[Steven Butler]

Is there any free software to store customers details etc..
I know theres cleaners mate etc but im not busy enough to buy software when i could use microsoft excel...
Ta

[Lewis Newby]

Try 'get bookedbup'
they do a free basic version

[Radek Jablonski]

gbu free version will let you to upgrade to the premium version in future having database already with free version

for cm you can pay monthly for 6 months, this is what i did

[John Kelly]

I believe running one of these programmes is one of the most important things for your business. Regardless of how busy you are imputting information right from the start will be invaluable.

[Hilton]

www.insightly.com     is very good.....

[COLIN BRIGHT]

I agree with John, the more work you do the bigger your base will become, I use  cleaners mate and it suits me fine, I can do all my letters etc and get someone else to print and sent it ,easy, sending out offers and reminders is a great way of making you more busy so its not just a list of names but much more than that and will  transform your business, it gives you all the info you need and makes life a hell of a lot easier, I think mine cost about £135 but worth every single penny, just one campaign will pay for it over and over again, ps im crap at all this database stuff but even I find it easy, GBU from Allan Simmons is good as well so if you go to TACCA then im sure he will tell you all about it, and his version is FREE, whats not to love about that?

[tim handley]

so what exactly do you get with cleaners mate??    i need to build a relationship with my clients which i know im not doing at the moment, ie to be able to e mail them offers/reminders, is claners mate what i need?

[jim mca]

Tim
If you are going to TACCA see Alan good deal on get booked up

[Radek Jablonski]

tim, do you collect emails from all customers, asking as I was on starting and was still forgeting to ask when leaving customer. So I just use their mobile numbers. Using cm you send txt messages to all customers, or to only some if them you choose by the options. You need to purchase credit on txtlocal as cm works with them.

[tim handley]

an area i now need to work on, for sure..............

[Richard Joyce]

Cleaners  Mate is what I use its a great bit of software and so easy to use, 5 stars from me.

[Brendan (chem2clean)]

I need to choice the 21 century.I get the email thing with contacting customers,even invoicing etc,but what else are the benefits?

[Mike Halliday]

I would guess the biggest  benefit  would a contactable database for when you want to sell your company, makes your company much more sell able rather than trying to sell a bag of old diaries

[derek west]

as what mike said but they also allow you to know how much you charged them last time, you can contact customers that have not used you for 3 years or you can contact customers who are 1 year old, you can send an upholstery offer to customers who have had upholstery done or you can send a discount voucher to customers who had there rugs done. this can all be done automatically through companies like docmail so you dont even have to lick an envelope.

you can see where all your work came from, how much came from brochures, internet, adwords, referals, repeat etc.... you can see how much money you took in april last year and what the breakdown was, the list is endless.
Allan simmons is doing a seminar/talk on this at the tacca day (very educational)and he has a big discount on the GetBookedUp software on the day to.

[Rich Wilts]

Carpet cleaning is not our only source of income, but for the carpet customers we use a spreadsheet for all their personal details and mail chimp for promotions.