[RHPL]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but this seemed like the best spot since it is a fairly general item.

I personally have lots of problems keeping on top of all the Leads/Designs/Quotes that are constantly coming in and going out and the 'status' of each customer. My excuse used to be that I was totally overwhelmed, but now that I have an office staff working 30 hours per week that shouldn't be the case anymore.
The symptom is that potential customers are constantly falling through the cracks. For example; a customer calls and requests a quote, sometimes their info is taken but not meeting time is made, I meet with a customer and take down the details of the site and the job but get home late and don't get around to preparing the quote and after a couple days that sheet of paper is burried under a pile of others, a quote is emailed off and a call is placed to confirm reciept but not follow up call is made to answer questions or ask if they are interested in going ahead. A contract is signed and an approximate date is set but the customer isn't contacted againg until the week before their construction and they are worried that we have forgotten about them or want to change some details, a project is finished but some tiny detail is left unfinished and doesn't come up until 30 days later when my office staff calls to ask why the final payment is late.

Wow that was a long list... I sure do feel like a lazy bumb right now... but I guess I can take solace in the fact that everyone can relate to some/most/all of these scenarios.

SO..... how do you keep track of it all?

I was going to try and customize Dynascape Quote to list a long list of customer statuses so that I could keep them updated as things change but I couldn't seem to find an easy way to view everything so that it would remind me...
My other idea would either involve a spread sheet or a very large white board and would have the customers listed on the left and all the different steps/stages listed accross the top, such as; Innitial contact, contact info and pre-qualification, innitial consultation, presentation of quotation, deposit recieved, materials confirmed, locates ordered, job start date, etc.
The list would be even longer if we needed to do designs for the project. At each step, the date would be recorded so that someone can look at Mrs. Smith and see that a week ago she recieved her quote and nothing has happened since... so maybe we should give her a call.
This would have to be either really big and posted on the wall or the first thing I see when I turn on the computer. And would be tricky to keep it updated since I'm doiung stuff while I'm out on the road and my office staff will be douing things either at the office or from her home office.

Any suggestions? I know that best case scenario is just going from step 1 to 15 in a 24hour period so that the mommentum is kept, but that's kinda hard to do when the phone if ringing off the hook and before uyou can finish dealing with the first phone call there is already a second one to answer...

Oh how I miss having only a single crew...
Ryan

[Chris Heiler]

Hi Ryan,

I would suggest trying your spreadsheet idea that you touched on. I use the same thing to track prospects thru the entire design/build process. I call it my "Prospect Flowchart".

You might want to post it on a wall in a prominent spot where it is always visible. If it's on your computer, it might get lost or forgotten. If you are able, maybe have one staff member that is responsible for updating it and keeping you in the loop.

[FungusMudGrub]

I would vote for the wall chart as well, along with a short meeting every morning or evening with your office person to go over every pending customer to see who needs a call that day and for what. And put a clip board, or spike, or special pink inbox, for those meeting notes right next to the chart. Believe me, there are few things more embarrassing than having to ask the potential client to remind me the price I just quoted them last week!