By David Crary  

I’ve been selling field service software for more than a decade. In that time, I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen customers whose billing rule was “We give it to the owner and he decides what to charge.” I’ve had a customer stop using HindSite because HindSite doesn’t automatically time someone into a job when their GPS position is within 25 feet of the job site. I’ve listened to new customers who quit because HindSite won’t run on their 15-year-old Windows 98 computer.

By David Crary  

If you own a small business, you’ve probably heard of Groupon. Basically, they offer small businesses the opportunity to expand their reach by deeply discounting their services. Many businesses have jumped on board in the hopes of expanding their customer base.

By David Crary  

Asking for referrals or asking if you can provide any extra work for a customer is not the most fun part of being an owner or a manager.  But it is a necessity for field service businesses to continue to increase their revenue, and grow their client base.  If you sit back and don’t take the initiative, your competitors could swoop in and offer services you hadn’t yet tried to upsell.  Worse yet, your customer may choose to go to your competitor for all of their services to get everything done through one company. 

By David Crary  

When I was running my irrigation business, we didn’t have smartphones.  PDA’s were the main device used in the field and we had to provide them for the guys.  Now everybody has a smartphone.  Technology has become one of the biggest influencers on how we in the field service industry do business, from taking phone calls on our cells, to running our lawn care software on our computers, and marking our routes each day with GPS. 

By David Crary  

Before developing HindSite’s irrigation software, I owned an irrigation business for more than a decade. I worked closely with irrigation technicians, learning what makes them tick, what they like, and what they dislike. 

By David Crary  

Thanks to a win in the last game of the season, the Minnesota Wild hockey team is in the playoffs for the first time in five years. To celebrate, they won’t be shaving their beards until they are eliminated from the playoffs (which could happen sooner rather than later because they’re playing the mighty Chicago Blackhawks).  

By David Crary  

St. Paul weather update: After 4 inches of snow earlier this week, the forecast calls for highs in the 70s this weekend. It’s time to break out the shorts because spring has finally sprung! 

By David Crary  

It was a banner year for snow in the Twin Cities metro area, with multiple significant snow storms just in the month of April. Though most Minnesotans were ready for the snow to end, snow removal businesses loved the late snowfall; it enabled them to squeeze more revenue out of their seasonal business. 

By David Crary  

A profitable green industry business is founded on working relationships. Every time you bid a job for a customer and they accept, they’re trusting you to come through on what they think your end of the deal is. So to avoid building toxic relationships with customers who really don’t mean to be a bother, make sure you communicate what your process is to cut down on surprises.

By David Crary  

One of the newest tools out there when it comes to printing both in the field and sending to the office to be printed are cloud printing applications.  There are many different applications, available for many different devices, which can be purchased for many different prices – it all depends on what you need.