How Mobile Software Helps Service Industry Businesses Save Money and Boost Sales

“When can we schedule your next checkup?” Dentists mastered that phrase over a century ago, ensuring an ongoing stream of patients (and billings) to build successful practices.

When you think about it, it’s amazing that it’s taken so long for other service industry businesses to follow suit. Companies such as cleaners, plumbers and handyman services that came to their customers just couldn’t easily do it; when they visited their customers, tasks such as scheduling, billing and other administrative functions were performed back at the office. Front-line service staff would only focus on the job at hand and tell the customer they’d send a bill and would be on their way. But software tools and mobile handsets have changed the game.

When Your Service Industry Business Goes Mobile Your Customers Are Happier

We’re in a mobile era of business, now. For companies to streamline their operations and encourage repeat customers, they have to be able to handle everything from service delivery to those “back-office” functions, right from a mobile device while in front of customers. It’s about making the experience more convenient for the customer and more efficient for the operator as well.

Having software for your schedule, work orders, quotes, and invoices on your mobile device while you’re on-site with customers is key. Customers are increasingly expecting service companies to provide “back-office” functions while at their home or business because it’s more convenient, saves them from waiting for a quote, scanning a paper invoice for their records, wondering about availability for the next appointment, or other similar time wasters that can easily be solved with a mobile solution in hand.

Of course, that all-important scheduling feature helps you lock in that next service call, closing repeat business while the customer is still happy with a job well done. When that’s taken care of, the customer knows they’ve got a reliable service provider; they are less likely to search for a different company or with getting competing estimates once you’ve provided convenient, quality service.

Saving Money with More Efficient Scheduling, Dispatching and More

Handyman, cleaning, moving and other kinds of specialized service companies may dispatch service people within a single city or may be dispatching service people for calls in multiple cities. Either way, they’ll win big by going mobile. With location-based service scheduling, there’s no more need to zig-zag trucks and vans all over the place, potentially requiring you to charge customers a travel fee. Instead, you’re scheduling “milk runs” that will flow along the shortest possible route. You save on gas, your customers don’t need to pay extra and everybody wins – except for your competition who hasn’t gone mobile yet. Then again, you won’t need to worry about them for long.

Learn more about how you can put Vonigo to work in your business.