Service monster question

[knoxclean]

I called the twice about an issue and I still am not getting the answer that I think is correct. Here's what I want to do. I want to stop using their mailing cards and use my own and mail my own. Each week they have a list appear with the current mailings due. All I want to do is export that list that is right there in front of me but there is no export button. (I assume on purpose because they want you to use them for the mailings) They have an export button on every other place there is a list except there and they say I can't export that list. They say I can run a campaign to get that list but when doing so I have found it is not the same list of customers. They even walked me through the process. The list I wanted for 3 month reminders had 60 clients on it when they had me make a new campaign there was like 92 on the list.
Those of you that send your own cards how do you capture that list?

 

[Nate The Great]

I'd screen shot it and save it to MS Word, just to make sure I had a proper copy of the list... I don't use SM though...

 

[knoxclean]

There should be a way to export it to excel and print labels

 

[Mikey P]

You don't like their cards or can do it cheaper?

 

[idreadnought]

changing my reminder card system is on my list of to do's. I like the idea of a thank you card in an envelope but I would rather have postcards for reminders. People are lazy and I sometimes wonder how many of the reminder cards are opened. If I sent a postcard they could easily read the back and stick it on the fridge. Also the cost would be less than half to have a company send postcards on demand.

David, how or what are you planning to use to send reminders? In house or a postcard print/mail on demand company?

 

[hogjowl]

Gargan is a cheap bastard. I mean, any guy that would send a van across country to have a unit installed just to save a couple of bucks is surely going to save 30 cents a card by mailing them himself.

Right?

 

[Royal Man]

I export them to excel and then do a mail merge into publisher. If you don't know how to do this there are videos on you tube.

 

[Terry]

David - Go to marketing - then campaign set up a recent customer list and use filters to program. I think the difference between the numbers is because of a filter issue that they should be able to help you with - might be that one of the lists includes both invoices created and processed during that time.

 

[knoxclean]

Sure I can do it cheaper Mike. SM is what about $1.30 a card? I can get post cards for about .04 each plus a .34 stamp No brainer. With 2 girls in the office they can print the labels and stamp them in their down time. I'll save several hundred monthly. As for the Thank you cards we switched to having the techs write their own and include a personal message for each job they do each day.

 

[knoxclean]

Thanks Terry I was able to figure it out from the marketing tab and then use the "label" feature. Your right the list is slightly different doing an end around but I can adjust it. Just found it very frustrating that they don't put an export button on that main page. If you notice every other page with a list will have an export button on it except the one where the monthly mailings appear. Ummmm!

 

[Mikey P]

As for the Thank you cards we switched to having the techs write their own and include a personal message for each job they do each day.

oooohhohohooo


I can't even imagine what my guys would says about that...lol

 

[TomKing]

Call karen she will walk you through it. We do it every month.

 

[knoxclean]

Have them try it Mike. The reaction from the customers is amazing and really solidifies the experience when a personal note is written. When I used to clean I did the hand written notes but as the business grew I took the easy way out and went with cookie cutter preprinted cards. I always hated it but it was easy. Business is all about relationships. Companies that can connect with their customers on an emotional level will win big.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Have them try it Mike. The reaction from the customers is amazing and really solidifies the experience when a personal note is written. When I used to clean I did the hand written notes but as the business grew I took the easy way out and went with cookie cutter preprinted cards. I always hated it but it was easy. Business is all about relationships. Companies that can connect with their customers on an emotional level will win big.

Same as David, cheap ones from office depot handwritten. The marketer does it right now, he has nice writing.
Me not sooo much...

 

[idreadnought]

Sure I can do it cheaper Mike. SM is what about $1.30 a card? I can get post cards for about .04 each plus a .34 stamp No brainer. With 2 girls in the office they can print the labels and stamp them in their down time. I'll save several hundred monthly. As for the Thank you cards we switched to having the techs write their own and include a personal message for each job they do each day.

You are very fortunate that your office staff has time to label and stamp reminder cards. I am not so lucky. My office lady is very busy. For others like me that are looking to switch to a different process than service monster cards check out www.directmailmanager.com they charge 45 cents per postcard minimum of 1 to print label stamp and mail a postcard. You just upload the list and have the card you want to send picked out. Cost is $29 per month to subscribe.

I am putting this system into place as we speak. I am having my graphics guy do some postcards and then I will quit the service monster cards. I will continue the thank you cards but transition all reminders to postcards. I plan to up the frequency from 9.12.15 months to 9.11.12.13.15. I think this will help the customer to clean sooner if they are going to use us and I think the chance of the card hitting the fridge is higher when it is a postcard.


Service monster..... If you are reading this, please get the access levels figured out. The google calendar sync is not a very good solution. Allowing a tech to only see the route he is attached and print that route, does not seem like an impossible task however it causes me constant frustration and stress.

 

[Mikey P]

Have them try it Mike. The reaction from the customers is amazing and really solidifies the experience when a personal note is written.

So are they doing this the next morning?

Can we see a few examples?

 

[knoxclean]

Mike they do it at the end of the day when they are doing their paper work for the day. We use cards similar to Shanes above. An example would be:

Mrs Jones thanks for having us in your home yesterday to do your carpet cleaning. I enjoyed working for you and meeting your dog "Marty" and loved the story on how you rescued him. Thanks again

Tim
Eco Clean

 

[hogjowl]

You sure that dogs name wasn't Richard?

 

[Mikey P]

Mrs Jones thanks for having us in your home yesterday to do your carpet cleaning. I enjoyed working for you and meeting your dog "Marty" and loved watching him lick his own balls, I wish I could do that. Thanks again

Jimmy Ladwig
Eco Clean

 

[knoxclean]

I can see Jimmy writing that

 

[Desk Jockey]

Mrs Jones thanks for having us in your home yesterday to do your carpet cleaning. I enjoyed working for you and meeting your dog "Marty" and loved watching him lick his own balls, I wish I could do that. Thanks again

Jimmy Ladwig
Eco Clean