Which is better....SM or House Call Pro?

[renegade_cowboy]

Secret sauce

I really have to applaud you for what you're doing.. housecall has the potential to be a big money maker for you especially once there is a strong customer base. Wish I thought of something similar and yeah I would probably charge or something to give companies an exclusive area.. tons of upside on that end.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

We DON'T support HTML email.

We enable Pros to send TRANSACTIONAL emails. They are things like booking confirmations, invoices, reminders, reviews etc. They are all sent out based upon a transaction. It's critical that these are not "HTML emails" because it will effect deliverability.

If you would like to do blast email marketing, use Mailchimp, just like we do when sending out a marketing or email newsletter.

It takes 2 clicks to export the CRM database and import it into Mailchimp. There are many that do!

There are many who can do that and there are many more who can't figure that stuff out. That is why its pretty standard now that crm softwares have their own mail chimp style email marketing campaign or they have an API to mail chimp. From the users perspective house call is really dropping the ball for long term email marketing and it sounds like house call has no intentions of addressing this, which is really kind of odd because its something that is so important to a crm. There's no API for the various email services out there, so we can access our business email within the crm or use any API (except qb) to companies that offer services that house call doesn't. Not to be a jerk.. but your kinda dropping the ball big time and you wear flip flops so I am sure that will hurt in the long run.

 

[D Luke]

but your kinda dropping the ball big time and you wear flip flops so I am sure that will hurt in the long run.

I had to read it twice before the comedic genius of that statement sunk in.

 

[rolandal]

There are many who can do that and there are many more who can't figure that stuff out. That is why its pretty standard now that crm softwares have their own mail chimp style email marketing campaign or they have an API to mail chimp. From the users perspective house call is really dropping the ball for long term email marketing and it sounds like house call has no intentions of addressing this, which is really kind of odd because its something that is so important to a crm. There's no API for the various email services out there, so we can access our business email within the crm or use any API (except qb) to companies that offer services that house call doesn't. Not to be a jerk.. but your kinda dropping the ball big time and you wear flip flops so I am sure that will hurt in the long run.

I love my flip flops, I live in a part of the country where it's between 70-80 year round - it's why I pay the sunshine tax
We only build things at HouseCall Pro that provide big ROI & value to our customers. There are a million email blasters out there, the ROI there is low.
Email automation is where it's at, and that's where we will stay for the time being.

 

[clean image]

All this talk of emails, does SM have this currently? That I'm not implementing?

I like the idea Mike posted about email follow quality control.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

I'm just glad you are not a socks and flip flop guy.. those are the people to watch out for.

I agree with you about work flow email automation.. I guess we are going to have to agree to disagree about the benefits of email marketing campaigns, especially long term drip marketing. Customers forget about you when their not in the workflow. A crm should offer more than workflow solutions imho.. if not then it's more FSM software Tham crm.

 

[rolandal]

All this talk of emails, does SM have this currently? That I'm not implementing?

I like the idea Mike posted about email follow quality control.

Not sure if SM has it. What Mike posted are the two screens on how to set it up in HouseCall Pro, it's REALLY easy.

 

[rolandal]

I'm just glad you are not a socks and flip flop guy.. those are the people to watch out for.

I agree with you about work flow email automation.. I guess we are going to have to agree to disagree about the benefits of email marketing campaigns, especially long term drip marketing. Customers forget about you when their not in the workflow. A crm should offer more than workflow solutions imho.. if not then it's more FSM software.

So when you say drip marketing, that is exactly what HouseCall Pro can do.

Many of the more successful Carpet Cleaning pros setup a 1 day Thank You, 7 day Referral, 30 day Coupon for a Friend, 3 Month, 6 Month, 9 Month, 12 Month, and 18 Month reminder. Because our system understand when a job is booked/finished, it's able to start/pause/restart the sequence intelligently

 

[renegade_cowboy]

I think that is more time triggered email automation.

