Smart Service

Vorteile

I've been using Smart Service and iFleet for nearly 4 years and I really couldn't imaging operating our service company without it. I've seen quite a few changes and feature upgrades throughout over the years which shows that the product has great support. When ever I have questions, they are answered right away. The only "complaint" I have if I had to make one would be that I would like to see the front facing camera be fixed within the iFleet app. I have been requesting this to be fix for the entire time that we have been using this product but it seems to go unnoticed. It must be a simple fix as every other camera app on iOS seems to work as intended. The pictures come in reversed which make reading numbers and words impossible. We use the front camera to take picture of product tags that are hard to reach. It would also be nice if the pictures were tagged with the job name and number so that we can easily locate and identify it. Thanks for a great product and all the support that goes into it. Looking forward to using this product for many years to come.

Nachteile

I've been using Smart Service and iFleet for nearly 4 years and I really couldn't imaging operating our service company without it. I've seen quite a few changes and feature upgrades throughout over the years which shows that the product has great support. When ever I have questions, they are answered right away. The only "complaint" I have if I had to make one would be that I would like to see the front facing camera be fixed within the iFleet app. I have been requesting this to be fix for the entire time that we have been using this product but it seems to go unnoticed. It must be a simple fix as every other camera app on iOS seems to work as intended. The pictures come in reversed which make reading numbers and words impossible. We use the front camera to take picture of product tags that are hard to reach. It would also be nice if the pictures were tagged with the job name and number so that we can easily locate and identify it. Thanks for a great product and all the support that goes into it. Looking forward to using this product for many years to come.

Vorteile

The ease of entering customers, service tickets, time keeping and the GPS tracking are great benefits of this system. For the most part our technicians have been easily trained on the process and it has cut down on a lot of their processing time in the field.

Nachteile

We have used the "Get Customer" or "Sync Customer" functions many times and since some of our office employees enter data directly into QuickBooks, we've lost a lot of email address and contact information on our customers. This information is critical to our database and it's very frustrating to try to rebuild.
We have several labor descriptions for our business and the work tickets can be set up correctly for the type of labor on a service call, the information transfers to the invoice in QB correctly, but defaults to ONE labor description on the time cards. So I end up having to revise nearly ever time card entry to correct the labor code. Also have to change the service or installation name from the sales rep's name to the actual technician that did the work. This has made the payroll processing a lot more time consuming than it used to be when it was entered directly through the time card entry in QB.

Vorteile

I love that it integrates with QuickBooks in real time. There are pros and cons to seeing every work order in QB but that also allows us to easily see how many times we have been to a customers house. As I said, the devil is in the details and if you just reach out to the customer service rather than struggle with the reports - they will teach you a lot and get you the report you need much quicker than you can do it yourself - until you learn how to do it yourself! The program is very customizable so that it can become what you need.

Nachteile

I would like the schedule board to act as a calendar too - the default search info isn't what i need but Smart Service can change the defaults - we just haven't it yet - I need to be able to schedule meetings/days off/ appts that are not service calls - in a manner that will allow them to be seen on the schedule without requiring that they be "Completed" 'cause then they disappear.....

Vorteile

Basic scheduling is very easy to learn, it only took me a couple of days to start scheduling basic calls. The rest involved mainly learning the service business that I work for in order to discover other needs within Smart Service. There is additional support via Smart Service's monthly webinars on various topics to assist with learning. I've attended 'Service Agreements' which I didn't know was possible until the webinar. I really like the reporting feature, it can generate useful data by request. For instance, pulling reports by customer location; if I want to view which customers live in South San Francisco I can easily create filters to do so. You really don't know how valuable a program is until your without it. We experienced our internet being down for half a day and had to go back to paper scheduling; that made us all realize how important Smart Service is to our business for sure!

Nachteile

If you misspell a customer name after selecting 'new customer/prospect' and make it to the main customer screen, you have to go into QuickBooks to make the corrections although it is a new customer. It would be better for new customers only to keep it unlocked until save is selected. That would save some time; I don't make constant errors but it happens occasionally. Also, tracking technicians does not seem to work 100%. I've made sure that their tablets are syncing but only have three technicians showing up on the map. Sometimes it can take a long time to load a customer and that delays a call and time. Other than those three minor problems, I can't really think of anything else.

Vorteile

It accomplishes all that we want out of a software without being complicated to use. It understands what we need to function and flow as a business. Using the software helps us be professional and profitable.

Nachteile

I can't really say anything negative about the software. I have heard others say they found a cheaper way to operate with software. It is usually people using several different software types or one program that is less quality. To me bad or clunky software/office operations cost money. Smart service is inexpensive when you realize the potential profits from a smooth running operation that is hassle free.