Finally Paperless!

[nightkingdoms]

Finally Paperless! (Online Drop-Off Requests)

Over the years I've used several methods to reduce the amount of physical paperwork I needed to do in my business. Well, today I eliminated the last two forms.

In the last few years, I was able to reduce things down to 4 physical forms: on-site work order, modified work order for drop-offs, modified work order for mail-ins, and an estimate form. Started using email for estimates and the clients' responses as the written permission for going ahead with it. Got my tablet a couple months ago and started using that for signatures on a PDF version of the work order.

At that point everything was down to the drop-off and mail-in forms. As of today, that's no longer the case. Finally built an online set of forms to collect the data and process it. It gets their equipment list, passwords used, customer info, etc. then adds them as a client in my business system by creating an account for them. It also charges their credit card for the deposit, adds it as a credit on that account, creates a support ticket with all their info, sends them email confirmation, then gives them a printable ID page (at least I didn't print it lol).

They include the printed page with their computer when dropping it off or in the shipping box so I know which one's their's. In addition to that, it gives them their claim number to check their status online, by phone or text 24/7. Pretty good to not deal with holding onto paper for 6+ months anymore.

 

[TechLady]

Holy cow...that's awesome. Is this something you custom coded, or something we can look at??

 

[nightkingdoms]

You sure can. http://nk2.us/dropoffs. Just don't hit the last button that has the credit card info page because this mini-site is indeed live, will create real accounts and charge credit cards in real-time. I will post a screenshot from the testing phase of what the printed page looks like a little later.

Edit: Forgot to answer your question. lol Yes, this is a custom job I did. I'm working on several little drop-in mini-systems like this for sites that will give an existing site extra capabilities in the coming months as well.

 

[nightkingdoms]

The printable part at the end that gets dropped off or shipped with the equipment. The instructions don't show on the printed version and the printed instructions change depending on whether it's a drop off or ship.

 

[nightkingdoms]

If anybody wants to test the flow of how it works, I created a way to do it without creating an account on my system, charging a card, etc.

By entering TESTMODE as the company name (not case sensitive) you can go through from start to finish just like one of my clients would without the hassle of actually creating accounts and everything. It will, however, send you an email to the address you specify just like a client would get. That way you can see how the online, printing and email process works. Also it doesn't matter what you enter for the credit card info. With the testmode flag it will provide you with pre-populated fake credit card fields.

Have fun!

Sidenote: While the code 0123 is a valid test Claim Tag for my repair tracker, please don't do the text message or phone options to check the status as I do get charged for those. If you check the repair status on my site, though, it doesn't cost me a dime.

 

[SCS75]

Congratulations on finally going paperless.

Just out of curiosity, is there any way to see the PDF version of your work order? I was thinking about doing something similar, although I have to acquire a tablet first.

 

[nightkingdoms]

This is the first page of the work order. The 2nd page (or back page) has all the terms. The terms are the same across all services because I had it changed about a year ago to encompass on-site/off-site and remote with e-signatures.

http://db.tt/bDwRZScz

 

[SCS75]

This is the first page of the work order. The 2nd page (or back page) has all the terms. The terms are the same across all services because I had it changed about a year ago to encompass on-site/off-site and remote with e-signatures.

http://db.tt/bDwRZScz

Very nice. Is the work order number generated automatically, or is that something you have to fill in yourself?

 

[d0m0]

Wow.. very nice. Will take me years to go paperless.. LOL

 

[nightkingdoms]

When looking at it, you have to remember that this was a physical form that I had custom printed front-and-back. There were two copies: White copy on top was mine, yellow copy on back was glued at the top and ripped off and given to the client at the end of the service.

At the top-center you'll notice a very apparent space between where it gives the billing and appointment web addresses. This is where I placed a small sticker that had a barcode and unique 6-digit number on it. That's what I used for the longest time as the work order number. You'll also notice under the Description section there is a space for Ticket # and Equipment Tag #.

The Ticket # refers to my online support tickets, which is also a 6-digit number. Because I always create a support ticket in the system for every job, I stopped using the stickers and just started using the ticket number as the work order number. The Equipment Tag # is the Claim Ticket number.

I always give my clients a little, physical claim ticket that has a unique 4-digit number on it when I take their computer as proof that I had their computer. Corresponding Equipment Tags would go on each piece of equipment so I could differentiate each from someone else's equipment -- all numbers should match. I would give these Claim Tickets any time I took a computer or had someone drop-off one. I started emailing the Claim Tickets about a year ago because I got tired of printing them, so it's only natural to just incorporate it altogether now. (If you want to see what the ticket looks like, here's the link.)

 

[nightkingdoms]

Forgot to mention why I used Claim Tickets at all...

Backstory is that my competitors would hold onto a computer for weeks if not months at a time. When a client would come to pick it up when it was done (or they finally got frustrated that it still wasn't done), they could rarely even give them the right computer back the first time or would say they didn't have it at all.

I always used equipment tags to differentiate between people's computers and used 4-digit numbers for those. So, to be one-step above the competition, I started issuing Claim Tickets that show that I have your computer and inform them that they correspond to the tags put on the actual equipment. That same number is on the work order which lists everything I should have of theirs so that's how I kept track of all of it.

For times when I brought a computer back, I would take possession of the Claim Ticket as proof that I brought it back. If the client was picking it up themselves, they only needed to give me their Claim Ticket. I told them I never ask for verification, government ID, etc. because the tickets are unique, only printed by me and only correspond to equipment I already have. So, they can send anyone they want to pick it up if they're busy. As long as they had the ticket, that's the only verification I needed.

Because they already had the ticket, that's the number I used for repair status checking online (and now by phone/text, too). Just grew out of a simple idea to look more professional than the competition.