BlueFolder Blog

Product Update: Service Request List Improvements, New Reports, and more

Service Request List Workflow Enhancements

To improve workflow, we're working to reduce the number of steps it takes to complete common actions. Towards that end, we're adding an "Update" button to every row in the Service Request list. The button can be found in the last column on the right side of the Service Request list.

When clicked, the "Update" button reveals a menu of actions that can be taken on the selected Service Request. Common actions, like "Change Status" or "Add Comment" will open in a popup box that overlays the list (without leaving the current page), making it easy to work through a list of Service Requests with minial steps.

NOTE: If you're accustomed to using the quick status change icon that used to appear in the Service Request list, you'll now simply click the "Update" button and select the first action, "Change Status". We've also eliminated the separate "Add Labor", "Edit", and "Print" icons (those actions can be found in the "Update" button menu) that used to appear in the Service Request list in an effort to clean-up the user interface and make more efficient use of space.

Other Improvements to the Service Request List

• Performance Improvements - performance when working with large lists has been improved dramatically.
• New Page Navigation - instead of simple "Next" and "Previous" navigation options, you can now jump to specific pages within your list. The page navigation has also been moved to the center of the list and appears at both the top and bottom of the list.
• Click-Anywhere Row Selection - instead of having to click on either the Service Request number or description, now you can click anywhere on a row within the list to view the Service Request.
• "Closed" (the date a Service Request was closed) has been added to the list of possible columns. To customize your list columns, simply click the "CUSTOMIZE" link on the upper-right corner of the list.

Improvements to Customer Service History

The new Service Request list has been added to the History tab within a customer record. This new list brings many improvements, including the ability to customize which columns you'd like to see in the list.

Improvements to Personal Dashboard

The new Service Request list has also been added to the Personal Dashboard. Unlike in previous releases, users can now navigate all of their assigned Service Requests without having to leave the Dashboard. The ability to take quick action on a Service Request via the "Update" button is also a welcome time-saving feature.

Unified Comment Entry Box

A new, streamlined comment box has been added that combines public and private comment entry boxes into a single box.

New Reports

Two new reports have been added to the list of standard reports:

• Open Service Requests (by Customer) - shows all open Service Requests, grouped by customer.
• Closed Service Requests (by Customer) - shows all closed Service Requests, grouped and subtotalled by customer.

Miscellaneous Changes

• Most of the major lists (e.g. Customer List, Equipment List, etc) within BlueFolder have been updated to support clicking anywhere on a row to view the selected record's details.
• When retrieving a Service Request via the API, log entries will no longer have an "entryTitle" field.
• The "Entry Title" field has also been removed any exports that contained it. The "Customer List" has also been enhanced to improve performance when working with large numbers of customers.
• New Service Requests created via the Advanced Customer Portal will now default the "Contact" to the person who is creating the Service Request, instead of the customer's primary contact.

Thanks!

We hope you enjoy these new features. Thanks for using BlueFolder!

Tip and Tricks: Customization

In order to process your service calls more efficiently, you can customize many aspects of BlueFolder to get things done more quickly and tailor BlueFolder to your business.

Just click the 'Settings' tab on the right-hand side of the main navigation bar to explore all the customization options that are available. Don’t worry, administrators have full access to these settings while all other users can only edit their personal profile and preferences. You can customize the service request, customer, billing export, billing summary, equipment, contracts, and customer notifications, just to name a few.

In the service request customization feature you can create custom fields that pertain to your business. You can leave custom fields as optional, or make them mandatory if it is critical data that you want to require to be entered into the system before a service request can be saved.

One of our newer customization features is that you can assign a default Account Manager, Service Manager, and or Technician. These intelligent defaults will speed up the process of creating customers and service requests with all of the right selections – eliminating clicks and allowing you to process more service requests in less time.

Best Practices: How to Handle More Service Calls.

Maybe we should start with a question - how many service calls are you actually logging in a month? Once you understand your actual service call volume, then you can focus on “How do you get more of them”.

Many companies think they have a good handle on their monthly service call volume but do they really? Do you? Would you believe it if we told you that one of our customers more than quadrupled the number of service calls they opened in a month by implementing our service management tool? Hard to believe, but true. This customer went from a little over 90 service tickets to almost 400 in one month!

