DIY website, eHow, has a short tutorial on selecting HVAC Service Software for a service management company.

HVAC service software is an integral tool for mechanical service management companies. You will want to find a solution that helps coordinate your customers’ needs in such a way that maximizes tasks completed, customer visits, and gross revenue while simultaneously lowering overall costs. Follow these steps to help in identifying HVAC software for your company.

eHow suggests looking for HVAC service software that works on mobile devices and can handle functions like dispatching, invoicing, and communicating with the office. It also suggests looking for software that will integrate well with your current account package.

eHow encourages readers to make sure the HVAC Software provider has a quality phone and email support system that you can reach during your working hours. eHow suggest finding service software that is tailored to work with your HVAC business. Finally, they suggest choosing HVAC service software based on its ability to to give you good and relevant reports about your business.

You can read the full guide at: How to Choose HVAC Service Software | eHow.com.

For those of you who hate writing business letters, Service Round Table has provided an extensive resource will ease the burden.

The Service Roundtable obtained a special license from Eshinesoft Corporation to make these ready-to-go, easy-to-modify standard business letters available online for our members and potential members. Cut and paste any letter into your word processor.

Why Free? Why is the Service Roundtable making this letter library available for free when others charge for it? Simple.

The library is accessible here for both SRT members and non-members. There are tons of letters here, but the search field makes it easy to find what you’re looking for. Once you find the right letter, you can paste it into a Word document and fill in the blanks.

You can use these letters in your business correspondence, and if you’re an ESC user, you can save the templates you use regularly right into ESC. If you’re not an ESC customer, you can sign up for the 30-day free trial to see how ESC can make your correspondence with your customers more efficient.

“We switched to ESC about six months ago because there were a lot of problems with our previous software. We really didn’t get any support with our previous software, and they were charging astronomical pricing for the support. If we would do an update, it would mess everything up.

“dESCO’s support team is all in the same place, so all the techs know what’s going on. That helped me a lot because they’re all on the same page. That helps tremendously. I really like that dESCO uses the program to test it out. If you’re not actually incorporating the program into your day, you don’t have a clue.

“It’s been a very easy program to use. When we first got it I was trying to figure out our letters for our service agreements. I ran off the report on one of our service agreements, and I could see right there in front of me who needed to be inactive and who needed to be billed. The email and letter templates were great. That’s what I couldn’t get over. They made billing our service agreements so easy.

“On this program which I really like, you can do things and it doesn’t screw it up. ESC has just been great and as I go on, I find more and more things that I can do. I’m really enjoying the program. It’s just so much easier to me. This is such a great program. The more I play with it, the easier it gets. Our previous software was so hard to me.

“This is my game. I feel like a kid. I get to play with it all day long, and get paid for it.”

Lisa Betz, Service Coordinator. Nardco Heating and Air Conditioning

The ESC Mobile Client Support a Wide Variety of Windows Smart Phones with Touch Screens

The ESC Mobile Client works on a wide variety of devices. It works on most laptop, netbooks, and tablet PCs running Window. The Mobile Client also works on a wide variety of Windows Mobile Phones with Touch Screens.

Microsoft has a list of all the mobile phones they currently support that run Windows Mobile and that will work with ESC Mobile. You can view them here. This is not a comprehensive list, and it is still a good idea to check with dESCO if a particular phone will work with the ESC Mobile Client.

Owners, employees, and customers all benefit from Mobile Computing.

Customers are able to receive more timely service from technicians who have better access to the information they need to get to the job with the right parts and tools, and to get the job done.

Technicians benefit from having the information for their dispatches at their fingertips rather than having to call the office for each update.

Office personnel benefit from having technicians in the field with mobile devices because it means they don’t need to re-enter all the information the tech brings back with him.

Finally, owners benefit from the increased efficiency of their operations which means a bigger bottom line!

Mobile computing is an effective way to bring a new level of professionalism and accuracy to your business. To find out more about how mobile computing with ESC can change your business and to see a demo of the ESC Mobile Client, schedule a demo with a dESCO product specialist.

Some businesses grow and other’s stay the same size. Computer service software is one of the keys to growing a service company because it takes the pressure off the owner to be knee deep in the day to day operations and gives him or her a better perspective of the problems and opportunities the company faces.

By having a stronger perspective of how this works, owner are able to use computer service software to automate many of their business functions.

ESC simplifies the management and operations of service companies.

ESC will simplify and organize the work flow of both small and large service companies, making them more manageable and profitable.

It’s easy to collect information from customers; easy to store it. Just write it down on a slip of paper and add it to the pile. Then try to find it when you need it.

Retrieving it:  that’s where ESC comes into play. Rather than the pen, paper, treasure hunt approach, we provide a way for you to enter information once, easily find it again, and have it show up in the other relevant and logical places throughout the software.

Pull everything from your desk and put it into your computer: service scheduling, managing your customers, routing your technicians, and seeing where they are via GPS, invoicing, and collecting payments. These are just a few of the functions, but you can see how it will take everything that is scattered around the office and put it all into one place.

You’ll be able to do more in a day. Enter information once. Access it quickly when you need it. Reduce errors and inconsistent information.

We can also make sure your service technicians in the field are on the same page with access to all the information on the customers they’ll visit, including what equipment they have, repair history, details on what the problem is, and an over view of what they need to do when they arrive. The mobile solution will also make sure your techs know what tools and equipment they’ll need to complete the job, so they’re not scrambling back and forth between the office, warehouse, and job site. They’ll also have detailed directions so they can arrive and start working quickly.

This lets the technicians arrive on the job site and finish the work quicker. And when they’re done, they can go directly to the next job, without having to stop back in the office. This will mean more jobs done per day, which will translate into bigger profits.

With ESC you’ll always be prepared when your customers call. With caller ID, the customers’ information can be pulled up automatically when they call, or you can easily search for them in the system. Once their information is up, you’ll have quick snapshot of the job sites, service history, service contracts, recent dispatches, as well as any outstanding balances. It’s all there so that you’ll be ready when they call.

You’re also able to manage a lot of the software from the web using the ESC Web Front Office, letting you view reports or schedule technicians from anywhere. Also, any changes you make online will show up immediately for users in the office and in the field.

ESC integrates directly with QuickBooks, allowing you to easily post invoices and received payments without any double entry.

By simplifying and organizing the way your company manages its dispatches, customers, and billing, you’ll finally have the time to grow your business by focusing on finding new customers and expanding your relationships with old ones.