Why Home Contractors Should Have iPads
Today let’s talk about iPads! Every home service contractor should have iPads (or tablets) for their techs. Whether you do garage door repair, lawn care, plumbing or any other home service, your techs need to have iPads when they’re in the field. Let me give you three reasons why:
1. They make you look more professional.
You look more professional when you carry an iPad or a tablet, and you can show your orders and estimates on it right there to the client. This is more efficient than fumbling through paperwork, and it makes you look more efficient. I know some home service contractors who don’t even bring paperwork to their customers anymore. Plus, people expect you to be tech-savvy now. We can do just about anything with a smartphone or tablet, and your clients expect you to be on top of the technology. It just makes you look more professional, across the board.
2. They make you more efficient.
For instance, if you take payment at the point of service, you can hook up a card reader to the iPad, swipe your customer’s card, take the payment, and immediately email a receipt to the customer. (Please note that to do this, you need an iPad or tablet with a data plan to make sure you have an internet connection.) Not only does this streamline the process, but all the information automatically syncs with your computer back at the office. Everything is seamless! This is so much better than having your technician come back to the office with a stack of paperwork that has to be manually entered, or doing spreadsheets. The iPad and your business software will take care of all this for you!
The iPad makes the bidding process more efficient, too. If you are a service that comes up with a bid after you’ve met with the homeowner, you can go back into your truck, figure out what everything is going to cost, and show your customer right then and there. (If you do this, I recommend that you get one of the larger iPads with a larger screen.)
If your job is to assess damage, you can use the iPad to take pictures of the damage, and you can show them to the homeowner right there. Obviously, you can do this with a smartphone as well, but the iPad lets you show the pictures on a bigger screen so that they’re easier for your client to see.
(FYI – For social media purposes, I don’t recommend taking pictures with an iPad. They’re too big and bulky for pictures. And if I see anyone holding up their iPad to take pictures at a schools play … I’m just kidding! Do whatever you have to do to capture those moments! But pads and tablets are bulky and inconvenient for taking social media pictures.)
With the iPad or tablet, everything is streamlined, paperless, and right there at your fingertips.
3. You can use them to grow your email list.
There are different apps you can use for this. I like to use MailChimp. They have an app called MCSubscribe (MailChimp Subscribe). If you go to trade shows like the Home and Garden Show, you can collect emails right there on your iPad with MCSubscribe or a similar app, when people come up to your booth. There’s nothing worse than getting back from one of these trade shows with a list of hundreds of email addresses, and then you or someone else has to manually follow up and enter all that data into your computer. That’s time that you could be doing something else! Instead, you can set an app up on your tablet, set it up for your clients to see, and be collecting email addresses all day long that automatically save to your Constant Contact, MailChimp, or whatever you use to manage your contacts. Then you can set up campaigns to email directly off those captured emails. This saves time and helps you build your email lists. If you watch my videos and read my blogs, you understand that the gold is in the email list!
I hope this gives you three really good reasons to go out and invest in some iPads for your technicians! I promise you that they’ll look more professional, the whole office will run more efficiently, and you’ll capture more emails at trade shows and events!
If you need any help setting this technology up, that’s something I love to do for my clients! If you need a free quote I’ll be happy to meet with you! Just click the button below!