Fill my Schedule/ Service Monster Good or Bad?

[JDeShon]

Been using Service monster the last six months and love it. Freedom from the phone is awsome. I'm thinking of using "Fill My Schedule" to market to existing customers. Heard great things about it. How great has it been for you?

 

[Brian R]

It's been really good although I will admit that I skipped the 15 month reminder this last month. No real reason.

You should always be sending something to your clients worthy of sending something too.

My biggest mistake was sending reminders to every client. I've no clicked the "do not mail" box on the profile page of move outs, apartments etc.

 

[JDeShon]

Thanks Brian. I've be using a magizine here, called market place. I get an average of 6 jobs per month and it cost 575 per month. Its nearly break-even. I think im going to replace it with fill my schedule.

 

[tmdry]

Thanks Brian. I've be using a magizine here, called market place. I get an average of 6 jobs per month and it cost 575 per month. Its nearly break-even. I think im going to replace it with fill my schedule.

I've been with SM for a little over 6 months now, spent $757 on FMS, got over $9k in return (majority from 2010). I can only imagine how 2011 will be. My biggest complaint was that I didn't do it any sooner.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

Bill if you have a lot of repeats, they will get used to the cards especially after they have seen the same envelope 5 or 6 times. The cards still work great.

I used to mail all of them. Now I skip the three month mailing and wait for the 6. I also wait to send 12 month cards to customers I know are once per 12 month customers. I had 18 orders backed up since mid December. I decided to wait until today to send them. Business has really picked up here. I am glad I didn't do any mailings right before and after the holiday. I should get a ton of calls from this mailing. It's supposed to be 70 degrees here later this week.

 

[Brian R]

The biggest complaint with mailers is "do you really know they called because of the mailers".

Do you ever really know? I don't care how many ways or times you ask a customer why they called or how they heard about you.....you can never really trust them.

Sure if they have the card in their hand or are asking about the deal....that's important...but would they have called anyway?

I guess what I'm trying to say is ...do the cards really work?.

I'm pretty sure the minimal cost is worth the "insurance" of getting them to call.

You can be sure that if you DON'T send out the mailers....that a few definitely WON'T call.

And that one or two that didn't call.....would have paid for the mailers you should have sent.



That's just how I look at it.

 

[Rob Anspach]

...always, always keep in contact with your customers!

Sending a thank you note, a 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month, 18 month and 24 month reminders will keep your service in front of mind with your clients.

Sending a monthly newsletter will show your clients you care about them, they will show the newsletters to their friends and your referral business will jump.

Sending out emails via a service (like constant contact, aweber, etc) on a weekly basis will keep work coming and you can fill holes in schedules quicker.

Constantly reaching out to your client, keeps you ahead of your competition and makes you the "go-to" expert in your area.

Rob Anspach
www.robanspach.com

P.S. If you haven't checked out my Ultimate Monthly Client Newsletter yet, I invite you to go to my site and discover how you can try it out completely risk free for one issue. While on the site check out all the free stuff I'm giving away.

 

[tmdry]

Daniel,

My best roi on the cards are the thank you, 3 months and 6 months. In that order, I don't skip on any cards.

 

[floorguy]

...always, always keep in contact with your customers!

Sending a thank you note, a 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 month, 18 month and 24 month reminders will keep your service in front of mind with your clients.

Sending a monthly newsletter will show your clients you care about them, they will show the newsletters to their friends and your referral business will jump.

Sending out emails via a service (like constant contact, aweber, etc) on a weekly basis will keep work coming and you can fill holes in schedules quicker.

Constantly reaching out to your client, keeps you ahead of your competition and makes you the "go-to" expert in your area.

Rob Anspach
http://www.robanspach.com

P.S. If you haven't checked out my Ultimate Monthly Client Newsletter yet, I invite you to go to my site and discover how you can try it out completely risk free for one issue. While on the site check out all the free stuff I'm giving away.

Damn he wants to keep the USPS in biz all by himself :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[Padden McFadden]

I'm gonna get set up with them this coming week. I'm nervious about it, in a good way.

 

[Brian R]

There may be cheaper ways to do it. But the time that it saves....like 3 clicks....is priceless.

 

[tmdry]

I'm gonna get set up with them this coming week. I'm nervious about it, in a good way.

About time! 8)

Call me if you need any help

 

[Rob Anspach]

...haha keeping USPS in business... it just might.

But it will also keep you busy all year long.

Forget about the phonebooks, the coupon mags, or the val paks... if you truly want to build a business that keeps clients coming back, produces referral after referral and puts money in the bank... then yes,

mail frequently!

 

[Nomad74]

Bump. What is the cost per mailing of fill my schedule. I currently use sendjim at a cost of .59 each. It's going up to . 69 soon.

Thanks.

 

[tres davis]

Around same, can't remember exactly

We use it for thank you and all the reminders

.65 maybe?

 

[Mikey P]

I believe a fms card runs around $1.30 each

The first round/ thank you card can have a few business cards added too..

