Suggestion for HCP

[fittlebug]

It was posted here with HCP...
"right now the Online Booking is configured to look at all open slots for all technicians that are turned on for online booking. You can't currently setup each tech on a different schedule (that will come in the future). My suggestion is if you are worried about double bookings, just only enable one technician to be booked - your customers will pick convenience of online scheduling OVER calling 10 other companies

"

You can with FittleBug.com and all the other stuff you were concerned about. Don't be worried about Double Booking! We have clients running 8+ trucks each with individual calendars and business settings. Hope it helps....

On a side note - REALLY! , you said to just enable one technician to be booked online! That's like buying two trucks but only filling one with gas to go service people.

 

[ToddBenne]

I often read these types of discussions and wonder why any company, especially one truck o/o guys, would spend money on HCP, when you can accomplish a lot of the same features for free via Google's various apps and such. That's what we use.

As to online booking, I would suggest a company try one of the various free services first. Then determine the amount of use from customers it gets and just what effect it has or doesn't have on your business before spending money. It's easy for a company to promote itself and tout how guys are getting X jobs from the feature. But you need to field test for yourself.

Often a potential client wants to call you and actually speak about their cleaning and get answers to their questions. Thus, the phone is still the primary booking app.

I have a free online booking presence and gain zero added business from it. I could add a couple of features from the app for $10 month and pretty much duplicate HCP online booking. But at this point there is no value in it. We have the online booking on all of our company collateral; web site, Facebook, Google listing, business cards et al. Nothing comes from it.

 

[rolandal]

I often read these types of discussions and wonder why any company, especially one truck o/o guys, would spend money on HCP, when you can accomplish a lot of the same features for free via Google's various apps and such. That's what we use.

As to online booking, I would suggest a company try one of the various free services first. Then determine the amount of use from customers it gets and just what effect it has or doesn't have on your business before spending money. It's easy for a company to promote itself and tout how guys are getting X jobs from the feature. But you need to field test for yourself.

Often a potential client wants to call you and actually speak about their cleaning and get answers to their questions. Thus, the phone is still the primary booking app.

I have a free online booking presence and gain zero added business from it. I could add a couple of features from the app for $10 month and pretty much duplicate HCP online booking. But at this point there is no value in it. We have the online booking on all of our company collateral; web site, Facebook, Google listing, business cards et al. Nothing comes from it.

Sounds like you're doing something massively wrong if you're getting nothing from it.

What's your website?

Pros using our Online Booking get on average 7.3 NEW bookings per month. That's the average and it sounds like your "simple free solution" is well below it?

 

[ToddBenne]

I know Roland, I am not using your product thus it is a failure. Let's be honest, it's a booking app link. The customer has no idea whether I am using HCP or another app. They don't think, gee I won't book with them since they don't use HCP. Our app gathers all the right info; name, address, phone, email, areas to be cleaned, date/time, notes. We then would call the client to verify and answer any questions.

My point is, online booking may or may not work, depending on various markets' acceptability to the idea. It's just like any other makreting idea, what works in one market may not work in another.

My suggestion for guys to sample a free version was so they could field test the concept. As a matter of fact, I see very few if any companies in my market utilize any brand of online booking. Odd. But they all seem to stay in business.

 

[rolandal]

I know Roland, I am not using your product thus it is a failure. Let's be honest, it's a booking app link. The customer has no idea whether I am using HCP or another app. They don't think, gee I won't book with them since they don't use HCP. Our app gathers all the right info; name, address, phone, email, areas to be cleaned, date/time, notes. We then would call the client to verify and answer any questions.

My point is, online booking may or may not work, depending on various markets' acceptability to the idea. It's just like any other makreting idea, what works in one market may not work in another.

My suggestion for guys to sample a free version was so they could field test the concept. As a matter of fact, I see very few if any companies in my market utilize any brand of online booking. Odd. But they all seem to stay in business.

