There are a lot of CRM apps out there designed to help a small business organize their operations with tools for keeping track of customer data, invoicing, scheduling and managing employee information.  However, Service Sidekick takes into mind the specific challenges small businesses face when they have employees out in the field each day attending to clients. As such, Service Sidekick is ideal for such businesses such as carpet cleaning, IT services, electricians, landscaping, maid service, pest control, plumbing, and more.

Overview:

Service Sidekick is a comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) application designed to help service-oriented small businesses with estimates, dispatches, invoices, scheduling and more.  The service will also run reports, import data from Excel and QuickBooks and reminds you when you need to follow-up with customers.

Service Sidekick is available in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia and allows users access from either a Mac or PC.   Pricing is reasonable at $35.00 per user per month for the Basic Plus version, $25 per month per user for the Basic version and only $9 per month per user for the Basic Lite version.  You can also sign up for a free 14-day trial run. In addition, Service Sidekick also offers the opportunity to “customize” your account.  You will have to contact a customer service agent for that pricing however, as it will vary depending on what tools you choose for your account.

The Basics:  What does it look like?

Service Sidekick has a very clean interface – the font is large and the graphics module – no fancy icons or graphics – the product is no-frills, just straightforward and easy to follow.

The first time you sign in, you will need to create a company profile and answer a number of questions about your business including your tax status, whether you want to integrate with QuickBooks, your service type, your employee information and more.

Once all this information is added, the system will create a dashboard for your company.  The dashboard offers a top-line overview of your jobs in progress, estimates, scheduling for the next three days and more.

Feature Overview

QuickBooks Integration:

Currently Service Sidekick integrates only with QuickBooks (sorry Sage users) – but considering how many small businesses are using QuickBooks, it is definitely a plus for QB die-hards.  You can link up your QuickBooks information into the Service Sidekick solution by entering first into the Set Up option and choosing the QuickBooks mode.  From there the system instructs you step by step how to first download the QuickBooks Web Connector (QWC) as well as your company’s QWC file.  Both of these steps allow information to flow freely between your information in QuickBooks and your information in Service Sidekick.

The integration process is fairly intuitive, however the first time you use the tool can be time-consuming.  In a video explaining how to use the QWC tool, Service Sidekick warns that if you need to import a large customer base, it could take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours to download.

While in this mode, make sure your QuickBooks is open on your desktop as well as your Service Sidekick account information.

Adding Your Customers to Service Sidekick without QuickBooks:

If you do not use QuickBooks, do not fear.  You can manually enter in customers into Service Sidekick or you can import your customer lists from your Excel files into the system.  If you decide to import your lists, you will have to do some work.  First thing — Service Sidekick only supports .CSV file format, so you will have to save your Excel files to .CSV before importing your lists.  In addition, after saving your customer list in the CSV format, you will need to rename each column header according the column names that Service Sidekick provides.  There is a sample Excel chart to give you an idea how each header is supposed to look.

Estimates:

Service Sidekick allows you to create estimates for your customers.  Once you create the estimate, you then have the option to print the estimate as well as send it to the customer via email.  You can also ask the system to send you reminders to follow-up with your customers on the status of the estimate.

Creating an estimate is fairly straightforward.  You can create estimates in the Estimate field, click on a current customer and follow the prompts.  If you are creating an estimate for a new customer – the system will allow you to create a new customer profile before producing the estimate.   After you enter in the information, Service Sidekick creates the estimate complete with the customer’s name and address.  You can then email the document to the customer.

Invoicing

You can invoice your customer after you create an estimate.  Once the estimate is complete, you will then have the option to invoice the customer (and you can edit the information on the invoice if needed), change the estimate, or create a work order.

As you fill out the invoice, the system will ask you if you want to insert your company logo.  In addition to adding in a logo, you can also add in notes to further customize the invoice.  If you want to create a custom template, however, the do-it-yourself method requires you to know HTML, CSS and Liquid.  If that is beyond your skill set, as it is way above mine, Service Sidekick will create the template for you – but for a fee.

Managing Employees

Service Sidekick allows you to enter in the names and information for all of your employees.  You can do that in the Set Up tab.  In addition to adding in employees address and other information, Service Sidekick will ask if you want to give the employee permission to access the Service Sidekick account as well as the ability to notify the employee via text message such information as the daily schedules.  That said Service Sidekick does not have the functionality to pay employees – that is where an accounting solution like QuickBooks will come in handy.

Mobile Access

One of the neat aspects of Service Sidekick is its mobile access – especially since many of the small businesses using Service Sidekick have employees in the field.  This allows you to keep in touch with your account via your cell phone.  You can check estimates, schedules and more.   If you are using a smart phone with internet access you can use your regular Service Sidekick log in address.

Is it For You?

Service Sidekick is a fairly straightforward web-based CRM application that offers small business the tools they need to run a business and keep track of their customers.  Its star features are Service Sidekick’s QuickBooks integration, as well its easy-to-follow interface for invoicing, scheduling and providing estimates for your clients.

Overall, Service Sidekick is easy to learn… and with an hour or two of practice, any small business owner or manager will be able to navigate the program easily.  There are also very detailed videos to explain certain functionalities.  I did have a few issues with its Excel import feature – given you need to first save your entire customer Excel files into .CSV and then redo your columns headings.

In terms of mobile access, I was also a bit confused as to where to find information on how to set up mobile support – I had to go to the customer forum site to access that information.

Besides these few issues, I found all of the features to be straightforward and easy to accomplish.

Ratings: ease of use 5/5, features 3/5, value 5/5 and ease of deployment 4/5

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