You can easily pick and choose who gets a card

 

[Nomad74]

Wow, I thought $.65 was high but $1.30 per card is a lot more. I guess if it has a 800:1 ROI as stated in the YouTube video I watched, what does it matter. I will say this. I like the analytical tracking/metrics that Service monster Provides. Currently I use the Customer Factor and i'm happy with it. But it would be nice to have better tracking of my SendJim responses. Currently I log everything in notes with keywords that I can pull up later to run my marketing reports. It would be nice if the CRM just did it for me though.

 

[Nomad74]

I believe a fms card runs around $1.30 each

The first round/ thank you card can have a few business cards added too..

You can easily pick and choose who gets a card

And why the hell are you up! I know why i'm up...Damn acid reflux!

 

[Mikey P]

Headed to Vegas..

 

[Nomad74]

Headed to Vegas..

Oh ok, I guess the great pilgrimage has begun. I dropped by Mr. Swivel's house today and his truck looked like casting call for the movie "Grapes of wrath". It was loaded to the gills. Have fun!

 

[Mikey P]

You couldn't find a place on top to sit?

Would be fun to have you there.

 

[BIG WOOD]

I'm currently getting the last 3years of my customers transferred from my written calendar to Quickbooks. After that's done, I'll be transferring Quickbooks to SM. I'll be doing a big send out on reminders after this is done.

So for an example, let's say I have 500 customers. How much would it cost to send out that many reminders on Fill my schedule?

 

[TimM]

I like the analytical tracking/metrics that Service monster Provides. Currently I use the Customer Factor and i'm happy with it. But it would be nice to have better tracking of my SendJim responses. Currently I log everything in notes with keywords that I can pull up later to run my marketing reports. It would be nice if the CRM just did it for me though.

I am in the same spot Damon. I have been using TCF for about 2 1/2 years and I really like it but the tracking of the send jim cards is not there. I will be stopping by the SM booth Thursday and checking it out.

 

[Todd Millar]

Have you guys used House call pro? Just wondering how it compares to SM? I am looking to go digital for 2017 and I was wondering which is the better software.

 

[Mikey P]

Have you guys used House call pro? Just wondering how it compares to SM? I am looking to go digital for 2017 and I was wondering which is the better software.

I'd like to see a feature comparison checklist between the two.

HCP requires a strong data conection to work throughout your day/ route, something we dont have in either location

 

[Nomad74]

I am in the same spot Damon. I have been using TCF for about 2 1/2 years and I really like it but the tracking of the send jim cards is not there. I will be stopping by the SM booth Thursday and checking it out.

It would be nice. The current tracking that SendJim provides is a bit of a joke. I can only see what I did last week. So this week I have sent out over 500 reminder, thank you, and incentivized referral request cards. Each of my customers gets put into a sequence of getting a t/y card, a referral card every three months, and a reminder card at 6 months. The callback reminders in TheCustomerFactor are set for 8 months, If the customer is unresponsive to my first sequence, they are put into another sequence where they get a referral request card quarterly and a reminder card every 2 months for a year. The sequence is then continually reset until they respond. This setup has been working very well for me. I just wish I could track it better. It's exploding my business. I have added almost 200 customers this year. It's my hope that this is an exponential number because every new customer also gets put into the sequences of referral requests.

While everyone is so concerned with Facebook, Adwords, Twitter, thumbtack, instagram, and the latest and greatest SEO, I've been working on my relationship marketing and mining for the type of customer that matches my cleaning mindset. The postcards to my current client base seems to be working the best.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Damon, they are always going to be lagging way behind, that crew doesnt have a team of developers working on this stuff everyday like service monster.

Of course you see results, you went from nothing to something.

 

[Nomad74]

Damon, they are always going to be lagging way behind, that crew doesnt have a team of developers working on this stuff everyday like service monster.

Of course you see results, you went from nothing to something.

Yes. But I attribute my results to relationship building and direct mailers. When I first started my Eddm and door knocking really got me going. I had no illusions that it would be easy and could just back, push a few buttons, and the phone would ring. I think that's where a lot of Seo dependent guys get into trouble. I'm not totally off SEO and Facebook, I get jobs from them, I'm just not all in with that mindset.

My next focus in on growing more commercial contracts. Hopefully you can help me out there.

 

[Nomad74]

@Matt Wood, I know you just signed up for service monster. It might be too soon to ask you, but so far as a newer user; what is your opinion of it. Was it hard to understand? Do you feel like you jumped into an ocean of information?

 

[BIG WOOD]

@Matt Wood, I know you just signed up for service monster. It might be too soon to ask you, but so far as a newer user; what is your opinion of it. Was it hard to understand? Do you feel like you jumped into an ocean of information?

It's really easy to fill in work orders, and entering customer information. But yes, it is too soon for me to give any more feedback. From what I'm investing in this software the first year $$$$, it'd Better bring in more work, or I'll definitely give in accurate feedback August2017.

Because I'm going from handwritten scheduling, and return calls and mail outs for $0, to over 1000%, lol, in cost to improve business. If I don't get similar results all you big city boys get in return customers, I'll be pissed