San Diego, CA-based HouseCall Pro is a desktop and mobile app that allows home service providers from plumbers to financial planners to promote their business, get online bookings, manage payment, and much more. The app connects them to HouseCall, the customer side of the platform to book, schedule, and pay the service professionals.
It’s been called the Uber for home services because of its on-demand, transaction-based revenue and all-in-one processing model that ensures customers get quality service and providers enjoy location-based market reach. This makes the app different from traditional home service directories and review sites, which only list companies and bid job offers away.
In our detailed review of HouseCall Pro, we’ll present the following information that will help you assess the app:
The highlights of HouseCall Pro
What we like most about HouseCall Pro
What customers say about HouseCall Pro
Awards granted to HouseCall Pro
HouseCall Pro SmartScore and Customer Satisfaction
What are the highlights of HouseCall Pro?
It uses transactional and community rating system model similar to Uber; hence, it’s positioned as the “future” of home service
Simple CRM features like thank-you postcards and emails increase your bottom line over the long term
Workflow automation helps you to focus on getting the job done, while freeing you from administrative tasks ranging from estimates and scheduling to dispatch and direction and up to billing and thank-you messages
Centralized location means all your customer data, invoices, and other important files remain secure in one place and are easily retrievable
What We Like The Most About HouseCall Pro
1. You compete on value, not price
If you’re a service provider that puts a premium in customer satisfaction, HouseCall will works great for you. Home service is prone to price wars and established providers have difficulty matching rates against freelancers, who can offer lower rates because of substandard materials or labor, for instance.
But with the app, customers rate service providers based on job performance, which the app displays. Accodring to HouseCall only those with 4-star or above rating are recommended in the app, which means a freelancer offering poor performance will have a difficult time competing with you.
Likewise, the app helps you to focus on the right customers, those who are willing to pay the right price for the right service. Inadvertently, the app improves your ROI in the long run. You can easily try out the service for yourself and get a free trial here.
2. Almost all types of home services are accommodated
HouseCall has one of the widest horizontals in home services, featuring over 30 home services from plumbing, electrical, maid, and pest control to notary, tax & accounting, and tutor. If you’re a home service provider, it’s likely your category is listed in the app, unlike in HomeJoy and Exec, which are not comprehensive enough to cover the whole house.
On the other hand, the app has a smaller database vertically because it manually handpicks quality providers with background checks, service tests, and subjects them to the 4-star customer rating policy. That means if you get enrolled in HouseCall Pro, you’re competing with a high-value market with low-volume competition… for now.
3. Usability is simple but powerful
Like the customer-end interface, the merchant backend is designed for non-tech users. It has a simple system that gets you covered with tasks ranging from scheduling, dispatching, and locating jobs from your Android or iOS mobile device (also from desktop computer) to automating invoice and receiving payments fast. Likewise, the in-app messaging helps you deliver fast customer support with the ease and utility of an SMS or email.
But don’t let the app’s simplicity fool you, behind it is an enterprise-grade mobile infrastructure designed by ex-engineers of Qualcomm Labs, famous for having the brightest in software development. The app lets you manage booking, billing, payment, and other administrative tasks using on-demand data, payment gateways, and GPS technology.
Furthermore, unlike home service apps such as RedBeacon and ServiceMagic, HouseCall does away with lengthy job description forms and job bidding in the customer end interface. Customers book appointments by contacting you directly in the app–when they need you. You don’t waste time scouring over job requests that don’t materialize.
Customers see your rating, fixed price and can contact you right away.
4. Great marketing tools to reach a wider market
It is reported that less than 2% of the $400 billion home service industry use online and mobile platforms today via HomeJoy and RedBeacon. However, by introducing the Uber model in home services, HouseCall is expected to change the landscape, similarly to what Uber did in the taxi industry and AirBnB in the hospitality business. In short, getting your service company on board HouseCall today is a great strategy to reach a wider market tomorrow.
Think of the app as word-of-mouth advertising ten times over. The app’s creators understand that people are weary of poor home services or the prospect of inviting strangers into their homes. When customers start wising up to the idea that they can get quality home service providers that have been background checked by both vendor and customers, HouseCall will be the marketplace that pulls together customers and service providers. You want your business to be in this place.
Aside from this industry-shifting reason, the app gives you other marketing tools to spread the word about your business. You can target or retarget customers through postcard or email campaigns. The app has a one-time blast or ongoing campaign option, which lets you use a template, personalize the message, and upload pictures. Customized postcards cost 65 cents per card, but emails are free. In a market where repeat business is essential, this trivial but critical tool can make a big impact on your ROI. When an existing customer calls in for the same service again, you’re the default provider (you need to save the customer record though).
Likewise, the app uses mobile locations via GPS to recommend you only to customers within your territory.
On this note, it would have been nice, even for an extra fee, if the app provided market analytics in your area, such as, customer volume per category and seasonal demand trends. It has these raw data in its database, which could be processed into market insights.
Create thank-you postcards fast and delight customer for effective customer relations management
5. Less paperwork, more work when everything is centralized
You’re probably using numerous apps to manage job appointments, keep files, provide customer support, and market your business, stringing together different apps for documents, spreadsheets, calendars, calculators, emails, etc. Putting everything in a single platform helps you get organized and run your business hours more efficiently.
