician, by a crew or team, or across all teams? If you need to move a job, can you just drag it where it needs to go? Does the system help assign jobs based on which technician/team is closest, already?
• Customer portal ( #customerfirst )
  • Can the customer see the status of the work they’re paying for? Can they see the schedule? Can they request a phone call or click to call you? Can they submit a change request? Can they see (or share) photos that are being taken as the job progresses? Customer communication is super important in this digitally-connected world.
• Payments
  • Can the customer pay online or via the mobile app (or either?), so you don’t have to wait for payment and the customer can pay by credit card?
• Time Tracking
  • If you capture the clock-in and clock-out of each employee on each job, then you have better visibility into how long jobs take, how long they spent travelling, etc.
• Inventory Management
  • Most jobs require some types of supplies, if not actual parts that you itemize to sell. If you use Just-In-Time (#JIT) inventory management, then this isn’t as critical until and unless you start stocking inventory (for bulk purchase savings or seasonal discounts). Knowing how you’re moving through your inventory can be critical. That inventory is an asset of your company that needs to be managed.

…and that’s the list for today.

If you or someone you know has a small- to medium-sized business, then they could very well have headaches due to lack of one or more of these missing “features”.

Hopefully, we can help, even using the software that they are already using!

Give us a call @ Magnify Development to find out: 503-855-8877

What are your thoughts? What did we miss? If you use software that has all of these “missing” features, feel free to share!