[Crystal-clear]

Most people including lee have said that this would be their second choice software. Over cleaner planner.
The thing about squeegee is it has templates for text messages so for example customer name in brackets price in brackets address in brackets.
I'm guessing aworka doesn't have that but can it text at a certain time would appreciate someone that uses the software day in day out to help on this thread. Or are you actually able to bulk text a customer with their name address and price?

[Slacky]

There are templates in Aworka for messaging.

[Crystal-clear]

There are templates in Aworka for messaging.

That's good but no personalised messages just yet I guess

[Simon Trapani]

I use aworka in conjunction with Textmarketer. Made various text templates in aworka & schedule them to go out at 6.30 pm.

[johnwillan]

There are templates in Aworka for messaging.

That's good but no personalised messages just yet I guess

Correct.

[Simon Trapani]

How & why do you want them personalised?

[johnwillan]

How & why do you want them personalised?

Debt collection, price changes to name a few 😊

[Crystal-clear]

How & why do you want them personalised?

Its better. more personalized

Hello Liz. were Due tomorrow to clean your windows at 45 johnson drive london se6 for £18.00 please unlock your gate
you text 20 for example and they're all different
or better yet for collect
Hello Steve you owe £10 for window cleaning at your address 76 johnson street se6 on 01/04/2019
again sending out 50 of these hit the customer better and they tend to respond.
squeegee has this but i do like the lay out of aworka seeing the work on a large page.

any other things you really prefer aworka for?

[John Mart]

How & why do you want them personalised?

Its better. more personalized

Hello Liz. were Due tomorrow to clean your windows at 45 johnson drive london se6 for £18.00 please unlock your gate
you text 20 for example and they're all different
or better yet for collect
Hello Steve you owe £10 for window cleaning at your address 76 johnson street se6 on 01/04/2019
again sending out 50 of these hit the customer better and they tend to respond.
squeegee has this but i do like the lay out of aworka seeing the work on a large page.

any other things you really prefer aworka for?

You create your own templates with Aworka.

[Simon Trapani]

I don’t have them personalised. Just 5 weekday access reminders as people would get their days wrong, & a couple of apologies for if we haven’t made it. I wouldn’t make it personal personally as they’ll start responding. You’re phone’ll be going all night. Also it’s a lot to manage imo.

Some sort of auto debt texting would be handy though I agree.

[Slacky]

There are templates in Aworka for messaging.

That's good but no personalised messages just yet I guess

They're as personal as you like. Thats what a template allows.

[Crystal-clear]

There are templates in Aworka for messaging.

That's good but no personalised messages just yet I guess

They're as personal as you like. Thats what a template allows.

I'll have to look into it more but are you able to text say 25 people one template.
Or do you go into each individual customer.
Difficult for me to explain but if you check out squeegee they allow you to send a message and click on all the customers and it personalised his them all

[Simon Trapani]

I do my worklists for the next day, print etc, then filter the ones that need texting, add the template with a click and hit send. Sometimes I’ve forgot to hit the ‘send’ though

It’s very easy.

[Crystal-clear]

I think I should play around a bit more I think 8 weekly says you can personalise them initially.
But are you saying you need to individually click on say 25 jobs to send the particular personalised message.

[dazmond]

crystal clear are you not a sole trader?why are you battering your own head and over complicating everything?just choose a software program and the rest is easy....as you know i use CP...its so smooth and easy to use,its virtually effortless....

[Slacky]

I think I should play around a bit more I think 8 weekly says you can personalise them initially.
But are you saying you need to individually click on say 25 jobs to send the particular personalised message.

If you want to select all customers for tomorrows work you can and send them all any individual template text you want.

[Crystal-clear]

crystal clear are you not a sole trader?why are you battering your own head and over complicating everything?just choose a software program and the rest is easy....as you know i use CP...its so smooth and easy to use,its virtually effortless....

No buddy ive taken the plunge and gone LTD Accountant whos now a new expense is handling the incorporation as of next week!slightly excited yet anxious how itll work out so wish me luck

need the best software bro.. so have to choose one that's best i'm aware CP does it but alot are talking about aworka too so want to choose the best option.Running an old round alone being self emp compared to cleaning xxx new cleans a month are apples and oranges then maintaining regular work thats why you dont need the route planner nor did i....but routes texts etc will be important and micro management of small debts that's why i'm "battering  my head" would like to keep my first years overheads as low as possible with the new accountant fees so all i am doing is asking around for the cheaper alternative software that can do as CP can or as close. so far so good i think i prefer aworka as you can print stuff off.

oh by the way im not going to be fortunate to work 3h a day 4 days a week like some and asking pointless questions for route planners or software for the sake of it the reason why is my spread sheet has seen better days i think im going with aworka most  of the popualr guys seem to really like it

[dazmond]

crystal clear are you not a sole trader?why are you battering your own head and over complicating everything?just choose a software program and the rest is easy....as you know i use CP...its so smooth and easy to use,its virtually effortless....