I was talking about the email system that takes into account if they opened the email or not.. if they open it the system reacts appropriate and then takes the customer down the appropriate path if they don't open. Plus trigger emails that gear towards pet owners, if they have kids and so on. Different emails for the many different types of customers.. and have viewable stats.

Same question for the SM folks.

 

[jkowalski]

Yes ServiceMonster has full html email support and raw text support.

Yes ServiceMonster has a high number of data fields within the system you can use. Like if you want to send a letter or email to their pet or reference an order field, job field, account field etc.

You can create several types of campaigns. Email campaigns, mail merge campaigns, call campaigns, and export campaigns for use with third party providers.

You can also target many different fields for filtering account for a campaigns. So you can create reminders, confirmations, prospect, sales, and follow-up campaigns. You can also chain campaigns together.

We are working on marketing email integration (mail chimp, constant contact, and vertical response) and Constant Contact contacted us directly last month to get their side going!

Currently, we do not track opens for email. Your SMTP provider or email marketing provider does but we don't pull that data in for you to filter.

Also, I have dress shoes, chacos, work boots, tennis shoes, and baseball cleats. I believe in using the right tool, for the right job.

 

[Mikey P]

Brent are you up to twenty trucks yet?

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Yes ServiceMonster has full html email support and raw text support.

Yes ServiceMonster has a high number of data fields within the system you can use. Like if you want to send a letter or email to their pet or reference an order field, job field, account field etc.

You can create several types of campaigns. Email campaigns, mail merge campaigns, call campaigns, and export campaigns for use with third party providers.

You can also target many different fields for filtering account for a campaigns. So you can create reminders, confirmations, prospect, sales, and follow-up campaigns. You can also chain campaigns together.

We are working on marketing email integration (mail chimp, constant contact, and vertical response) and Constant Contact contacted us directly last month to get their side going!

Currently, we do not track opens for email. Your SMTP provider or email marketing provider does but we don't pull that data in for you to filter.

Also, I have dress shoes, chacos, work boots, tennis shoes, and baseball cleats. I believe in using the right tool, for the right job.

Maybe its all about the shoes... impressive..

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Brent are you up to twenty trucks yet?

Nah man.. not really what i'm interested in.

 

[smastio]

FittleBug also has a drip email program that can be set up for the examples given above. It's just not a CRM, but does sync with ServiceMonster. I agree with others that emails is where it's at. We are always open to discussion about others.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Lets move on..

1- Does HC have any telephony/VOIP options or API to a company that offers it? So if a customer calls in.. their account information is already brought up, call logs can be made and recorded so we can review them.. to see closing rates or if anything needs to be addressed in that area. Incoming calls/logging and so on are very important tool for an owner, especially one that is connected to the crm. The folks at SM have already addressed this and they are working on the API to make it happen. There are telephony/voip services out there like Twilio, Ring Central and a handful of others. Its hard to judge SM now because their new overhaul is coming out in a couple of months.

2- Does either company offer email integration within the CRM itself. I use a business gmail account and obviously customers contact us via email.. want to book and so on. It would be beyond beneficial to us users to have the email integrated with our CRM system so all email correspondence from that customer will show up in their profile account. There is some software out there that will automatically create an account for the customer in the CRM by capturing the information and logging it.

3- Can HC expand on the sister app algorithm? I think this is very important because we all know how angielist/yelp make it so you have to pay to play.. in a capitalistic system, it is expected to maximize the monetary potential of the sister app. So if you have 5 cleaners all in the same area and all want that top spot.. what determines who gets it?

4- Fleet control.. Most of the folks here have a fleet to deal with and tracking the fleet is important. I used software that would leave breadcrumbs that are time stamped.. so the owner can track where the van goes and for how long. The owner shouldn't pay the fuel if one of his techs wants to take his girlfriend to her moms that is across town once a week.. that add up on a yearly bases because you are paying his wage to do that and the fuel it takes. If anyone thinks techs don't do this type of stuff, you're wrong. This feature alone can save a large company a ton of money on labor and fuel. I know that HC is doing this option but its part of the $175 package..

