Productivity and Support in Office and Field

Zuper Projects (www.zuper.co, 888/718-7858), a flexible, scalable solution project management solution for businesses with field service teams involved in complex or long-term projects with multiple jobs, phases, and team members that may require planning, coordination, resource allocation, and tracking over days, weeks, or months.

Designed as a simple way to track jobs through an entire life cycle, Zuper Projects offers numerous potentially productivity enhancing features such as Gantt View and List view to easily visualize tasks and monitor a project’s progress. Zuper’s mobile app enables project managers and field techs to access project details and updates and manage tasks by logging in from anywhere.

Users can track project costs by adding required inventory while monitoring budgets through estimates and invoices. According to the company, progressive invoicing to bill customers incrementally in phases is in the works.  

Jotform

Jotform (www.jotform.com) is an online app, available in free and paid plans, that enables users to create custom online forms for use in running a business, including field service companies. Featuring a drag-and-drop interface, it facilitates creating and publishing forms, integrating them into your website, and allowing you to receive responses by email.

The solution offers 10,000 ready-made templates, including contact, estimating, appointment scheduling and cancellation, inspection, client tracking, payment, and customer satisfaction survey forms, as well as integration with 150+ business apps.

Pricing: free plan with 5 form limit, 100 monthly submissions, one user per team, and 1,000 limit monthly form views and tiered paid plans that progressively increase limits.

GorillaDesk Pro

GorillaDesk Pro (www.gorilladesk.com) field service management software, which includes an integrated mobile app and a customer portal, features the ability for users to generate and send out quotes and estimates and track status of acceptance, schedule from office and field on a color-coded drag-and-drop calendar, optimize dispatching (including “route from here”); push notifications; and generate invoicing, and accept e-signatures and payments. It can also handle subscription billing and commission tracking.

The solution includes ready-to-use transactional downloadable email templates for estimates, appointment confirmation, appointment reminders, invoices, payment reminders, service feedback, and customer reactivation. The Dynamic Estimates feature allows you to present customers with optional and recommended options enabling them to select what they need.

A time clocking feature provides the ability, on any device, to track labor precisely and review and update timesheets. You can also calculate payroll with pre-set rates and generate reports.  

The customer portal enables customers to view quotes, book jobs, check appointment details, input an e-signature, pay invoices with a credit card or through ACH payments via Stripe, and, upon completion of the latest job, rate your service and choose how likely they are to recommend your business.

In addition to requesting Service Ratings which help differentiate among promoters, passives, and detractors, you can ask for a “Likely Rating” through a survey designed to be sent quarterly (or other interval) to help calculate your Net Promoter Score (NPS), a metric determined via a single-question survey sent to customers, reported with a number between -100 and +100.

You can also request reviews after a completed job and send satisfied customers to top review sites to share their feedback.

The software includes templates for 20+ built-in reports.

Other capabilities: Gorilla Desk can automatically suggest the best booking time slots for technicians based on proximity and date range when scheduling a new or current job; Job Magnet can help administrators optimize the scheduling and reduce drive time by notifying them of upcoming jobs within the same area, noting specified mile radius and date range; and Dynamic Estimate can present all your service options and allow the client to choose services needed.

You can set up “Estimate Packages”, bundling items into comprehensive groupings such as Gold, Silver, and Bronze for customer choosing. You can also use SMS AI Agent, which can work 24/7 to deliver custom responses to your specific needs and preferences.    

Gorilla Desk syncs with QuickBooks Online to push customer invoice and payment data directly and syncs with Stripe and Square payment platforms for credit card processing. Integrating with Zapier, Gorilla Desk also can integrate with thousands of other apps.

Pricing: monthly or yearly, free 14-day trial. A Basic plan with limited features is also available.

Teletrac TN360

Teletrac TN360 by navman (www.teletracnavman.com) field management software is designed for companies needing to manage ten or more vehicles or assets, and provides an array of capabilities to help achieve optimal operation by generating and tracking accurate information about how each member of your service team moves from job to job and what assets they utilize.

The solution, which features two-way messaging to enable adjusting of routes in real time for maximum efficiency, allows the prospective company to put together its own solution by selecting up to three options from the interactive product builder to achieve main goals. Possible selections include control maintenance cost, reduce fuel cost, reduce insurance premiums, reduce vehicle down time; win more business, optimize EV  transition, and cut overtime costs.

Pricing: customized plans based on number and type of vehicles/asses/equipment, billed monthly.

Patti Feldman writes articles and web content for trade magazines and manufacturers of building products. She can be reached at [email protected].