Website scheduling

[WillS]

Old school

 

[Desk Jockey]

I know




Old skool? huh...you do realize your cleaning method isn't exactly cutting edge.
Its more than 50 years old and hasn't changed much in that time.

 

[WillS]

In a little over a month now, we have booked a total of $4,500 through Fittlebug. We had 50 people sign up for accounts, not all booked, but that is 50 new email addresses. Best part - all of these bookings, none cancelled. It's nice that it allows us to collect a $25 deposit to.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Yeah well, if you listened to the larger residential operators at some volume point it can become a real hassle.

Dont listen to them tho, some of them have only been doing this for 30 years or something...

 

[smastio]

In a little over a month now, we have booked a total of $4,500 through Fittlebug. We had 50 people sign up for accounts, not all booked, but that is 50 new email addresses. Best part - all of these bookings, none cancelled. It's nice that it allows us to collect a $25 deposit to.

Actually more than 1/2 booked...
You have a different and interesting approach to letting people know. As you well know....

 

[The Great Oz]

Yeah well, if you listened to the larger residential operators at some volume point it can become a real hassle.
Dont listen to them tho, some of them have only been doing this for 30 years or something...

Or 80, but that isn't always a guarantee of the best information regarding technology and marketing. Some older companies get stuck in what worked back when and forget that the world changes - then age out of business along with their customer base.

Online scheduling is a good concept that will vary in usefulness depending on how tech-savvy the general population is in your area and if you can find a product that gives you the right balance of features, ease of use and cost, and then apply it in a way that works for you.

 

[WillS]

Shane, no matter how long someone has been running a business, they can get trapped in the same old ways of doing things. Getting advice on cleaning, equipment, etc. is highly valuable to me from someone that has been in this business for 30+ years. In regards to marketing, years of operating doesn't make you more knowledgeable than someone else. If you have been operating for such a long period of time and have a successful operation, I would hope you would have a marketing manager or director now fulfilling your online marketing strategies and SEO to outpace your competition.

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."

Here's a good article on the current and future of online booking: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222794

"Ten years ago, consumers felt put out if they had to book a flight or a restaurant reservation online. Now customers expect an online option."

 

[TomKing]

Here's a good article on the current and future of online booking: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222794"

This article is for a pre sold product, for a presold amount, for a presold time period.

I would do that also. This is why it works so well for airlines, hotels and car rentals. These services are not even close to the services we provide.

We sell a variable product, done in a variable location, for a variable price, in variable conditions.

Not exactly apples to apples comparison.

I get the fact online scheduling and booking for service is happening. The problem is small operators are going to struggle show casing their services online. They need Good copy, Video of the service that will help sell, good routing of the service trucks to control costs, and accurate time estimates.

You can't just say this much time for a room, then 2 rooms and a hall this much time. Is it 200sf or 400sf? Can I come through the garage or do I have go in the front door and have another 50-75 feet of hose?

When our live CSR are booking on SM it is so great they flip to the Google maps and are looking at the home as they talk. They know if it is 1500sf or 7000sf. lots of difference in how much you charge, the time it takes and the services you can sell.

If all we did was drag buffers in the house we might be able to do it. Running Truck mounts and 5 core services to sell is a challenge. We would also miss out on tons of loose rugs not talking live to the client.

Our online form brings us tons of business. People fill it out at all hours doesn't seem to be a problem. We call the next business day. We book 85% of all online inquiries. None of my 8-10 significant competitors, multi truck or 1 truck operators are booking online in our city.

I wish we could find good flexible intelligent online booking system for our metro area. The problem one does not exist yet. Still waiting and looking.

I agree it is important to maximize the use of technology to dominate you competition.

 

[WillS]

Your product/cleaning service costs changes then when getting to a customers home? This is what I thought pissed off customers. If your pricing isn't upfront, than an online scheduling wouldn't be for you. If you look at John's online scheduling setup, his goes on size of room. You can create the "variable" for size of room, services needed in that room, etc. through an online booking system. Unless you are charging more to run a hose farther? I'm not familiar with this part of HWE. The farther the hose has to go, the more is charged? Do you receive any negative reviews in regards to the pricing going up when you arrive, or people asking you to leave? That is all I see in our area in regards to online customer reviews. That is why myself, and my business partners decided not do price like that.

This article is for a pre sold product, for a presold amount, for a presold time period.

I would do that also. This is why it works so well for airlines, hotels and car rentals. These services are not even close to the services we provide.

We sell a variable product, done in a variable location, for a variable price, in variable conditions.