5- Able to manage social networks like facebook and twitter from the CRM.. and manage facebook marketing campaigns via the crm?

Also.. questions like these aren't for me, but for the folks deciding on what service they want to use... House Call or Servicemonster.

 

[rolandal]

Lets move on..

1- Does HC have any telephony/VOIP options or API to a company that offers it? So if a customer calls in.. their account information is already brought up, call logs can be made and recorded so we can review them.. to see closing rates or if anything needs to be addressed in that area. Incoming calls/logging and so on are very important tool for an owner, especially one that is connected to the crm. The folks at SM have already addressed this and they are working on the API to make it happen. There are telephony/voip services out there like Twilio, Ring Central and a handful of others. Its hard to judge SM now because their new overhaul is coming out in a couple of months.

We will be building this functionality into HCP - we will be using Twilio for the more curious.
If this is something your business needs immediately, I would take a look at ServiceTitan (min $500/month)
SM has been saying they'd have a "new overhaul" a new mobile version for years. Since then we've been shipping a new version and updates and new features EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

2- Does either company offer email integration within the CRM itself. I use a business gmail account and obviously customers contact us via email.. want to book and so on. It would be beyond beneficial to us users to have the email integrated with our CRM system so all email correspondence from that customer will show up in their profile account. There is some software out there that will automatically create an account for the customer in the CRM by capturing the information and logging it.

No email integration within the CRM - not on our roadmap. We allow HCP customers to communicate in-app/text through our platform instead which has a much higher open-rate/conversion.

3- Can HC expand on the sister app algorithm? I think this is very important because we all know how angielist/yelp make it so you have to pay to play.. in a capitalistic system, it is expected to maximize the monetary potential of the sister app. So if you have 5 cleaners all in the same area and all want that top spot.. what determines who gets it?

This is similar to asking Google, how do you get the #1 organic spot? Google doesn't say (nor does Matt Cutts)
The Booking app ranks based upon many factors including: has the user used them before, whats the response time, how far are they booked out, star rating, geographic proximity and more.

4- Fleet control.. Most of the folks here have a fleet to deal with and tracking the fleet is important. I used software that would leave breadcrumbs that are time stamped.. so the owner can track where the van goes and for how long. The owner shouldn't pay the fuel if one of his techs wants to take his girlfriend to her moms that is across town once a week.. that add up on a yearly bases because you are paying his wage to do that and the fuel it takes. If anyone thinks techs don't do this type of stuff, you're wrong. This feature alone can save a large company a ton of money on labor and fuel. I know that HC is doing this option but its part of the $175 package..

We actually have this built already, when the technician is "clocked in" we show the GPS location overlayed on the map. We just haven't visualized the breadcrumb data (historical) in the web portal yet. There are other solutions out there like Fleetmatics, but they charge $40/employee/month STARTING... so although our $175 package sounds like a lot, if you have more than 4 technicians you come out WAY ahead.
PS the real-time GPS location is available in the $69/month plan.

5- Able to manage social networks like facebook and twitter from the CRM.. and manage facebook marketing campaigns via the crm?

Nope - probably never.
Social is a very low ROI activity for service providers.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

1. That's good.. call logging and reporting is an important feature.. Its probably not a good idea to shoot the zinger across SM deck, it just reflects poorly on HC. With the updates.. I get those emails and its more of house call playing catch up to a lot of the CRM/FSM software that is already out. So it sounds nice that you are doing all these fresh updates, but lets be honest that is what it is.

2. Well that's a bummer.. so that communication will only work if the customer has your app downloaded on their phone. That is a tough pill to swallow because there are so many existing customers that aren't going to want to download the app no matter how much the cleaners try to market it for you.

3. Yep Yep.. that is basically what Yelp says.. so..? So if we bring in our customers to the sister app and they start choosing other companies with services that we don't offer.. you get the 10% for that as well.. do we get any of it, since it started as us bringing the customer to you.. getting them to download the app on their phone?