The customer was shocked at how many service tickets were not recorded, lost, or forgotten. One of the biggest “nuggets” that was uncovered was that one of their smaller clients was responsible for a huge number of service tickets, more than some of their larger contract customers.  Most of the calls were “quick questions” – translation - non-billable help. Some of the “non-billable” calls lasted well over thirty minutes. He also noticed that the same customer was calling technicians directly with “quick questions” as well.  Once logged, the “proof was in the pudding” and our customer was armed with the information he needed to meet with the client and offer some billable training to help reduce the amount of “non-billable” calls. He was also able to convince this customer to subscribe to their annual service contract offering.

This story sometimes gets a reaction like “I could never get my techs to log all the calls they take in a day.  They are just too busy”. Sure, logging and tracking service tickets does take a little extra time, so maybe make it fun.  Maybe a friendly competition, offering a monthly prize, or simply recognizing the additional effort put forth. This will go a long way to helping you better understand your customers and technicians, and ultimately generate more revenue for your business from the service you are already providing.

Efficiencies in Scheduling Mean More Calls, More Billable Activities

It seems like common sense for any business with field service representatives: the more calls a tech can make, the more revenue comes in to the company. But booking service calls can be a tricky problem. The customers need to be assured they will be given all the time necessary to take care of their maintenance/repair/installation, including potential surprises or problems. At the same time, every billable visit that can be made in a day, should be. Overbooking or underbooking – which poison to pick?

Then there’s the issue of customers who call in at the last minute wanting someone right now. Accommodating these people not only increases the bottom line, it ensures a happy customer and repeat business later.

BlueFolder customers don’t have to cross their fingers hoping that no appointments are dropped, rushed, or ignored.

With access to the scheduled service calls available on their mobile phones, employees in the field who finish a call early can help out other service reps who are dealing with the unexpected and must take longer at a call. Schedules can be adjusted on the fly so that all your customers get service – and your company gets all that billable time.

Emails from customers asking for assistance can be automatically linked to a service request that will appear on that customer record within the database, and directly into the inbox of the mobile of your service representatives.

What this means is that more appointments will be possible. That translates to more revenue dollars for you immediately, and more happy customers calling you back later. BlueFolder also automates customers’ calendars so that they can be notified ahead of time about the need to have a service representative come out for a maintenance call or for your help desk to take care of a license renewal. These billable opportunities are often forgotten by the customers, who are busy with day-to-day activities and might not get around to checking on such things. Since BlueFolder sends them automatic reminders, however, these service calls are built-in revenue generators for your business. Not only that, but customers are happy that you are paying attention to their needs.

There are only so many hours in a day; let BlueFolder help you fill them efficiently for your field service representatives. The more service calls, the more bills you generate – and the better bottom line for your business!

Product Update: Improved Service History, Enhanced Mobile Edition

Improvements to Customer Service History

Now, when viewing the "Service History" tab within a customer record, you can filter the service history records by "All", "Open", or "Closed". We also added a "New Service Request" link on the upper-right corner of the list.

Mobile Edition Improvements

• Now you can see which equipment items are associated with a Service Request from the mobile edition.
• Refreshed user interface when viewing Service Requests and Customers is easier to read and navigate.

Added Mobile Phone Number to Printed Forms

Our standard Service Request printed forms now include your customer contact's mobile phone number in addition to their main number. If you're using a custom printed form and would like us to update it, please contact BlueFolder Support.

Product Update: New Timesheet Report, and Customer Portal Enhancements

"Weekly Timesheet" Report

The "Weekly Timesheet" report shows how many labor hours have been entered by your employees within a given week. Simply specify the start date for the week, and optionally specify which user(s) or group to filter by and click the "Run Report" button. Labor hours are totaled for each person by day and are clickable, so that you can easily drill-down into an individual person's labor entries. You can also click on the total hours in the last column to view an individual's total detailed labor entries for the entire week. This new report can be found in the "Labor & Expense Reports" section of the "Reports" tab.