No buddy ive taken the plunge and gone LTD Accountant whos now a new expense is handling the incorporation as of next week!slightly excited yet anxious how itll work out so wish me luck

need the best software bro.. so have to choose one that's best i'm aware CP does it but alot are talking about aworka too so want to choose the best option.Running an old round alone being self emp compared to cleaning xxx new cleans a month are apples and oranges then maintaining regular work thats why you dont need the route planner nor did i....but routes texts etc will be important and micro management of small debts that's why i'm "battering  my head" would like to keep my first years overheads as low as possible with the new accountant fees so all i am doing is asking around for the cheaper alternative software that can do as CP can or as close. so far so good i think i prefer aworka as you can print stuff off.

oh by the way im not going to be fortunate to work 3h a day 4 days a week like some and asking pointless questions for route planners or software for the sake of it the reason why is my spread sheet has seen better days i think im going with aworka most  of the popualr guys seem to really like it

so is it just you working on your own still?

[Crystal-clear]

crystal clear are you not a sole trader?why are you battering your own head and over complicating everything?just choose a software program and the rest is easy....as you know i use CP...its so smooth and easy to use,its virtually effortless....

No buddy ive taken the plunge and gone LTD Accountant whos now a new expense is handling the incorporation as of next week!slightly excited yet anxious how itll work out so wish me luck

need the best software bro.. so have to choose one that's best i'm aware CP does it but alot are talking about aworka too so want to choose the best option.Running an old round alone being self emp compared to cleaning xxx new cleans a month are apples and oranges then maintaining regular work thats why you dont need the route planner nor did i....but routes texts etc will be important and micro management of small debts that's why i'm "battering  my head" would like to keep my first years overheads as low as possible with the new accountant fees so all i am doing is asking around for the cheaper alternative software that can do as CP can or as close. so far so good i think i prefer aworka as you can print stuff off.

oh by the way im not going to be fortunate to work 3h a day 4 days a week like some and asking pointless questions for route planners or software for the sake of it the reason why is my spread sheet has seen better days i think im going with aworka most  of the popualr guys seem to really like it

so is it just you working on your own still?

No I wouldn't be able to handle much more alone.
Subcontracting to lovely window cleaners like yourself daz occasionally. Fingers crossed things will get better that's the idea. Find myself with some of my previous form before i had a health set back
So yeah hence the software questions.route questions. Would like to test myself once again

[Simon Trapani]

I think I should play around a bit more I think 8 weekly says you can personalise them initially.
But are you saying you need to individually click on say 25 jobs to send the particular personalised message.

You can personslise them individually if you want just by making another template for that particular customer. Still don’t get why you’d want to though. I think yes you would have to click on each job. It would be a bit long winded. You’d be trawling through templates.

If you just wanted to filter out the, say, 6 out of 15 of tomorrow’s jobs that will need an access text, you would select ‘jobs to be confirmed’ in the dropdown on the worklist screen. Then refresh & load up your template of ie ‘leave gate open etc’ & send. You can select & time & day if you want. So you could even schedule your whole weeks texts ready to go out. When you have all your jobs in aworka, you need to make sure the jobs you want to text are ‘confirm the day before’ in the ‘appointments’ dropdown within the job details. Those jobs will then appear highlighted on your planner & app & have a little speech bubble icon next to them for quick reference. You’ll only see the speech buble on a printed worksheet. We use the app & print & worksheet as we find both useful. There’s also a confirm button if needed, though I don’t use it because some may confirm but still forget to leave gate open.

You’ll need to sign up to Textmarketer or similar. You can’t use your mobile supplier’s text allowance. One credit is around 3 pence. A credit is 165 characters so you might wanna keep your message brief else it’ll roll into two credits or more. Customer can reply to your mobile if you want. Landlines can be texted though I’ve found this a bit of hit or miss. More miss. You have to put in country code but still rarely works for me. Just the odd couple that don’t have a mobile but do lock their gate.

Hope that all helps & makes sense?

[Crystal-clear]

I think I should play around a bit more I think 8 weekly says you can personalise them initially.
But are you saying you need to individually click on say 25 jobs to send the particular personalised message.