4. I used jobber for a bit.. a company HC parallels quite a bit, but without the app. They had it built the tracker built into their "crm", so it was only one click away. There are many other fleet trackers that are independent, which plugs into the van itself to read the computer.

5. Yeah but as business owners we use social networks and its now pretty standard on most all CRM now.. Is your software platform limited because you have to tie it into the app?

 

[jkowalski]

SM has been saying they'd have a "new overhaul" a new mobile version for years. Since then we've been shipping a new version and updates and new features EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

This makes me happy. It’s obvious someone is not paying attention or is purposefully misleading. There are several incorrect/missing pieces from that statement. Here, let me set the record straight and outline our road map as we do not make promises, we make products.

SM5 releases every 2 weeks. ServiceMonster is a platform not an App. Apps are cute. They are very good at doing that one special thing. Fortunately for us, implementing that “one” feature is much easier than creating a _minimum value proposition_ and then catching up to our hundreds of features (two way google calendar SYNC anyone). We have had a "Mobile" interface since before the iPhone (06’) and have released two complete mobile rebuilds since then. As I have stated before, I thought that the app space for line-of-business was better served as a web-app. I was wrong. Now, thanks to the motivation provided by our clients and competitors, we launched the Mobile3 project, in June.

It’s been six months of committees, focus groups, and development. Just this week, ServiceMonster Mobile3 (native iOS and Android ‘App’) is currently in beta and is more feature complete with our first release than any other line-of-business app currently on the marketplace, period. We have looked at over 25 different apps in the scheduling, invoicing, and service space and while some may have a feature or two we have yet to implemented, our scope is unparalleled. Many said that “we would not be able to write an app” due to our “antiquated” technology. Complete and constant rhetoric as evidenced by Mobile3.

SM6 is our complete overhaul (and our 4th complete rebuild) of our main interface. We’ll be rolling that out to users sometime in spring and to the general public at The Experience in Vegas 2016. But I'm not talking about SM6 here.

 

[Katherine Scott]

Hey @renegade_cowboy my name is Katherine and I work with @rolandal over at HouseCall Pro! Just to jump in and help answer a few of these questions:

1) We are a newer company than many existing CRMs - while we have been around for three years, we only released the HCP software a little under a year ago. So yes, sometimes we are building features that other CRMs already have and releasing those as updates. We are constantly listening to the feedback from our users, particularly on forums like these, and building out features in response to that. The most important factor to us is building up the features that our users care the most about, regardless of whether these are features that other CRMs have or not.

2) We've had an extremely positive response on the consumer app so far! Yes, there will definitely be some people who do not want to download the consumer app, for the most part we've found that customers love how easy it is to use and how easy it makes the booking process. For those who do not want to download the customer app, our pros do have the ability to access notes and job history for a particular customer, as well as send out notifications when a tech is on their way and has completed the job.

3) No, but the idea is that when you are on our customer app, we can bring you new business by giving customers who came in through different industries the ability to book you.

4 & 5) In 2016, we will be releasing an update where our pros can integrate other applications with HCP using Zapier for exactly these instances. As I mentioned above, we build features based on which we are hearing the most demand for, however, if there is a particular feature that is extremely important to you, you will be able to use Zapier to link that app yourself!

Holler if you have any more questions!

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Hey @renegade_cowboy my name is Katherine and I work with @rolandal over at HouseCall Pro! Just to jump in and help answer a few of these questions:

1) We are a newer company than many existing CRMs - while we have been around for three years, we only released the HCP software a little under a year ago. So yes, sometimes we are building features that other CRMs already have and releasing those as updates. We are constantly listening to the feedback from our users, particularly on forums like these, and building out features in response to that. The most important factor to us is building up the features that our users care the most about, regardless of whether these are features that other CRMs have or not.

2) We've had an extremely positive response on the consumer app so far! Yes, there will definitely be some people who do not want to download the consumer app, for the most part we've found that customers love how easy it is to use and how easy it makes the booking process. For those who do not want to download the customer app, our pros do have the ability to access notes and job history for a particular customer, as well as send out notifications when a tech is on their way and has completed the job.

