There are many issues that can cause plumbers to waste significant time, especially when the owner of the plumbing company is heavily involved in both management and the execution of plumbing work.
While many plumbers may find technical solutions intimidating, implementing plumbing software into the daily operations of a plumbing business grants plumbers many advantages that help them operate more efficiently.
In short, you can plan to save 5 to 10 hours per week by using service management software. How? It all comes down to automation.
Between scheduling and completing plumbing jobs, managing employees, printing and filing documentation, and traveling to and from the office, there are plenty of things to keep plumbers busy throughout the day. Each of these things creates an increasingly severe bottleneck, resulting in poor plumbing company efficiency and productivity. Relying on these methods can also leave plumbing companies vulnerable to a range of additional issues.
Plumbing company management software automates or optimizes these tasks, reduces risks, and more thanks to an array of advanced features. Doing so enables companies to reduce the time spent handling these activities manually, allowing them to focus on completing more work in less time. Here are some specific advantages specialized plumbing company management software can provide to help plumbers streamline and grow their businesses.
When you're approached by a new customer, the first thing you'll do is analyze their request and provide a competitive estimate or quote. The more professional and personalized this is, the better your chances of landing the job. With home service software, you can create new quotes from anywhere and tailor them to your customers' needs.
Not only can you show or hide a breakdown of costs, but the program also lets you add signatures, attachments, and a personal message. Once your customer accepts your quote, you can turn it into a work order for your employees. After the work is completed, the work order can be converted into an invoice. This saves you an enormous amount of time that would have otherwise been spent on admin.
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There is a large amount of information associated with each plumbing job that the plumbing team must manage. This information includes client names, addresses, plumbing issues, services required, job status, pricing, and more. With many plumbers relying on manual and traditional methods of keeping track of this data, such as printing and filing forms at the office and filling out digital spreadsheets, it's no wonder that plumbing jobs can easily suffer from missing, duplicate, or otherwise inaccurate information.
Failing to maintain accurate data can often lead to callbacks and other back-and-forth with clients, which can cost companies 10 - 20 minutes per day. Job management features take the headache and challenges out of job management by automatically consolidating the company and client data associated with a job in one central location, allowing companies to reduce the time they spend on client calls and increase the time they spend fulfilling jobs.
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Clients need plumbers who can work with their schedules when resolving plumbing issues. However, it can be difficult for plumbing companies to manage jobs and employees efficiently enough to maintain an accurate schedule, especially when dealing with a large volume of clients, jobs, and employees. Plumbers often lose track of jobs and waste significant time and money on gas and other expenses by taking inefficient routes between jobs.
The best home service programs come with an easy scheduler that helps you to keep track of your employees' tasks. You'll be able to see an overview of each person's day and drag and drop tasks into free time slots. When you update someone's schedule with a new work order, they automatically receive this information on their mobile devices, so there's no chance that they'll miss an assignment.
Even better, your employees can provide feedback on the tasks they're working on. If they are running late or complete a task sooner than expected, they'll simply send you an update, and you can adjust their schedule as needed.
Tracking labor costs is an essential aspect of managing a plumbing company. Doing so manually can be challenging for plumbing companies, especially those with many clients, employees, and jobs to complete. In such cases, plumbing businesses may be forced to keep track of plumber activity manually, possibly requiring employees to check in at the office. With such arrangements, these companies can easily find themselves going over budget due to excessive labor expenses.
Plumbing company software offers can sync with drivers' locations and status, reflecting the data in the software in real time. This remote software sync enables plumbers to take their vehicles home, view their schedule, and clock in from home, head directly towards their first job, and check in and out of the job upon arrival and departure. By not having to clock in at the office to retrieve their schedule and vehicle, plumbers can save an average of 10 minutes per day - those little time savers add up quickly.
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Plumbing companies often rely on physical paperwork to provide customers with quotes, document service orders, share quotes and invoices, and more. For these reasons, paperwork can be one of the most time-consuming aspects of a plumber's job. Handling this paperwork slows down the time that it takes for companies to complete transactions and can limit clients' payment options, leading to a worse customer experience.
Plumbing company management software automatically populates each job with relevant client and job data in real-time without any paperwork. This enables plumbers to generate error-free quotes and invoices that can be emailed to clients. Clients can then pay with any major credit card. Eliminating paperwork from plumbers' daily activities can save plumbers 15 minutes or more per day and enhance the customer experience.
Most companies hire an accountant to handle their tax returns. By compiling all your information ahead of time and making sure everything's clear, you simplify and speed up your accountant's job, which means that they'll bill you fewer hours. Good home service software connects with QuickBooks and Sage 50 Canada, so you can send information directly to your accountant.
The ServiceBox accounting connector synchronizes your invoices and customer data to your accounting software, and it allows you to add in all your payments. When the time comes to do your annual tax return, you won't have to scramble to find the relevant information. Instead, it'll already be prepared for you, and you'll simply transfer it from one program to the other.
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Inventory management is a critical aspect of managing a plumbing business. Plumbers can not complete their jobs without a consistent supply of pipe fittings, ball valves, and other tools and equipment. It is also easy for plumbers to forget to bring these assets to each job as needed. Failing to keep a steady supply of this equipment can bring a plumbing business to a standstill and jeopardize clients' plumbing systems.
Plumbing software can detect when a company is running low on supplies and automatically reorder those supplies as needed due to its inventory tracking capabilities. The software also tracks inventory as it moves between the warehouse, the office, and the job. This tracking process prevents plumbers from forgetting to bring the right tools, equipment, and parts to a job, saving them roughly 30 minutes per day in trips back to the office for forgotten items.
One of the most important features of home service software is its accessibility from virtually anywhere. After setting up your system, you and your employees will be able to access ServiceBox from mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. This makes it easy to keep track of work orders and schedules, even when you are out and about or at home.
You can also configure the program to send you notifications reminding you to follow up with customers or pay your bills. With this tool, you're much less likely to forget something or make a mistake that costs you a lot of money.
As you can see, plumbing software can help plumbers dramatically improve the efficiency of their operations. To learn more about what this incredible software can do for you, contact ServiceBox today!
Our customers love the affordability and flexibility of our software. ServiceBox is priced to ensure you see a return on your investment. We have pricing options that align with your needs; whether you’re a one-person service business or manage a large team in the field.
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