Kickserv

Pros

This product was very Convenient...thank you [SENSITIVE CONTENT]

Cons

Stipe fee are too much ....other than the I love it

Pros

- As a CRM software, we are able to manage all of our customers, scheduling, invoicing and reporting (not as bookkeeping or Financial Statements) in a generally good way.
- The inter-connectionedness of the various parts of the software makes it easy to navigate from one function to another.
- Although there has been some down time (which can be very difficult because we cannot function), but over the long-term it has not be crucial. Being an online CRM allows me to use any device.
- We are able to save virtually anything (pics, docs, etc.) for future use, which has been crucially important to us.
- The integration with Stripe for payment from our customers is now essential to our processes. It has worked flawlessly, easy to use, and easy to deal with Stripe for various things we need to do, including refunds.
- It works well for both our field service and in-shop jobs. This is crucial because using two systems would be very difficult.
-We are easily able to tailor the Products/Services, pricing, descriptions, to our specific needs - not being locked into some format that we don't like.

Cons

- Support is sometimes tedious.
- New features added (if we find out about them at all) can be very disruptive to our processes, and confusing. While some of them make sense in a wider world, they sometimes are baffling and frustrating in our business.
- We have 2 locations (and hope to have many more) and need to have separate systems. Kickserv requires us to use separate browsers for each. How are we going to be able to do that with 5 or 10 locations? And we're finding that some functions (e.g. access to support!) are no longer working on Firefox, one of the best and most popular browsers available. This is a serious problem for us.
- Although a great deal of our business is field work, we do not/cannot use the mobile app with our techs because it is far too limiting. They need to be able to access much more information than what is available to them, and so we have them login through a browser on their phones.
- There are essential functions that we have to do in business that Kickserv has not been able to program into the system (even when we offered to pay big $ to get them). E.g. There are several email templates, and auto sending emails: We need one to be sent as a follow up to Jobs, and another (sent out 6 or 12 months later) to remind people to schedule services . We have to do all of this manually, and would love to find a way to get it done automatically. Summary: Some things are hard to get into the software that other companies would also make good use of.

Pros

It works perfectly for my business. It is simple and easy to use, and the customer support is excellent.

Cons

The reporting function is not intuitive at all. The filter section is very difficult to use, mainly because the values and formats the last field are based on the way KS is designed, and there is no way to know what they are.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Kickserv

Pros

All inclusive connectivity of all the data needed to run my (Piano Service) business. I consider myself a fairly expert user of kickserv, using it from its early inception, then called ' Service Sidekick'. I am totally on board to help bring it to its fullest potential, so dont take the cons section too hard...I use the system every day, all through the day, and my entire operation depends on this most awesome application.

Cons

Software is gradually degrading. Latest update published makes KS sluggish, screen freezes constantly during scrolling. Reports have been altered to the point of useless.
Quadruple redundant data entry, creating and closing an event, then a job.
No auto fill on repeated fields.
Phone numbers require dashes be entered. Format the field for straight 10 digit entry.
Area code, city, and state are almost always the same in my service area. Why dont these fields hold and auto fill the last data entered? Internet standard these days is that the state is a 'state' field, only accepting 2 CAP characters in verified state identifiers.
No notification if email is successful, and no notice when messages fail. This has caught me with my pants down with customers...( yes customers, not contacts) emailing time sensitive invoices and opportunitys.... guys, they are ESTIMATES, Not opportunitys!!
Stripe send a payment received email notification...Awesome.
The text is the problem. First words of auto generated notification says Congratulations!.
Congratulations? We are small businesses....we take money, every day, all day. It is inapropriate, and smacks of a Condesending viewpoint.

Miss labled fields: My customers are my 'customers' , not my 'contacts'. New address verify is great on service address, Why does it not verify billing address? Getting paid is a very important aspect of small business. Makes no sense.

Pros

We love the convience of Kickserv! We love the digital billing, saves us paper, as well as the time tracking for our employees.

Cons

Using the phone system is fairly difficult and laggy. It doesnt have all the fewatures when compared to using on a comptuer, but it does the job.