3) No, but the idea is that when you are on our customer app, we can bring you new business by giving customers who came in through different industries the ability to book you.

4 & 5) In 2016, we will be releasing an update where our pros can integrate other applications with HCP using Zapier for exactly these instances. As I mentioned above, we build features based on which we are hearing the most demand for, however, if there is a particular feature that is extremely important to you, you will be able to use Zapier to link that app yourself!

Holler if you have any more questions!

Hi Katherine.. Quality response there..

Is the Zapier fee going to be paid by the user or HC? Will it just be for data transfer or having a working function within the CRM?

The House Call app has really good reviews.. kudos. The app has a thousand or so downloads. Is there going to be a big push for more viable customers or is it relying on the users to populate the app by promoting it to their customers?

 

[Katherine Scott]

Our engineering team is still working with Zapier to figure out our best and most feasible course of action, but we are exploring all the options! We won't be making any final decisions on how payment works until we get closer towards releasing this feature, but our initial thoughts are that it will only be available on the paid plans, and not on the free tier. Feel free to let me know what you think!

And thank you! We're excited about its potential and always trying to make it better. We will push the customer app directly to customers in the future, but we would like there to be a strong marketplace of pros in their city first.

 

[Barry-QDCC]

I've been using SM for several years now. I'm generally happy with it. I use it 99% on desktop at my office and print the workorders there and take to the jobsites. I only use the mobile app when I'm out in the field to look something up if there is a question about the job - like maybe what they were charged the last visit. I'm a one man band so that might have something to do with my way of operation.

At the same time however I'm a bit unhappy as SM seems to be worrying more about the mobile side of things - I almost feel like they have forgotten users like me. I've made several suggestions that I'd like to see and haven't seen them implemented.

But like I said I'm generally happy with it and it's usually such a pain in the ass (I've probably used and switched 4-5 times) to switch programs so I'm standing pat for the foreseeable future.

 

[jkowalski]

Hey Barry,

What, specifically, were you looking for?

Are you part of our facebook ServiceMonster User Group (SMUG)? We are interacting with clients there daily and giving them a sneak peak into the sausage factory. If you want to influence SMs future, that's were you do it.

We have a handful of developers, including myself. Only one developer is dedicated to Mobile3. SM5 has 2+ developers. We release a new version of SM5 every few weeks and we are always adding new features. Keep in mind we have over 1500 feature requests in the backlog.

I wrote this article in April to help address these type of questions but I would strongly encourage you to join SMUG. Since then we have added a ton of new features based on user feedback. Perhaps we have even implemented one or two of your suggestions and you missed the What's new... It happens. :-)

http://www.servicemonster.net/2015/04/17/the-servicemonster-development-process/

 

[Barry-QDCC]

Hey Barry,

What, specifically, were you looking for?

Are you part of our facebook ServiceMonster User Group (SMUG)? We are interacting with clients there daily and giving them a sneak peak into the sausage factory. If you want to influence SMs future, that's were you do it.

We have a handful of developers, including myself. Only one developer is dedicated to Mobile3. SM5 has 2+ developers. We release a new version of SM5 every few weeks and we are always adding new features. Keep in mind we have over 1500 feature requests in the backlog.

I wrote this article in April to help address these type of questions but I would strongly encourage you to join SMUG. Since then we have added a ton of new features based on user feedback. Perhaps we have even implemented one or two of your suggestions and you missed the What's new... It happens. :-)

http://www.servicemonster.net/2015/04/17/the-servicemonster-development-process/

Thanks Joe, I will look into that.

My suggestions were all sent in thru SM or mentioned to your customer service people who told me they document such requests.

 

[jkowalski]

They do indeed. That's why we have 1500 feature requests. :-)

I'll dig yours up and send you an email.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

I think I am out of questions.. hopefully there is some more insight to the question in the original post.