It's only a matter of time. The way that you say it reminds me of the "Yellow pages is all you need. This Web thing? There's only a couple people using the websites on the World Wide Web, no need to do more because everyone seems to stay in business".

What's happening is something much bigger than carpet cleaning in the world. Amazon and Southwest, Hotels.com and others are training people ALL OVER the US to book online. It's much better to be paddling your surfboard before the wave invariably hits you.

I just looked up the average Online Bookings for the state of MO and it is a bit lower than our average, but 4.6 EXTRA bookings is still nothing to sneeze at.

 

[fittlebug]

Remember Rolandal - Missouri is "The Show Me State"

 

[fittlebug]

Todd - Ultimately the success of any Online Booking tool is the marketing done by or for your own company. If you tell people that they are empowered to love you the other 16 hours (5:00PM to 8:00 AM) of the day then you might just pick up more clients. I can tell you when I started FittleBug I thought (wrongly) that the majority of the people would book off hours. I was wrong. It's all day long. Even on a net net revenue basis, you don't have to get many orders per month to justify any investment in the concept. What you do get is the relation and contact information of a past client. What does a client cost you to obtain? I understand the thinking of O'Fallon MO. I grew up in southern Illinois. Can't be that different. Empower People and they will remember you. Real-Time Booking is empowering (Booked and Done), web-forms complete nothing more than data input. Consumers know this - this is why the majority of them don't work. Keep thinking about it and let me know if we can help with future questions.. All the Best. Steve

 

[ToddBenne]

Steve, thanks. I didn't create the online booking, toss it up there and forget it. We actively market and remind folks it is available. At this point it is just not a revenue generator. Will it be in the future? Perhaps, time will tell.

As I stated, customers have the ability to input their data, view a calendar to see open days/times and make a selection that best fills their need. I use youcanbook.me (ready for the 'that app stinks' retorts lol)

The St. Louis market as a whole is nationally know to be very conservative. Could be the reason online booking is a slow process to accept for both the cleaner and customer. Again, one of the reason I suggest guys field test and track results just like any other marketing piece prior to committing capital to any endeavor.

 

[fittlebug]

Steve, thanks. I didn't create the online booking, toss it up there and forget it. We actively market and remind folks it is available. At this point it is just not a revenue generator. Will it be in the future? Perhaps, time will tell.

As I stated, customers have the ability to input their data, view a calendar to see open days/times and make a selection that best fills their need. I use youcanbook.me (ready for the 'that app stinks' retorts lol)

The St. Louis market as a whole is nationally know to be very conservative. Could be the reason online booking is a slow process to accept for both the cleaner and customer. Again, one of the reason I suggest guys field test and track results just like any other marketing piece prior to committing capital to any endeavor.

Ironically - FittleBug.com was built in St. Louis ! LOL
Respectfully will never work for you or others that can't squeeze a 5 hour job into a 1 hour block of time. It's a form, not a "Real-Time" approach based on "actual" times that it might take you to perform services. Here's a blog I posted that helps to understand the economic differences and more of blocks of time vs. Real-Time. Hope it helps Todd.

https://www.fittlebug.com/2017/10/27/blocks-time-vs-minute/

 

[Allied]

It's only a matter of time. The way that you say it reminds me of the "Yellow pages is all you need. This Web thing? There's only a couple people using the websites on the World Wide Web, no need to do more because everyone seems to stay in business".

What's happening is something much bigger than carpet cleaning in the world. Amazon and Southwest, Hotels.com and others are training people ALL OVER the US to book online. It's much better to be paddling your surfboard before the wave invariably hits you.

I just looked up the average Online Bookings for the state of MO and it is a bit lower than our average, but 4.6 EXTRA bookings is still nothing to sneeze at.

Here is another idea. Clients should have the option to click on a link included in the estimate emailed to them, and book the job. The link should bypass the services selection option and go straight to your available online booking slots.