 

[WillS]

This is where we differ. 8-10 of our significant competitors are allowing customers to book online. It is advertised in most of every Google Adwords campaign I've seen in our area that Online Booking is available.

This article is for a pre sold product, for a presold amount, for a presold time period.

Our online form brings us tons of business. People fill it out at all hours doesn't seem to be a problem. We call the next business day. We book 85% of all online inquiries. None of my 8-10 significant competitors, multi truck or 1 truck operators are booking online in our city.

 

[hogjowl]

This is precisely the reason I get pissed when I can't get Service Monster to help me keep up with s.f. amounts. I have to keep them using a spreadsheet. And this is precisely the reason I giggled the other day when Stockwell said s.f. amounts didn't matter. Yes they do matter. I can tell you the average amount of s.f. I can clean an hour for any application I have. That information helps me daily, and it will help me with this on-line scheduling issue once it gets to the point where a small guy like me can actually do it.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

I hope our conversations here have helped you get your issues resolved Martin. Without knowing precise Sf info I and most others here can know our production rates quite accurately.

You DO know that three jobs of equal "size" will often not take the same amount of time to clean? Have you ever tracked the reasons for that?

 

[hogjowl]

Other than my hemorrhoids flaring up?

 

[smastio]

None of my 8-10 significant competitors, multi truck or 1 truck operators are booking online in our city.
I wish we could find good flexible intelligent online booking system for our metro area. The problem one does not exist yet. Still waiting and looking.
I agree it is important to maximize the use of technology to dominate you competition.

Oh contraire mon frère they are all around you and more coming soon..... and No I didn't doctor it. Oh one more thing... it's a one truck operator! Oh just one more thing - 3 of the 4 UP-SOLD themselves beyond the chosen promotion.

 

[TomKing]

Do you receive any negative reviews in regards to the pricing going up when you arrive, or people asking you to leave?

We price over the phone after we have helped the customer understand our process and value. We get reviews all the time saying and "the price was what they said it would be". We are able to do that because we have a quality interaction on the phone prior to our arrival. We have in 6 years never been asked to leave. We have several times had techs leave because the job or customer was not for us.

 

[Papa John]

We were "Required" to offer online scheduling in order to Grow and increase revenue... Our human booking version could only handle so many calls and hours per day. Most people are presold on us before they book online and need very little hand holding/selling. FB is not perfect-- but neither is our human version.

 

[Shane Deubell]

That tricky edit button...

We've been doing this since 2007 so its not theory for me. Tom's fears are exactly what happens, you do sometimes end up with 1 job north then next west.
But for us specifically the volume is only couple jobs week, its just fill in work.

I bet in marty's case thats all it would turn into considering his market size.

Quite honestly never thought about it this deeply all these years, we just did it.

 

[hogjowl]

I'm interested in this for reasons of simplicity. My way of doing pricing and scheduling is complicated and cumbersome in the eyes of some customers, and I think it's universally understood that folks are becoming less and less willing to put up with what they consider undue hassle in their lives. I hear you guys about the geographic scheduling problems. That's a hassle I'm sure, but it's a trade off IF the ease of the transaction drives more sales.
Which remains to be seen.

 

[Shane Deubell]

People will definitely use it, 100% guaranteed.

Not sure how many because other factors come into play.
Population and online presence, website, etc.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I think they would. Some of the emails we receive are 8:00pm, 10:00 pm and weekends, so people think about after regular business hours. As soon as Steve has a SQ/FT option I'm signing up.

I've been talking to him for years now but that dude is stubborn!

He wants me to change my pricing to room pricing and I just don't think we are up to that sort of change.

 

[hogjowl]

You'd think it would be possible. You can go on-line (somewhere ... Zillo?) and get the total s.f. of the house, and it should be possible to determine the probable sizes of various different rooms based off of averages of houses that size. Unless the computer program is designed by ServiceMonster, it should be fast enough to help you determine all of that while on one screen and in seconds.

 

[smastio]

I think they would. Some of the emails we receive are 8:00pm, 10:00 pm and weekends, so people think about after regular business hours. As soon as Steve has a SQ/FT option I'm signing up.

I've been talking to him for years now but that dude is stubborn!

He wants me to change my pricing to room pricing and I just don't think we are up to that sort of change.

OMG Rico - Have you learned nothing! Lol I called you - call me back. 630-444-2000

If you want to price by the SQ FT that's fine with FB. BUT - if you think that a consumer is going to measure every freakin sq ft of every thing they want... well lets just says that you are need some cerebral assistance. You can set up FittleBug to have as many choices as you want for the consumer to choose from. Here is an example. You can create a thousand options if you want and give consumers a literally example of the room like large bathroom. . If you don't call me - I can't help.