You can personslise them individually if you want just by making another template for that particular customer. Still don’t get why you’d want to though. I think yes you would have to click on each job. It would be a bit long winded. You’d be trawling through templates.

If you just wanted to filter out the, say, 6 out of 15 of tomorrow’s jobs that will need an access text, you would select ‘jobs to be confirmed’ in the dropdown on the worklist screen. Then refresh & load up your template of ie ‘leave gate open etc’ & send. You can select & time & day if you want. So you could even schedule your whole weeks texts ready to go out. When you have all your jobs in aworka, you need to make sure the jobs you want to text are ‘confirm the day before’ in the ‘appointments’ dropdown within the job details. Those jobs will then appear highlighted on your planner & app & have a little speech bubble icon next to them for quick reference. You’ll only see the speech buble on a printed worksheet. We use the app & print & worksheet as we find both useful. There’s also a confirm button if needed, though I don’t use it because some may confirm but still forget to leave gate open.

You’ll need to sign up to Textmarketer or similar. You can’t use your mobile supplier’s text allowance. One credit is around 3 pence. A credit is 165 characters so you might wanna keep your message brief else it’ll roll into two credits or more. Customer can reply to your mobile if you want. Landlines can be texted though I’ve found this a bit of hit or miss. More miss. You have to put in country code but still rarely works for me. Just the odd couple that don’t have a mobile but do lock their gate.

Hope that all helps & makes sense?

Definitely thank you very much for the indepth clarification on the subject .I've learnt if you have an Android phone you can link your text settings to my SMS which means that uses the messages from your phone. So texting is free going to play around with that.

[dazmond]

All my customers  phone numbers are stored both in my phone and in CP so when I download worksheets I simply click their number and send a text the night before if I have too,I don't even have to physically text it once I've done it once....I just forward the same text month after month...no charge(It's in with my mobile tariff of 1000s of texts).job done.....

As for text reminders I just forward the same ones too(as it's usually the same ones that forget).

Prices rises are different  as some I text,some I tell in person,email,etc and some I write on their INVOICES....

[Smudger]

I think you really like to vacillate over what really is minor details - in respect of software I doubt there is much to choose between the newer 3 systems
As for needing it just because you are now ltd is well - a strange decision

By the by - do you really say to customers “you owe” ?

Darran

[Crystal-clear]

I think you really like to vacillate over what really is minor details - in respect of software I doubt there is much to choose between the newer 3 systems
As for needing it just because you are now ltd is well - a strange decision

By the by - do you really say to customers “you owe” ?

Darran

Appreciate your feedback. Obviously it's not that I need it because I'm Ltd it's that work has picked up and hopefully will pick up more so I will need the software. I was asked the question by daz for some reason to clarify if I was a sole trader it was also nothing to do with the original thread but I decided to answer him.

And no not owe at least not for a while that was a mere simple Example.
As for the software unfortunately I haven't used any for very long time so I'm just trying to get to grips putting the word out thanks anyway for letting me know there's no major differences between the three and thanks to everyone so far who has helped here and there with the original topic.

[Simon Trapani]

I think I should play around a bit more I think 8 weekly says you can personalise them initially.
But are you saying you need to individually click on say 25 jobs to send the particular personalised message.

You can personslise them individually if you want just by making another template for that particular customer. Still don’t get why you’d want to though. I think yes you would have to click on each job. It would be a bit long winded. You’d be trawling through templates.

If you just wanted to filter out the, say, 6 out of 15 of tomorrow’s jobs that will need an access text, you would select ‘jobs to be confirmed’ in the dropdown on the worklist screen. Then refresh & load up your template of ie ‘leave gate open etc’ & send. You can select & time & day if you want. So you could even schedule your whole weeks texts ready to go out. When you have all your jobs in aworka, you need to make sure the jobs you want to text are ‘confirm the day before’ in the ‘appointments’ dropdown within the job details. Those jobs will then appear highlighted on your planner & app & have a little speech bubble icon next to them for quick reference. You’ll only see the speech buble on a printed worksheet. We use the app & print & worksheet as we find both useful. There’s also a confirm button if needed, though I don’t use it because some may confirm but still forget to leave gate open.

You’ll need to sign up to Textmarketer or similar. You can’t use your mobile supplier’s text allowance. One credit is around 3 pence. A credit is 165 characters so you might wanna keep your message brief else it’ll roll into two credits or more. Customer can reply to your mobile if you want. Landlines can be texted though I’ve found this a bit of hit or miss. More miss. You have to put in country code but still rarely works for me. Just the odd couple that don’t have a mobile but do lock their gate.

