Software: To Buy or Not To Buy?
June 16, 2010
Today, many contractors use an accounting package, like QuickBooks or Peachtree, but don’t have a package that has call taking, dispatching, marketing, productivity, inventory, service agreement, or sales management modules.
Over the years, many contractors have wondered, “When should I invest in software specifically for the contracting industry?”
There are only three reasons to invest in a fully integrated software program for contractors: (1) To increase revenue, (2) Decrease expenses, or (3) Ease the pain of running your business today.
HOW CAN A SOFTWARE PACKAGE HELP INCREASE YOUR REVENUE?
With better data, you can make better decisions. Data analysis helps you identify areas of opportunity and areas of improvement. For example, if you have a software package that tracks your marketing lead source cost, and ties that to the revenue generated for a call or job, you can easily identify marketing that is generating a great return. With this data, you can then direct more of your advertising dollars towards marketing that works. This is what I call an area of opportunity.
Other ways that software can help you generate revenue, is to help you identify areas in your business that need to improve. For example, if you do not track each service technician’s productivity, you may not know that one of your techs has a very low average repair invoice. The more techs you have, the harder this is to track on a daily basis. With an integrated software program, which tracks the revenue by technician and their productivity, you can easily identify which technicians make you money and which technicians need to improve their average invoice, their billable hours, and reduce their callbacks.
HOW CAN A SOFTWARE PACKAGE HELP DECREASE EXPENSES AND HELP EASE THE PAIN OF RUNNING YOUR BUSINESS?
Remember, better data equals better decisions. For example, if you do not track your customer service representative’s (CSR) booking percentage on incoming calls every day, you may not know that she is only booking 50 percent of the customers who call in for an appointment. If you implement a software package with a scripted call taking process that enables your CSR to book 75 percent of the calls coming in, you can save marketing dollars spent to generate those calls. You have decreased your advertising costs and increased the productivity of your CSR.
An inconsistent work flow, clutter, and manual tracking make it difficult for owners and managers to run their businesses for maximum profitability. Stacks of paperwork and human errors that surround a manual process can derail good decision-making. Software should provide efficiency to the work flow processes in order to provide timely and accurate management reports.
WHICH SOFTWARE PACKAGE IS RIGHT FOR ME?
If you are ready to increase revenue, decrease expenses, and ease the pain of running your business, then you should look at a fully integrated software package that won’t break the bank. There are many choices out there, but there is no need to spend tens of thousands of dollars on contracting software. In fact, you want to stay clear of packages that charge outrageous upfront fees and have a dated shelf life. You also want to make sure that the ongoing support is included in any kind of licensing fee so that you don’t get nickel and dimed every time you want to call for help. And finally, you want to find a company that will provide initial and ongoing training so that you can get your staff up to speed quickly.
SIDEBAR: Does such software exist?
Yes, it does. There are hundreds of contractors you can talk to who are using it. Here are the names of a few who have achieved great results from Successware®21.
“Successware21 has made a tremendous difference in how we can now manage our business and not have the business manage us. Before starting with SuccessWare21 we ran a custom accounting package and a custom scheduling package side-by-side. It was very time-consuming and did not give us 10 percent of the information we now have with the SuccessWare21 product. And there is more: SuccessWare21 has also permitted us to decrease our office staff by about four people and at the same time increase our customer service skills by 400 percent.”
— Scott Rohrer, The Rohrer Company, Lancaster, Pa. PHONE: 717-299-7300
“After going live with SuccessWare®21 on January 1st, I can say it’s one of the single most valuable tools we have in my company. You wouldn’t find anyone in our office who isn’t tickled pink that we made the switch. Every single day I have a report of what my techs’ sales are, their average tickets, how many calls they’ve been on, and anything else I need. And now I know exactly what my sales are by zip code, so we’ve been able to better target our marketing.”
— David Ratliff. Midway Plumbing, Abilene, Texas PHONE: 915-698-4399