I have been with SM for 4-5 years or so.. stuck with it because it was generally used in this industry. I wasn't a big fan of it, so started looking around and learned a lot about other programs and then became pretty critical with SM. I thought how could a company fall behind in certain areas and still be the go to for our industry. I came on here and was critical.. well come to find out that they were doing a big overhaul, with new features.. in a way I still didn't believe it, because these software companies ALWAYS say "the best is yet to come".

I have really changed my opinion about what SM is working hard on.. I have got a little insight to what they are working on and I am really impressed. Lets be honest.. SM current platform is older, outdated in ways and needs to be retired. The new SM6 and the new mobile they are coming out with looks really clean and user friendly.. in my opinion I think it has a real potential to be king in this industry.. again.

House Call is still new.. I first signed up with them when they were introduced elsewhere.. it was a very basic software, but seems they are adding a lot of features at a great rate. Its tough to see where they are going or what their plans are.. I am not the biggest fan of the sister app, I think just by the natural flow of business it will end up something similar to a yelp/amazon/angieslist type thing. I could be wrong and people just flock to the companies on the app. Both HCP and HC both have good ratings, very little downloads, but that's expected with being so new.

In my opinion.. SM has a much more robust program, even the soon to be retired version. I think they have more experience with knowing what the small business owner needs and they don't have a sister app to build around. I think House Call is catching up.. which is good because it keeps the Service Monster folks on their toes and looking forward. Both companies are made in America, which is nice, because dealing with overseas companies can be rough, in fact cancelling another CRM software today because of the lack of email response.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

I've been using SM for several years now. I'm generally happy with it. I use it 99% on desktop at my office and print the workorders there and take to the jobsites. I only use the mobile app when I'm out in the field to look something up if there is a question about the job - like maybe what they were charged the last visit. I'm a one man band so that might have something to do with my way of operation.

At the same time however I'm a bit unhappy as SM seems to be worrying more about the mobile side of things - I almost feel like they have forgotten users like me. I've made several suggestions that I'd like to see and haven't seen them implemented.

But like I said I'm generally happy with it and it's usually such a pain in the ass (I've probably used and switched 4-5 times) to switch programs so I'm standing pat for the foreseeable future.

I think you will really like the new mobile interface out in the field.. its very crisp, clean and simple to use. SM did have to focus on the mobile side because its an emerging aspect of mobile software.

 

[jkowalski]

I think I am out of questions.. hopefully there is some more insight to the question in the original post.

I have been with SM for 4-5 years or so.. stuck with it because it was generally used in this industry. I wasn't a big fan of it, so started looking around and learned a lot about other programs and then became pretty critical with SM. I thought how could a company fall behind in certain areas and still be the go to for our industry. I came on here and was critical.. well come to find out that they were doing a big overhaul, with new features.. in a way I still didn't believe it, because these software companies ALWAYS say "the best is yet to come".

I have really changed my opinion about what SM is working hard on.. I have got a little insight to what they are working on and I am really impressed. Lets be honest.. SM current platform is older, outdated in ways and needs to be retired. The new SM6 and the new mobile they are coming out with looks really clean and user friendly.. in my opinion I think it has a real potential to be king in this industry.. again.

House Call is still new.. I first signed up with them when they were introduced elsewhere.. it was a very basic software, but seems they are adding a lot of features at a great rate. Its tough to see where they are going or what their plans are.. I am not the biggest fan of the sister app, I think just by the natural flow of business it will end up something similar to a yelp/amazon/angieslist type thing. I could be wrong and people just flock to the companies on the app. Both HCP and HC both have good ratings, very little downloads, but that's expected with being so new.

In my opinion.. SM has a much more robust program, even the soon to be retired version. I think they have more experience with knowing what the small business owner needs and they don't have a sister app to build around. I think House Call is catching up.. which is good because it keeps the Service Monster folks on their toes and looking forward. Both companies are made in America, which is nice, because dealing with overseas companies can be rough, in fact cancelling another CRM software today because of the lack of email response.

:-)