Just wondering if anyone owned a "smart phone" (a cell phone that provides internet and email access) for use in their landscaping business, if so what if any benefits it has provided for the business (ie, saving money, making money, reducing costs, increasing costs)
Also wondering if there is any interest in being able to control irrigation using one of these smart phones.
I have a blackberry and I couldn't live without it. I get customer emails right on the phone. I can check the weather radar and the camera is useful when I have to suddenly document something (customer complaints or worry of one).
I have learned to buy a durable case for the phone right when I buy them. 9 times out of 10 I drop the dang thing the first hour on the job or it rains and I soak it.
I have a samsung that runs windows mobile and can have excel and word mobile on it, it syncs with my computer to get all my contact information, also have a mobilebiz which syncs with quickbooks and I can create estimates and invoices on the field, as well as having all customers information with me.
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"Any husband making shape and color decisions has to show written consent from wife" no exceptions
I use a windows mobile phone and it is indispensable as well. I keep my office quite mobile. I use my phone for all my CRM front end materials, vehicle mileage tracking, time tracking, note taking, video making, weather radar watching.
My windows mobile phone interacts with my accounting and CRM software so that I can add and delete customers, change work orders, schedule visits, etc while at the job site or anywhere else.
I have a blackberry in an OtterBox, which makes it nearly indestructible........the reason i got it is to get back to customer emails quicker, because we communicate alot by email now as it saves time, and also emailing suppliers and sending in orders as well. I felt it improved my customer service by the speed of which i can get back with them. The internet radar is a nice thing to have, as well as wireless internet tapping.......we work in an area around the lake that gets no cell phone signal, but i do have wireless internet in the area that i can use and still be able to communicate with everyone.
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Matt Thompson
Thompson's Landscaping
Henderson, NC
Couldn't do without it. My contact with clients' is becoming more and more reliant on emailing, even for minor questions, so it's a HUGE benefit to be able to answer their questions very quickly.
Internet and radar keeps me up to date and just trying to find specialized supplies is easy in the field.
Picture taking, like mentioned above, is also invaluable to document certain contstruction procedures before they get covered up.
Definitely use my Blackberry. It is so nice not to have a ton of emails waiting for me at the office. It seems so much easier to take care of them as they arrive and the clients love getting a quick response.
In many ways, I am very glad to leave the internet behind when I go to work. And use my cell phone maybe once per week now for work, much less than before.
But its interesting to hear how well its working for many of you. Where the need fits, these gadgets can really be used to bolster customer service.
I just have whatever the cheap thing is right now, but it can still check weather radar, take pics and do some limited emailing. I think this winter I'm going for the blackberry. I also do a lot more emailing these days. More than telephone calls, really. And so it'd be nice to be able to return inquiries quicker, instead of waiting until the evening to return them.
I'm just worried my thick thumbs will press 7 keys every time and garble every message.
We don't do irrigation, so I can't speak to that. Though I would wonder about the hassle of having to monitor and manage client irrigation systems through my phone - I would think the clients would own that job.
Blackberry here too. Customers are shocked when they get a reply to their email right away. People are also impressed when they fill out the form on our website and get a response immediately.
I'm not sure being able to adjust the system with a cell phone would be a huge asset. Hopefully you already have the system set correctly. I'm assuming you're talking about connecting the controller to the internet some how... A modum? I can see that being a huge advantage, not haveing to send a tech for every schedule change.
It might be an advantage to use the phone as a remote control for testing and system maintenance. I can definately see saving the cost of a RM or a side kick as an advantage, especially if you're talking about a retrofit / upgrade situation.
I'd like to see someone come up with an inexpensive way to tie together a bunch of Smart Dials and Intellisense clocks in an inexpensive PC based central control system. I typed inexpensive twice on purpose.
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I'm just worried my thick thumbs will press 7 keys every time and garble every message..
So your a ham fisted Klutz then.......
Welcome to the club. My number one priority in a phone is being able to get my ...."well weathered" oversized digits on the numbers. I've given up buying newspapers (there full of crap anyways) because I can't turn the pages with most of my fingerprints worn off!.
The second is durability....stonework and mobile phones go together like a butcher at a vegetarian conference!. For a number of years I just got the cheapest Nokia and ditched them when they bit the dust. At the moment I have the Sonim XP 1 ...the supposedly unbreakable contractor phone...I'm on my 4th one
The Sonim is a crap phone really, and since more and more of my customer dealings are via email I'm looking at the Blackberry Bold...if Santa is kind to me. I'm just trying to work out how not to trash it in the first week.
cell phones and remote control...
. My number one priority in a phone is being able to get my ...."well weathered" oversized digits on the numbers. I've given up buying newspapers (there full of crap anyways) because I can't turn the pages with most of my fingerprints worn off!. 