Instead of shuffling papers, finding a customer file is easy in the app. Likewise, you can manage your field technicians easily with real-time job updates and notifications. The field teams can alert you about their work while on location, which is critical in the home service industry, where changes can happen in a snap during a house call for external reasons (weather, customer availability, etc.). This is useful also in cases when you need to schedule shared resources, for example, an expensive equipment or a specialist technician.
The HouseCall Pro mobile app also lets you stay organized while on the go. For instance, you can view your calendars, receive payments, and get directions to the next job all in your phone. This is handy for an individual or small-scale service provider team, who needs to perform a job, while managing other jobs elsewhere. If you’d like to see how it works in action you can easily get a HouseCall Pro free trial and test the service yourself.
Keeping track of your job schedule and dispatch is easy with the in-app calendar.
6. Automatic billing and payment
HouseCall Pro lets you accept cash or check payments from customers, but it is most useful for automating billing and payments. There’s no need for a dongle or swiper because transactions happen online. This is convenient for companies that provide regular checkups or have a steady stream of repeat job orders.
However, you get charged 2.6% plus 30 cents for all major card transactions, which is lower than standard online transaction fee of 3%. Moreover, the vendor charges a 10% referral fee for new customers (billed only when the job is completed; none for existing customers) on top of your monthly plan, which starts at $69 per month. Clearly, the app isn’t for one-shot contract deal jobs, but for established service providers that seek to grow the business. You have to add up all the app’s overhead and calculate your break even to target your month-to-month quota.
No need for clunky dongle to accept payment in your phone.
7. Live Map turns your phone to GPS tracker
You don’t need additional hardware for GPS vehicle tracking, HouseCall allows your smartphone to track your field technicians’ real-time locations. Live Map uses the built-in GPS in smartphones to help service providers find their customer’s location. It’s a common feature, but you can also use it to ping your customers while your technicians or you are on the way by pushing the “on my way” button. Doing so helps your customers to estimate your arrival down to the minute, giving them more window to do things other than waiting for you; for instance, use the bathroom before the plumber shows up or get a few more minutes of snooze. This is a small thing that busy customers may appreciate and, who knows, recall your service for it in the future.
“On my way” button gives your customers more window to prepare before you arrive.
What customers say about HouseCall Pro
You can read dozens of happy user reviews about HouseCall Pro and most of them revolve around two things: their customers are happy and the HouseCall Pro support is great.
Chandler from Classic Care Services, Inc. said the text and email alerts that the app sends (from scheduling to estimates, invoicing and receipts) made customers appreciate his professionalism. He said he now relies on the app for much of his workflows. “It has become my CRM, scheduling, invoicing, estimating and payment system.” He wished though that the mobile app had the full functionality of the web portal.
Meanwhile, Jim of After Five Plumbing likes how the app integrates with QuickBooks. HouseCall sends his sales data to QuickBooks, making his accounting easier. “You no longer have to sit down with a calculator and add everything up at the end of the month.” He said he only needs to enter his non-recurring daily expenses and run reports to see the big picture. “With the HouseCall Pro I have my job cost when I talk to the customer and can make changes quickly if I have to.”
For Robert, who runs Robert’s Carpet Cleaning, he’s happy with the attention he gets from customer support. “They have responded within a few minutes every time, even on weekends.” Like Chandler, he mentioned that his customers love the communication alerts they get from the start of the job to receipt of payment. “Plus, they get a thank you postcard about a week later automatically.”
Awards and Quality Certificates won by HouseCall Pro
After a careful review of HousCall Pro with all its functionalities and customer support our team of B2B experts decided to distinguish HouseCall Pro with the following awards and quality certificates:
Best Mobile Support Award
HouseCall Pro was granted this award for its superb, comprehensive range of mobile features that add to its users’ productivity and ROI. The app is built on the usability and utility of iOS and Android devices. The mobile merchant side provides clear communication on critical customer touch points, from estimates and scheduling to dispatch and directions, and up to payment receipts and thank-you messages.
Designed for Small Business Certificate
HouseCall Pro helps independent and small service companies compete with more established and bigger companies with enterprise-level features, but at small business price. Likewise, its quality features are simple to use for both customers and service professionals. For this, the app merited this certificate in recognition of its value to small businesses in the home service sector.
Budget Friendly Certificate
Starting at $69 per month, which in biannual billing is further reduced to $57/month, HouseCall is cost-effective even for companies with tight cash flow. This friendly pricing terms make HouseCall Pro to qualify for this special certificate that highlights it is a quality product for a reasonable price.
Great User Experience Certificate
Service providers are happy that the app helps them to deliver quality customer support, while its postcard and email marketing options allow providers to implement CRM. In both instances, the result is more satisfied customers that lead to more future jobs. This certificate is granted to products that offer quality functions that are not only well-designed, but facilitate the delivery of work.
HouseCall Pro SmartScore and Customer Satisfaction
Our B2B experts conducted a thorough review of HouseCall Pro functionalities, user experience, customer support and other key elements of the service. Final results as summarized by the SmartScore system gave HouseCall Pro a very satisfying score of 8.5/10, while the results provided by the Customer Satisfaction Algorithm place the overall user satisfaction rating at a superb 100%. You can also try out the service on your own and get HouseCall Pro free trial.
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