Customer Portal Improvements

User accounts for the Advanced Customer Portal have been enhanced to support the ability to specify whether the user is allowed to view all Service Requests for their company, or only Service Requests for which they are the designated contact.

Also, customers using the Advanced Portal will now be able to see Service Requests for which they are only designated as the "Bill To" in addition to Service Requests for which they are the direct customer.

Product Update: Enhancement to User Permissions

The user permissions settings have been updated to support customization of the "Delete Service Requests" permission. Now you can specify whether your techs should be allowed to delete Service Requests. This permission was previously not customizable.

The possible settings for this permission are:

• "Delete Any"
• "Delete If Creator"
• "Not Allowed"

The "Delete If Creator" setting means that a user will be allowed to delete a Service Request only if they are the person who created it.

To access these (and all other) user permissions settings, go to Settings > Manage Users > Permissions while logged in to your account.

Product Update: Search Service Request Comments & Notes

We just launched an update to BlueService that includes the following new features.

Search Service Request Comments & Notes

Many of our customers have requested an enhanced search feature that allows for searching all of the comments and notes that are part of Service Requests. We have heard your requests and are happy to announce that we've added a new "Search Comments & Notes" feature to BlueService. Simply hover over the "Service Requests" tab menu, and select the "Search Comments & Notes" menu item.

This new search feature has a familiar Google-like interface and supports a few advanced options, such as filtering by a particular customer, by status, or by date range. Lengthy comments and notes are displayed in a "collapsed" view, but can be expanded by clicking the "expand notes" link below each note.

Thanks!

We hope you enjoy these new features. Thanks for using BlueFolder!

Product Update: New Sales Role, Enhancements for Account Managers

We just launched an update to BlueService that includes the following new features.

New Sales Role

A new user role called "Sales" has been added to BlueService. This new role is designed for the salespeople in your organization who need access to customers, service records, contracts, etc. The addition of the "Sales" role also sets the stage for additional CRM features that we'll be adding to BlueService in the near future.

Enhancements for Account Managers

Each customer record has an "Account Manager" field that allows you to designate which of your employees is responsible for managing the customer account. We've added a couple of new features to make the "Account Manager" field more useful.

1. The Customer List view can now be customized to include the "Account Manager" field as a column in the list.
2. We've also added 3 new alerts that allow customer "Account Managers" to be notified when Service Requests for their customers are created, have status changes, and have comments added.

Thanks!

We hope you enjoy these new features. Thanks for using BlueFolder!

Product Update: Faster, More Detailed Service Billing Saves Time and Speeds Up Customer Payment

Improved QuickBooks Integration

We've just released several improvements to our built-in QuickBooks integration enabling you to include more detail on your invoices and reduce the amount of time spent generating invoices. Getting your invoices out the door faster means you get paid sooner, and detailed invoices that are easy for your customers to understand eliminates costly confusion that often causes delays in getting paid.

The following billing enhancements have been added:

• Specify Invoice Dates - No more resetting invoice dates by hand! Now you can choose what invoice date should be used for the invoices in your export batch.
• Include Item Dates - BlueService already populates the QuickBooks 'Service Date' field for each invoice line item, but now you can also choose to include the item date (e.g. the date labor was performed or expenses were incurred) at the beginning of a line item's description.
• Include Item Comments - Now you can control whether you want item comments to be included in the invoice line item description or not.
• Specify 'To Be Emailed' and/or 'To Be Printed' - This is a big time saver! Now you can specify whether your QuickBooks invoices should be marked as 'To Be Emailed' and/or 'To Be Printed' without having to go back into QuickBooks and set this option for each invoice that was just imported.
• Better Navigation in the Billing Export List - Now it's easier to view previously exported Service Requests. You can view a list of Service Requests exported within the past 10 days, 30 days, 60 days, etc. The searching capability is also more consistent with the search functions found on the main Service Request List.

Additional Enhancements in this Update

We also added the following enhancements to last night's update.

• URLs contained in custom field values are now automatically converted to clickable hyperlinks.
• We've renamed the 'Notes' fields to 'Comments' for things like Service Request Labor, Materials, and Expense items in order to be more consistent throughout the application.