Which statement make more sense?

Ever wonder what you’re missing by having “Block of Time Window” Scheduling options vs Down to the Minute? We did, so we did the calculations before we ever started coding FittleBug. Below you can clearly see based on certain conservative estimates that if you’re booking is blocks of time and not allowing for the actual time that things take – You are leaving $$$ in Cyberspace, and taking yourself OFF the market to be booked!

I’m the first to admit that I sometimes I have a difficult time understanding the thought process of Women. Don’t get me wrong I like women, but I don’t think any woman will be taking the time to process their home into inches so they can inform the service provider of their needs. I mean, they are always getting inches wrong anyway. Woman make about 80+% of the decisions on things like carpet cleaning, so why would you want to confuse them? The 20% of the men I know won’t do it!  I guess that it boils down to do you want their business or not. I get the fact that a small business owner needs to be as precise as possible, but don’t you think he/she should draw the line somewhere? Let’s test the theory – how many inches is a normal size living room 20 feet X 10 feet? Quickly. Now trying this one – 18 X 15? I’ll wait. BUT they won’t. Here’s the lesson I believe – it is better to be slightly off on your estimate and get the client, then make consumers feel like they are doing all the work; only to have you change it anyway. I mean, really, is it worth losing the customer over a couple of feet? Have you ever made an online appointment for a doctor’s appointment or a car tune-up or anything else? Did you have to wait a couple minutes from the time they said? Life Happens! Online Scheduling is not without flaws, but asking consumers to do all the work is the kiss of death in any business. Also – while I’m on my rant… Filling out a FORM is NOT ONLINE SCHEDULING!!! It’s filling out a form. It like calling and being placed on hold. Someone will eventually be back to you and probably interrupt what you are doing at that time. It’s kind of like booking an airline flight that says we’ll be leaving sometime between 1 and 4. Why would you as a service provider want to take yourself off the online booking market for a 3 hour window when the job might only be 40 minutes. That would be like only answering your phone for business between 10:30 to 11:00 and 2:45 to 3:15. Oh that’s right, some of you actually do that. I’m not blogging this in an attempt to make people feel stupid. I truly don’t think that they know CONSUMERS time is JUST AS IMPORTANT as theirs. Treat others as you would want to be treated. FittleBug “Down to the Minute” Booking is empowering clients and cleaners from Coast to Coast with better relations 24/7. Find out Now!

In this piece I will share with you how to offer specials that are not available to the entire public. Oh yea, FittleBug offers the ability to have promotion codes tied to a % or a $ amount, even tied to a list of items that you might call a “package”. BUT what I am going to share is a little known feature that I believe is under used by the majority of FittleBug clients. Did you know that you can “hide” sub-categories (for example “free spot cleaner”) from the public seeing it at all – yet it is still available to include in a package for those special people. 

You go to the grocery store, you by a candy bar for a $1.00, you eat it and it makes you feel real good. Was the candy bar worth the buck? Everything is unknown until tested. This is true of your services, software, and just about everything you can think of. So… I want to talk about perceived cost vs. actual value. If to get something that you think you really want is going to take $10 dollars out of your left pocket, but 30 days later will put $30 back in your right pocket – Is that a good value for the 30 days time value of money. Now what if it were $50 that returned $200 dollars; or $200 dollars that returned $1000? You get the point. You’re in business to make money. You must invest in that business to make it grow. The internet is allowing you to have a chance at growing about 2/3rd faster than before the internet existed. Prior to the internet you probably only worked about 8 hours. Today, oh yeah, you still only work 8 hours or so. So… What the heck am I talking about? I am talking about Leverage – Through the Internet you can market and advertise your services the other 16 hours of the day as well. Why aren’t you doing it? Are you? Is it a cost vs. value question? It shouldn’t be! Software like FittleBug allow service providers to leverage their time, effort and dollars to maximize their consumer offerings. There is certain software programs out there that helps run your business and then there is software like FittleBug – that helps grow your business. What comes out of your left pocket sometimes is NOT the problem – IT’S THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM.

