‘ Up to the Minute Job Queue ’
Rich McKeown had some big ideas for his family’s plumbing business. He imagined a centralized system that would allow the back office to see and manage a job queue, and direct trucks and personnel to their next destination — despite the ever-changing needs of customers as urgent situations arose. Alchemy set him up with a custom system designed for the flexibility of a plumbing business, with an iPad for every truck. His plumbers log in to the system to see each new job and even directions to get there, with just a few taps. Once they are on site, they can share photos with team leaders, write up estimates using custom project estimating software, collect signatures, and accept payment with a credit card — all while the back office keeps tabs on the crew’s location and work status.
“We needed a way to manage a fleet of trucks and plumbers in the field, as well as billing and aging. Alchemy Consulting designed a custom system that not only gives us up-to-the-minute data on our job queue, but also allows our field personnel to produce an invoice on an impact-resistant tablet, swipe a credit card, and verify payment instantly. The customer gets an invoice in email. Not only does Alchemy’s team know what they are doing, but they are responsive to our needs. If you have a growing trade business, you need to call these guys!”
Everything about this system is built for ease of use and speed:
- Simple iPad app
- Maps and directions to customers
- Easy invoice and estimate creation
- Credit card processing with direct-to-email receipt
- Flexible job queue
- Quick customer lookup and job creation
- Billing and aging
“Alchemy Consulting prez Bob Shockey: “Honestly, there’s nothing we enjoy more than creating slick iPad apps for our clients. Just knowing that saving a few minutes per job means the guys at American Plumbing can visit one or two more customers per day is huge! Talk about return on investment, a thing like that is just a no-brainer. And we keep their system up-to-date with new features and reports, so we get to see this sort of great payoff on a regular basis. We love it!””