Hope that all helps & makes sense?

Definitely thank you very much for the indepth clarification on the subject .I've learnt if you have an Android phone you can link your text settings to my SMS which means that uses the messages from your phone. So texting is free going to play around with that.

How do I do this and is it not available on iphone?

[Crystal-clear]

I think I should play around a bit more I think 8 weekly says you can personalise them initially.
But are you saying you need to individually click on say 25 jobs to send the particular personalised message.

You can personslise them individually if you want just by making another template for that particular customer. Still don’t get why you’d want to though. I think yes you would have to click on each job. It would be a bit long winded. You’d be trawling through templates.

If you just wanted to filter out the, say, 6 out of 15 of tomorrow’s jobs that will need an access text, you would select ‘jobs to be confirmed’ in the dropdown on the worklist screen. Then refresh & load up your template of ie ‘leave gate open etc’ & send. You can select & time & day if you want. So you could even schedule your whole weeks texts ready to go out. When you have all your jobs in aworka, you need to make sure the jobs you want to text are ‘confirm the day before’ in the ‘appointments’ dropdown within the job details. Those jobs will then appear highlighted on your planner & app & have a little speech bubble icon next to them for quick reference. You’ll only see the speech buble on a printed worksheet. We use the app & print & worksheet as we find both useful. There’s also a confirm button if needed, though I don’t use it because some may confirm but still forget to leave gate open.

You’ll need to sign up to Textmarketer or similar. You can’t use your mobile supplier’s text allowance. One credit is around 3 pence. A credit is 165 characters so you might wanna keep your message brief else it’ll roll into two credits or more. Customer can reply to your mobile if you want. Landlines can be texted though I’ve found this a bit of hit or miss. More miss. You have to put in country code but still rarely works for me. Just the odd couple that don’t have a mobile but do lock their gate.

Hope that all helps & makes sense?

Definitely thank you very much for the indepth clarification on the subject .I've learnt if you have an Android phone you can link your text settings to my SMS which means that uses the messages from your phone. So texting is free going to play around with that.

How do I do this and is it not available on iphone?

Hi Simon good to see that I'm not the only one vacillating do you see smudger we can all learn
something and even I can give feedback  to other members who wish to learn as well part of the reason why I really like it here plenty of good attitude and very helpful people so when I get the chance I do my very best as well 

So simon I've been informed if you get an Android phone and you can have free text messages and this can save you quite a lot in the long run. No it doesn't work on iPhone I'm going to test it out later from my Android. It's called MYSMS and you need API code.

[AuRavelling79]

I think you really like to vacillate over what really is minor details - in respect of software I doubt there is much to choose between the newer 3 systems
As for needing it just because you are now ltd is well - a strange decision

By the by - do you really say to customers “you owe” ?

Darran

I quite respect folk who take time "getting it right" with round software probably because I soldier on with good old "George" warts and all and could probably do with taking a fresh look. 

As for saying to customers "you owe" I just took that as an example not the actual wording.

[Smudger]

you owe - would just seem a bit, well confrontational better to say "small amount outstanding"

I have no problem with gaining info on systems but really - tons of long waffling texts about this and that for something that will cost you between 50p and a £1 a day is a bit obsessive - the time taken to write all this could have been spent gaining new customers or cleaning them to earn £40 - as with Lee P - get CP and text them direct from there - sorry if I'm harsh but at times it simply frazzles my brain about the mumming and arrrring over such things

vacillating and worrying is just your thing CC

Yes this is a good question. Along with this one I want to ask. Obviously you get a lot of customers how on Earth do you handle that. What is they all want to be in what if they want that awkward v-lux cleaned that you can't reach from the ground what if they refuse to unlock the gate how do you handle it unlike Simon says a new job text back and says no thanks try tomorrow.
I'm guessing you told them it's direct debit we put you on the list you have to unlock your gate if there's no Gate access and it's a through the house job how do you handle the pesky parts of the job.

good grief - can you add anything else to the list ?