People always ask me why some people do better with FittleBug. I can’t get it out of my mouth quick enough – Keep it Simple Stupid concept. It’s human nature not to want to be confused, and feel stupid which leads to uncertainty.  As it relates to FittleBug – to many choices can confuse the consumer on what they really want, and what they really want is for you to come out and clean something or service something. Make it easy – Make it Simple – Make it Clear. Click, Click, Click and they should be done. I understand that service providers need to sell the sizzle and telling people why they are different and should be chosen. My only concern is don’t drown in your own minutia (def: a minute or minor detail). Here is an example of what keeping choices simple can do for you. No one would suggest that google is anything but a complex algorithm, yet it’s ease of use is undeniable. Think about how you can make your website simple for your consumer…

Everyone strives to provide the “Best Customer Service” to their marketplace. It’s easy for the large well funded companies that might be your competition to offer things to the market that you can’t with your “Owner-Operator” budget. So how do you compete? How can you make yourself standout? How do you get that opportunity to “sell your sizzle”? The answer is… be smarter about how you brand yourself to the market (with the limited dollars you have) and do the things that they can’t or won’t. I am always asked why I built FittleBug Real-Time Scheduling , and why did I build it for the 1 to let’s say 12 service truck market. It will work for larger, but that really is the majority of the marketplace. Why didn’t I build it for the behemoth franchises of the world. The answer is for example, 93% of the market is owner-operator and 7% is franchises. Now I may be ignorant, but I’m not stupid! (Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner’s Daughter). FittleBug gives the little guy the ability to market to the public at a tiny fraction of the cost that the big boys spend. It allows them to 24 hours a day share, process and secure information from their marketplace. There isn’t a “Digital Mom” around who wouldn’t appreciate being able to get the quality that smaller owner-operators offer in their services at the convenience of her own time. Big Boy Companies have call centers – Millennials say “What’s a call center?” Baby Boomers get frustrated (cause they’re OLD) 😉 waiting on hold to talk to someone. Empower your clients to work with you the way THEY WANT TO! More and more that’s online, quickly, and DONE! Not a form, but a completion of the task. Recently I was reviewing some threads on Mikey’s bulletin board (a carpet cleaning fav), and some of our FittleBug clients were suggesting that about 50% of their orders are now being booked online with no admin involved. What you don’t know is some of these clients have only had FittleBug for about 2 years. Convert them to the Internet, let them do it themselves and Book it on their time and be DONE! For more information click here or call 630-444-2000.

So you’ve been thinking about FittleBug to help you grow your business, but not sure that how it would tie into your present Calendar program? Allow me to share how one of our clients in using FittleBug and a program that we don’t even tie into… As you know we sync with a product that a lot of Carpet and other service providers choose to use call ServiceMonster by Principle Focus. Those clients love the relationship between the two programs. But, what if you want to use a CMS program that we presently DON’T sync with – what can you do? Enter Google Calendars… Most programs to day have written into their functionality the ability to sync out data/scheduled appointments to Google Calendars. Once the scheduled appointment is in Google Calendars, programs like OURS that sync both ways can pull in the appointments into our program. FittleBug Real-Time scheduling is one of those programs that can sync both ways. SO… now programs like House Call Pro, ServiceM8 and more can sync calendars with your routes in FittleBug – allowing you to make sure that you are always presenting a Real-Time Version of your availability to your online consuming marketplace. In other words, people can book you around the clock based on your House Call Pro or ServiceM8 internal calendar. Here’s a visual of how it would work.

