10 (easy) ways ServiceM8 saves time on every job

Do you want to waste or save time?

---

There is no fairy dust that will get 10 hours work out of an 8 hour shift.

What can be done is to make every 8 hour shift more productive and more profitable. That’s exactly what ServiceM8 can do.

We’re not talking here about changing the way work is done, or changing the structure of a business. It’s about doing things – simple things, that would be done anyway – faster.

Here are ten things that ServiceM8 will do to make every shift more productive.

1) Auto filling customer details on new jobs.

• It takes time to type (or copy & paste) a customer’s name, address, telephone number and so on for each job, quote, work order and invoice
• ServiceM8 will autofill all this information as soon as you start typing a name of an existing customer
• What’s more, even for entirely new customers when you start typing an address ServiceM8 will offer the address for it just to be clicked on and save typing it out.

2) Templates

• Editing a template is always faster than typing, or even copy & pasting for every email, text, quote and / or invoice.
• ServiceM8 stores as many templates as you want for emails texts, quotes, job descriptions, materials lists or even entire jobs…and let’s face it, many jobs are the same if not very similar.
• Templates also ensure quality control of customer communications, save having to craft just the right email from scratch and even save time having to spell-check.

3) Navigating to Jobs

• Do you spend time typing in addresses and postcodes to Google Maps? Or even looking up addresses on street atlases?
• Maybe you know your local area like the back of your hand? What about roadworks, traffic and other temporary obstructions,? How do you know they are there the fastest way around them?
• With two clicks ServiceM8 will start navigation to a job by the fastest route based on current traffic conditions.
• It will also state how long the journey will take and, with one more click, inform the customer of an arrival time.

4) Avoid “No- Shows”

• What a waste of time to turn-up and the customer isn’t there.
• ServiceM8 will automatically send appointment reminders to customers by text or email.
• It will even text a customer a live view of exactly how far away you are
• Now there’s no excuse for them not to be in when you arrive.

5) Phoning Customers

• Call a customer in just one or two taps directly from the job on ServiceM8.
• No need to spend time looking in your diary digging out a work order, searching for a text or typing the number into a phone.
• Additionally the risk of misdialing, and wasting time that way, is eliminated.

6) Stop typing & start talking

• Typing is laborious and time consuming. Job notes, emails, quotes, invoices even texts and WhatsApp messages all take time to type out.
• Talking is faster
• ServiceM8 uses the speech recognition to type what you say.
• OK, it may need editing but that’s needed when you type anyway.

7) Taking & saving Photos

• Photos get taken of jobs all the time to:
  • identify a part
  • illustrate something to a customer or collegue
  • save writing down a code
  • help remember the job when preparing a quote
  • show case work
  • avoid false accusations of damage.
• It’s time consuming to track down and share photos saved to phones or even remember what a particular photo was of.
• ServiceM8 will take and save a photo directly to a job so it’s instantly available to everyone in the business and ready to send to the customer.
• Even better ServiceM8 has tools to mark, write and draw on photos and it will date stamp them.

• Following up a quote improve the chances of getting a job by 10 – 20%.
• But it takes time to be organised to follow up a quote and do the following up
• ServiceM8 will do it for you automatically.
• You might think you’re winning all the quotes you want to but look at it this way; win more quotes means you waste less time doing quotes you don’t win, perhaps you can then do fewer quotes (which are less productive than doing executional work, and perhaps if you are winning more work you could even put up prices.

• A system that automatically checks if an invoice is paid and if it hasn’t will send a reminder to a customer.
• That’s bound to save time.
• It’s exactly what ServiceM8 can do.

• When customers request quotes with multiple options it takes time to prepare and save the different versions. You then have to keep track of the option select and turn that into an invoice.
• ServiceM8 can save you time on that too

Ok, see we said 10, but here’s a couple more that are perhaps less direct.

• The Job Diary
  • The ServiceM8 job diary keeps all relevant information in one place. No need to hunt through different texts, emails or documents
  • It records when emails, texts, quotes and invoices were sent AND when customers opened them or replied
  • Furthermore it tracks:
    • changes made to quotes
    • when bookings were made & by who
    • Who attended a job
    • Notes & photos taken on the job
    • Who completed checklist items
    • Any forms associated with jobs
    • When payment was received
    • and more
• Avoid disputes
  • Nothing wastes time more than disputes with customers
  • Three ways ServiceM8 helps prevent these are
    • By keeping a clear audit trail of all written communication with the customer (See Job Diary above)
    • By enabling your terms of business to be sent with every quote
    • By having a facility to get customers to sign off work while on site.

You might think that your business is doing just fine; you don’t want to grow your business. Even if that’s the case wouldn’t you like just a little more time to spend doing what you want and probably making more money at the same time.

If you are interested then HomeForce can help as a certified ServiceM8 Partner

Support is free to HomeForce accredited Tradespeople or £50 / hr to non-accredited tradespeople.

• Click HERE to Register your interest with HomeForce
• or Telephone: – 0131 315 0000
• or Email us: – info@homeforce.co.uk