Darran

[Crystal-clear]

you owe - would just seem a bit, well confrontational better to say "small amount outstanding"

I have no problem with gaining info on systems but really - tons of long waffling texts about this and that for something that will cost you between 50p and a £1 a day is a bit obsessive - the time taken to write all this could have been spent gaining new customers or cleaning them to earn £40 - as with Lee P - get CP and text them direct from there - sorry if I'm harsh but at times it simply frazzles my brain about the mumming and arrrring over such things

vacillating and worrying is just your thing CC

Yes this is a good question. Along with this one I want to ask. Obviously you get a lot of customers how on Earth do you handle that. What is they all want to be in what if they want that awkward v-lux cleaned that you can't reach from the ground what if they refuse to unlock the gate how do you handle it unlike Simon says a new job text back and says no thanks try tomorrow.
I'm guessing you told them it's direct debit we put you on the list you have to unlock your gate if there's no Gate access and it's a through the house job how do you handle the pesky parts of the job.

good grief - can you add anything else to the list ?

Darran

Well Lee Pryor answers that question very humbly.
I may have gone into it a little bit more than Simon did but to be honest with you it's one of the challenges of the job on a large scale it just is.

The only differences I'm one of the few that actually want to ask that and be really specific. Yes I also want to ask how do you deal with customers who sign up for direct debit and cancel it after one clean. And all sorts of things that you and Lee prior already have accomplished there's plenty of people that find that challenging.
Lee Pryor just simply responds on the subject and gives his answer he's extremely helpful and was one of the people that recently made me realise I can push myself further even with challenges injuries and such like that.

[Crystal-clear]

By the way is there a reason why we've gone so much of the subject of aworka smudge. Lol

there's actually plenty of people that are putting some good info regarding the software and others who have learnt about free texting.via a third party company. Perhaps you learnt something today yourself my SMS dare I say you may have decided to take a trial You know what they say pennies make pounds dont they

[Smudger]

CC - just because I ruffled your feathers a few threads ago you try to say I don't help people ? ah, how sad you are..

just to give you a little direction here - we ( and I mean myself and the other half ) were the people to drive cp finding Rob and getting him to develop CP - without this Aworka would never have upped their game and I doubt squeegee would have even started

over time Lee also joined in helping with driving CP ( and others ) and often chats with the other half - so overall CP is probably the best all round 'round' software as its the most developed with the help of window cleaners

To answer your query - its never happened - we have yet to have someone set up a direct debit then cancel ( other than say a year down the line when they move or ring up and say they can't afford the window cleaning at the current time ) - so we have always had a bit of notice

just for info - I've been on this forum many a year now and you see certain people pop up ask for advise on this or that or how to canvass etc... loads of people take time out to answer and encourage only to see six weeks later that nothing happened as the budgie was poorly etc...

as said its not the questions, its the total lack of get up and go - esp. over such minor matters - one thing you can say for dazmond - he went out and got extreme poles etc to improve his biz ( even if he never lets you forget it )

just for a change lets  see you invest in something and come on here praising what a great item it is and how its changed and improved things for YOJ

and before you get too indignant I am on the whole just being mischievous and teasing 

Darran

[Crystal-clear]

CC - just because I ruffled your feathers a few threads ago you try to say I don't help people ? ah, how sad you are..

just to give you a little direction here - we ( and I mean myself and the other half ) were the people to drive cp finding Rob and getting him to develop CP - without this Aworka would never have upped their game and I doubt squeegee would have even started

over time Lee also joined in helping with driving CP ( and others ) and often chats with the other half - so overall CP is probably the best all round 'round' software as its the most developed with the help of window cleaners

To answer your query - its never happened - we have yet to have someone set up a direct debit then cancel ( other than say a year down the line when they move or ring up and say they can't afford the window cleaning at the current time ) - so we have always had a bit of notice

just for info - I've been on this forum many a year now and you see certain people pop up ask for advise on this or that or how to canvass etc... loads of people take time out to answer and encourage only to see six weeks later that nothing happened as the budgie was poorly etc...

as said its not the questions, its the total lack of get up and go - esp. over such minor matters - one thing you can say for dazmond - he went out and got extreme poles etc to improve his biz ( even if he never lets you forget it )

just for a change lets  see you invest in something and come on here praising what a great item it is and how its changed and improved things for YOJ

and before you get too indignant I am on the whole just being mischievous and teasing 

Darran

Ah.  interesting with CP. I remember when it was making waves. Given the fact it's been helped developed closely by experienced guys in the industry like yourself and Lee it's surely the more fine-tuned product.like you say tho aworka has upped thier game and its pretty good for the money.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the direct debits. I've only really had a one but through canvassing so guess vast majority that go on dd don't really do that.

Oh and I have already started purchased a 35 foot gardener at £430ish have very little work at that level so probably will make the money back over ages but it's making everything a lot easier then that old battle axe I replaced it with! Oh n Don't worry I'm going to be posting that new system fingers crossed as have been all about variations for a while now !