Man, I hear that ALL THE TIME, but is it? Is it really? Offering Digital Mom the ability to work with you on her time, yet still based on your time, anytime – Is it really innovative. I would suggest to you that it is OPPORTUNISTIC and CREATIVE, but NOT Innovative. It’s been said, “innovation is understanding not just what customers want next, but knowing what they already want now .” I truly believe this. Another way of saying it is – Give them what they want – NOW, or someone (probably younger, technically smarter and with more kahuna’s WILL). What do consumers want? ASK THEM! I did. Prior to even spending a dimec necessary to built the Real-Time Approach of FittleBug, I asked as many people as I could that would be considered potential “service provider customers” , so basically everyone I knew and met. I heard all kinds of answers as to whether what is now called FittleBug could be a useful tool for them. Millennials said – Yes, Gen Xer’s – (don’t bother me, I’m gaming), Baby Boomers – Yes please. So I looked at the market and here’s what my Business Plan told me in 2009 : There are approximately 70 million Digital Moms in the U.S. that are online and don’t need training on how to use the Internet. Annually about 14 million ask the carpet cleaning professionals to clean and protect their carpets. On average they each spend about $197… together they spend $2.74 billion annually ! AND NO ONE WAS THINKING ABOUT THE CUSTOMER’S WANTS AND DESIRES!!! So what did these 14 Million Moms really want over and above a good clean back in 2009? That was the easy part – Convenience and Time. No one was giving it to them. Forcing them to wait for returned calls and at the availability of the service provider. Guess What – NOTHING HAS CHANGED! Over the last 8 years since the incubation to creation of FittleBug Real-Time Booking, service providers have started to wake up to the reality of technical innovative progress for the growth of their companies. When I first introduced the concept, it was like they were looking at a guy with 3 eyes trying to figure out what they heck I was really saying. I heard things like, ” Why would I ever let people book my services without first talking to me?” They now know the answer – Because a large chunk of their market or future market doesn’t care to talk to them and their existing clients already knew them. Try calling your 20 or 30 something kid on the phone, you’ll get a text back. Today more and more companies are taking baby steps into what consumers STILL want. They are offering more FORMS to fill out. That’s what they are – Forms. If they aren’t based on factual times for service, it’s a square peg in a round hole approach. It’s just another service provider attempt to control what they presently call their market. How would you feel if United or American airlines didn’t tell you when the flights would be landing? This is what forms do. People say what they want without ANY understanding of how long things take. Today’s World – Problem! Folks – the Future of Service Provider growth is Real-Time, not some time. The reason CHAT has gotten more popular in the last couple years is because it is a stepping stone to Real-Time Solutions. Consumers today KNOW that forms just prolong, they don’t complete. Chat requires dual communications, someone at both ends and that is not a cheap thing whether it’s you or your staff. You’re a consumer, ask yourself: “When was the last time I filled out a form for someone to get back to me about a service I was interested in?” How was that experience and did it do any good for you? FittleBug Real-Time Booking (or something real-time similar) will be what you need to compete! Let them BOOK NOW and be an INNOVATOR… in the eyes of your Marketplace

Today I caught myself thinking about what I “originally thought” results would be for our FittleBug Clients and then what really occurred over the last 6 years. I also thought I would share some of my surprises and challenges today and going forward. My biggest surprise was the time of day that consumers are booking our clients. It’s all over the board! My thought was that it would be mostly after hours of work. Boy was I wrong. It’s all day and night. I have seen orders at 6:00 am in Ohio, and 2:30 am in Canada. I’ve seen clients first “Live” day with FittleBug get 6 orders and watched as one client secures 13 in a 24 hour time period. I always knew that rich folks would book, but I wasn’t sure of the amounts they would feel comfortable booking. Over the last years I have seen a bunch of orders $750 and up. Not bad for an industry of Carpet Cleaning that averages $200 to $225 across the country. The largest I have seen is $1750 as a new client and new order for the provider. Although simplicity is the key to booking, I have seen some very complex orders especially in the repair area. As far as the service providers experience, I can tell you that “ IF ” they take the time to think about how they want to offer services online and “For God Sakes” tell people, very rarely have they been disappointed. Clients that we have for at least a couple years, see that their clients just go book online and don’t even think about calling. So I guess that makes FittleBug Real-Time and Empowerment Time. Some of the Challenges that I have experienced have been with clients really not marketing their own company. Having just a link button on their website is only going to make it available to those that know of their website. There is a reason they call it the “net”. Clients have to cast the net wider to attract more prospects to turn into clients whether they call in or book themselves online. Think of it this way – FittleBug is a high quality paint that you can get, but you still have to put it on the wall. I am truly surprises that franchises do not have FittleBug Real-Time Booking! 87% of the carpet cleaning industry is referred to as owner/operator. Fortunately we have been marketing to them first. Struggles going forward I see are… trying to constantly help the service providers think in terms of what “their” clients wishes and wants are. To often providers are their worst enemy when it comes to marketing. What worked 10 years ago is on the fast track of “premature retrogression”. Fancy term for ain’t’ going to help build a business these days. Well – that’s kind of what I was thinking! What are your thoughts? Reach out to me at 630-444-2000 or steve@fittlebug.com .