Kickserv

- As a CRM software, we are able to manage all of our customers, scheduling, invoicing and reporting (not as bookkeeping or Financial Statements) in a generally good way.
- The inter-connectionedness of the various parts of the software makes it easy to navigate from one function to another.
- Although there has been some down time (which can be very difficult because we cannot function), but over the long-term it has not be crucial. Being an online CRM allows me to use any device.
- We are able to save virtually anything (pics, docs, etc.) for future use, which has been crucially important to us.
- The integration with Stripe for payment from our customers is now essential to our processes. It has worked flawlessly, easy to use, and easy to deal with Stripe for various things we need to do, including refunds.
- It works well for both our field service and in-shop jobs. This is crucial because using two systems would be very difficult.
-We are easily able to tailor the Products/Services, pricing, descriptions, to our specific needs - not being locked into some format that we don't like.

- Support is sometimes tedious.
- New features added (if we find out about them at all) can be very disruptive to our processes, and confusing. While some of them make sense in a wider world, they sometimes are baffling and frustrating in our business.
- We have 2 locations (and hope to have many more) and need to have separate systems. Kickserv requires us to use separate browsers for each. How are we going to be able to do that with 5 or 10 locations? And we're finding that some functions (e.g. access to support!) are no longer working on Firefox, one of the best and most popular browsers available. This is a serious problem for us.
- Although a great deal of our business is field work, we do not/cannot use the mobile app with our techs because it is far too limiting. They need to be able to access much more information than what is available to them, and so we have them login through a browser on their phones.
- There are essential functions that we have to do in business that Kickserv has not been able to program into the system (even when we offered to pay big $ to get them). E.g. There are several email templates, and auto sending emails: We need one to be sent as a follow up to Jobs, and another (sent out 6 or 12 months later) to remind people to schedule services . We have to do all of this manually, and would love to find a way to get it done automatically. Summary: Some things are hard to get into the software that other companies would also make good use of.

Their web site when used on a desktop computer is great for scheduling and dispatching. We use it throughout the day to line up jobs for our technicians. Previously existing customers are easy to find using their search feature. I can add a new job, and then click a button and it sends the technician a text message with the job description and address. The technician can click on the address link and get the GPS coordinates on their smart phone. The workflow is logical and consistent. When things go wrong, they are good about communicating what is happening.

We are really only able to use part of the service. While it is excellent for scheduling, it is not useful for invoicing unless your invoicing needs are very basic. The product is not compatible with Quick Books groups. I don't use their mobile app. I prefer their mobile web site, but recent changes have made their mobile site less useful. Their server sometimes gets overloaded and the software becomes unresponsive. Tech support is inconsistent. Sometimes very helpful. Sometimes condescending. If a customer has an email address, it will automatically send this customer a reminder notice. There is no way to turn this feature on or off. For recurring jobs where we go back to the customer again and again, this is a problem because we don't always schedule the customer on the same day every month. It also gives the customer a link to the customer account center, which we also do not use, since we are unable to use Kickserv's invoicing feature.

While Kickserv continues to make improvements to the service, I frequently find myself frustrated because improvements are often not fully tested, resulting in unpleasant side effects. Example - recent formatting changes have made the scrollable area of their mobile web site very small and difficult to work with. Another change awhile back formatted all of my old customer data in such a way that their addresses would fail to appear in the text messages sent to my technicians. I am having to manually change all of these.

The product is simple to use and meets my customer service and scheduling needs for the price of the cloud software but also allows me to customize things without major programming or fees to get somebody else to do it. I paid for the Boot Camp training and was very worth it just to get things setup and understand the software. It sync's reliably with QuickBooks which has been a problem in the past for our company with other cloud based Customer Service Programs. The vendor has been GREAT! They feel like my team as they always respond within minutes to hours of my questions or problems I do run in to. I just send them a quick email and they help. Also they are always interested in my recommendations and are also getting feed back frequently from me and making improvements to the software. One thing that is great is that they provide a portal to the customer so any changes I make to an estimate or schedule or notes can be seen by the customer (they only see notes you want them to see). They can be abreast with what is going on with their work order. They also can pay for their invoice right online as well which I love so my customers have more control over their payment needs. Also our Kickserv is linked to our website so anytime a customer wants to contact us it creates an OPPORTUNITY in Kickserv for us to follow up on and notifies us via email that we have an interest. I would and have recommended Kickserv to other businesses.

This product does not handle the purchasing side of things which I would love to see. It sounds like they are looking into expanding this software to handle tracking purchases. Right now I just use QuickBooks for this. I also don't like the HTML language which is required for the setup of the invoice, estimates and work orders templates. It is hard to work with being I am not a programmer. I have managed to figure things out on my own with their help site and calling them. Its not a major issue but something I think they can improve on more. Again the Kickserv Team has been very helpful in anything I try to do or questions I have.