 

[smastio]

He wants me to change my pricing to room pricing and I just don't think we are up to that sort of change.

Do you not see the irony of your post?

 

[smastio]

This would have been funnier...

 

[Desk Jockey]

They said you called, He didn't say you called to make fun of me.

Damn leave for a few and get abused!

 

[Shane Deubell]

Yeah you were "out to lunch" ....

 

[TomKing]

How did this thread turn into another infomercial for a scheduling system.

Marty asks a good question for other owners to answer.

Shane says he has been doing it for 7 years. The problems we talk about are real. OK if you are small problem if you are larger.

Richard says His business does not work the way the program runs. Answer change your business model.

A good conversation gets going as usual the vendor jumps in and derails the thread.

Glad to know a guy who doesn't even own or run a service company knows how we should all operate. Makes me able to sleep better at night.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Glad to know a guy who doesn't even own or run a service company knows how we should all operate.

Actually he runs a multi million dollar janitorial company. That is how he developed FB to keep in better contact with his clients.

 

[TomKing]

Actually he runs a multi million dollar janitorial company. That is how he developed FB to keep in better contact with his clients.

Great not a daily phone rings and you send out 2-10 trucks to different locations all over the city that you might not see again in 1-3 years.

Lets give him 12 months to put a carpet truck on the road and see how running all over Chicago works for him.

Janitorial is set nights at set times. It is the same week after week, month after month. If you have special work in a building you schedule it to fit your schedule. I worked for Service Master I know the drill.

How is that even close to running any type of vehicle based service company?

Sure the business skills can add value I don't hear that on this board all I hear is my program is for everyone. Never chimes in on other threads just the ones he can sell on.

What about recruiting, employee retention, budgeting, marketing, B2B sells? All topics at a million dollar+ gross you might expect some knowledge on.

I think this is a important issue that we all will have to cross the line on. I bet some other vendors are listening and writing code as we speak to solve the problems not ask us to change our business to fit the program.

Richard you and I are here saying doesn't fit for our business and all you hear is "you are missing customers the sky is falling chicken little".

You have got to be very large to a work a system online in a large metro area.

The best this might do for folks like us is one truck in 3-5 zips. Run the rest as we do normally. That might be interesting.

My word Steemer does it here in Indy with 20 plus trucks and the best they can do is 4 hour windows. Check it out online.

And he is telling 1 truck guys they are in trouble and missing so much business.

How many 2 am appointments do building managers set for janitorial bids?

Imagine how much calling and changing a one truck guy would have to do if he tried to cover a large metro area like ours.

This probably rocks for guys in metro areas 25-250k Get to 1million and to much geography.

If you are in that sort of demographic and no one answering the phones you might think about it.

It still does not solve the 2 biggest issues with selling online.

YOU CAN NOT DISCOVER UNMET NEEDS AND OFFER ADDITIONAL SERVICES!

YOU ARE SELLING ON PRICE, NOT SERVICE AND QUALITY!

I can not. NO I wont ever settle for selling in that format! You will never sell as much.

Janitorial is entirely different sales process and pricing structure.

Steve T always pushes in home evaluations prior to service. The companies that sell like that book huge jobs and great prices. That is the best method for a 1-2 trucker if you can.
Even that system falls down when you get to our size you can't keep up. We had 73 new customers last month. I could never do all those in home inspections. It would cost me $40k to pay someone to do that for us. Our metro customers do not want two appointments. They want a quick phone call consultation and let's get a time set. Wham Bam Thank you mam!

The best way I think most know is to sell in the home not with a menu on the internet that is price driven.

We all know selling price is a quick race to the bottom and lower margins. That is what he is selling!

Got me excited!

Are you coming to Florida? Let's get that going!

 

[smastio]

Actually he runs a multi million dollar janitorial company. That is how he developed FB to keep in better contact with his clients.

Used to... over the years (10 to be exact). I have been Obama-nized over the years.

Irrelevant anyway, If I wanted to make service providers change the way they do their business, I would have built it differently. What I would suggest is the real issue is getting your head wrapped around the concept that "consumer" are changing and scheduling is a tool to help change with them. But thanks for the comment -

P.S. I would love to know if you ever did my suggested change to the ad. I think something like that would be funny, but then again... what do I know about it, I'm just a consumer with a sense of humor.