Any handyman worth their salt knows that having the right tool makes the job easier. A tile cutter will get the job done, but a saw can get it done faster and cut a wider range of tile types.
The same goes for handyman software, which can make the lives of you, your customers, and your employees run a little easier. Most people expect to be able to do everything online these days, including scheduling service and paying you. The right software makes it easy for you to offer those valuable services and present a more professional and progressive front.
When you start the hunt to buy handyman software, what features do you need and what should you expect? You need something that can function in the office and in the field along with being reliable and always available. Let’s take a look at what this particular tool can do for your business.
We'll cover how you can:
Customer management starts when someone reaches out to ask about whether you can take on a job for them. The right software allows you to easily get leads from your website and qualify them quickly by having them send in a picture of the project. You can make a better judgment as to whether the job is right for you and provide a better estimate without taking time to travel to the site.
With software that integrates into your website, customers don’t have to wait for office hours to log a request for a quote or repair. You can gather all the information needed to quote the job and send out a follow-up no matter when they contact you.
Communications tools within the software capture every customer exchange. This lets anyone on your team see what has already been discussed and agreed on for the job. Automation tools can handle sending out appointment reminders or schedule changes without you having to be involved.
Since most customers want to pay bills online these days, the invoicing and payment functions can make everyone happier. You’ll get paid faster and don’t have to make extra trips to the bank to deposit checks. Your customers can take care of your invoice with the same speed and ease with which they pay other bills.
Automated tools come in handy after the job is done as well. You can set up automatic receipts or requests to customers for reviews on Google, Yelp, and other platforms.
As you grow your business, you might have multiple jobs going at one time, all in different stages of completion. Software handyman tools can make it simpler to keep up with everyone, their job progress, and locations.
A key piece of your business software should be messaging tools. These can take advantage of automation again to send out reminders and tasks. The messages relay all the information a worker needs about the job, including supply lists, appointment times, and locations.
You can see at a glance where your workers are deployed and when they might finish a job and can be assigned to the next. Workers can log progress and problems for the project as well as their hours so you can accurately bill any by-the-hour jobs.
Your office team can also benefit from sales functions in the software. These might include call scripts with pre-loaded questions to ask customers who call in so they can better qualify the lead that way. Automated reminders ensure they capture all the information needed about the potential job and prospect.
Now that you have your software collecting all kinds of information, you should have the ability to manage your business at a deeper level than before. There’s no need to rely on gut instinct when you have hard numbers in front of you to use for making decisions.
Various sales metrics allow you to see how you’re doing on turning prospects into customers. Your closing ratio can tell you if you’re being competitive on your bids or need to reconsider your pricing. The percent of service requests that qualify for estimates can indicate whether you’re attracting the customers and jobs you want.
The numbers can also tell you basics like the number of total jobs done each day and the average ticket price. You can compare the cost of a job against what you estimated to refine your bidding process and ensure you’re pulling in enough profit.
Service reports allow you to focus your marketing efforts. You’ll be able to see if there are particular times of the month or year when you get more requests for particular types of work. You can also see which services perform well in terms of profit margins and which might need to have pricing adjustments made.
Team reports can show you how your office staff does with collecting customer data and closing deals after estimates go out. You can also track jobs to see which workers are completing them in a timely fashion.
Tracking customers allows you to see how many repeat customers you have and whether marketing efforts are bringing in new ones. Once you know more about when services sell well, you can filter customer data to run promotions to those who might have an interest or upcoming need.
It doesn’t take much to start a handyman business, but managing and growing it requires a plan for dealing with all the business tasks. Handyman software keeps you from being buried in paperwork and ups your customer service game through automation tools. The best handyman software also offers you invoicing, payment, and sales reports to help you run your business
If you’re considering a purchase of handyman software, contact us to see a demo of the Bidclips platform. Our business software offers all the features necessary for running a services company.