Most small service businesses do not fully utilize their websites as well as the can. In fact many large franchising companies which thousands of service vehicles do not either. It is interesting with all the modern technology available that more companies do not take advantage of these efficiencies. It appears quite evident that with some off the shelf software and some minor customization, most service companies could do so much better. Let me tell you about a project we developed for our service company to help us do our job better.
You see, Intranet Quoting Systems for Small Service Businesses are available currently and you can implement them in your small business without breaking the bank. Our system was a Quoting System within our intranet system, which would page which would send out Alphanumerically that listed all the different truck/fleet units with prices and our franchisees we would put a "check mark" which units they have and add quantities. Oh by the way our Company is the Car Wash Guys; www.CarWashGuys.com
From there, it would enter the information of the bidding company and have it automatically fax over the bid sheet. We could then give our customer a virtual quote any one, anytime, anywhere, within 10 minutes or less. This allowed us to hyperspace our competitors by always being first in with the bid and gave us a much better chance of signing up the customers. It worked, thanks to one of our Master Mind Research Team Members; Mr. Dave Pitta of Pleasanton, CA who though up the idea. Dave Pitta was our franchisee and controlled the territories of Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, Danville and Walnut Creek.
A smart company should always get with their team and allow the ideas to flow, because the people on the front line know what they need and want to work more efficiently. Stop listening to software salesman, you should know what you need before you go shopping and make sure they can customize it for you, the way it will best serve the team and the way that the team wished to use it. This way you get maximum buy in from the team and lessen the costs of feature creep with software, which doesn