FlatRateNOW Blog

Creating options is easy with the Scratchpad

Marcel Donnelly — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 02:54:20 GMT

Everyday, your clients are being told that they should get comparison quotes on everything they can, whether it is insurance, their mortgage, their internet and electricity to name a few. So, when it comes to solving their Plumbing and/or Electrician problems, why shouldn't they receive comparison quotes.

FlatRateNOW just got a lot stronger

Marcel Donnelly — Mon, 08 May 2023 03:30:00 GMT

Are you ready for some exciting news? FlatRateNOW has achieved a massive milestone by upgrading our infrastructure! Our team has been working tirelessly over the past four weeks to bring you an even more reliable and efficient service.

Buck the trend with FlatRateNOW

Marcel Donnelly — Thu, 04 May 2023 02:58:41 GMT

We know that it's been tough out there, with constant increases to interest rates, volatile material prices, and rising costs of business goods continuing into 2023. As a business owner, you've probably felt the strain of trying to keep up with these changes while still providing top-notch service to your customers.

In this blog, we will discuss how FlatRateNOW can assist you in defying these trends and will help you provide top-notch service to your customers.

Importance of Average Job Value & How the community achieves a positive $1,800 value

Marcel Donnelly — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 21:56:52 GMT

Do you know what your current Average Job Value is?

Your average Job Value is a powerful indicator for how hard you and your team must work to achieve your goals.

Store Quotes & Options for later use!

Marcel Donnelly — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 23:22:38 GMT

Sell your SimPRO Jobs using FlatRateNOW’s integrated sales tools and dynamic sales catalogue

simons@flatratenow.net (Simon Shakir) — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 04:05:13 GMT

We are excited to announce that we are now an approved integrator with one of the leading operations management solution for service, maintenance and project contractors - simPRO.

simPRO Quotes & Jobs will automatically sync with FlatRateNOW so your tradies can deliver a seamless visual sales experience to your clients.

In seconds technicians can build multiple options for the customer - each offering different solutions and/or products - and generate accurate quotes containing detailed descriptions and images that illustrate what has been selected. Achieve your best price while delivering what your customers want, every time.

Sometimes Pre-builds can be frustrating to use and time consuming to maintain. With FlatRateNOW you are able to choose from over 1,900 prebuilt Tasks, which are fully customisable on the go. Our catalogue of tasks is updated regularly and enables you to publish product images and detailed descriptions on every quote images.
Our Scratchpad tool allows you to present your quote with multiple options, which enables your customer to choose the best solution and the best price for them. Present multiple quotes with product images for each job. Improve your customers’ experience, by allowing them to understand what they are buying, and why.
Apply prices that are specific to your customer segments, whether they be Domestic, Strata, Pensioners, Regulars, or Commercial etc.
Reduce pricing questions by providing autonomy - allowing your technicians limited control over pricing by setting ‘maximum adjustment limits’.
Use the ‘Labour Adjustment feature’ to fine-tune the allocated time on each quote to better suit the specific job.
Finally, deliver an accurate quote with details description of the job, discussions, images and options that lead to Increase in Sales and Average Job Value for your trades business.

FlatRateNOW CEO, Marcel Donnelly says, "We are excited to bring our visual quoting experience that many tradies love to those that use simPRO. The integration provides a seamless experience, removing any need for double handling information between the two systems. This allows the tradies more time to focus on their customer which will inturn boost sales and provide growth for the trade business."

Together FlatRateNOW & simPRO will improve your teams’ on-site sales potential and increase customer satisfaction.

Our dedicated team is here to support and assist simPRO customers accelerate sales growth and raise average sales value while offering a better sales experience to your staff and exceptional service to your customers.

Enhance your quoting potential by leveraging over 1,900 pre-built tasks

simons@flatratenow.net (Simon Shakir) — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 04:10:58 GMT

As a business gradually grows, its aim is to continue meeting increasing market demand. The key challenge for companies working to achieve this goal is that market demands are not static. Scalability is important because expansion in business means the company is working with more customers, resources and data. Being capable of handling these increases effectively means a company can maintain the quality of its products or services and general efficiency.

One way you can scale your business is by introducing automation where lower human input is required to enhance productivity and time efficiency.

FlatRateNOW's pre-built tasks are exactly that and more!

Why you should leverage Pre-built tasks?

The FlatRateNOW's 1,900 plus pre-built tasks allows you to concentrate on other important tasks and build faster and easier quotes while on site. If your business were to take on average 20 minutes to write a single quote, you won’t get the opportunity to up-sell or present separate options because you simply won’t have enough time to do it.

All of this lost time and lost opportunity costs your business time.

Other benefits to your business include:

✔️ Pricing consistency - No matter who in your business creates the quotations, they'll all start with the same price

✔️ Reduced spelling errors - Reduce the chances of errors and present a dynamic and detailed quoted as your headings and descriptions are pre-filled in the FlatRateNOW app

✔️ Reduced pricing errors - The pre-builds calculates the prices of quotes for your tradesmen which reduces the likelihood of any pricing errors

✔️ Transparency over profitability - Analytics for reporting is as important as creating a detailed quotation. It is important to know how much profit you can expect on a job and analyse business overall growth

✔️ Control on quoting - You are in control on who you allow to quote i.e. control on pricing tiers

Click on the link below for a free demo to show you how FlatRateNOW's pre-built tasks work!

Building pre-built tasks can be challenging!

Our pre-built tasks have been designed with the averages of the task being complete thousands of times across hundreds of tradies, but we still don’t force our information on you. If you’d like to modify the FlatRateNOW tasks to better suit your business and to save you from starting from scratch, use our ‘Task Template Modifier’ feature.

If you have access to historical job information, that’ll make this part of the process much more accurate – the more data, the better the average for materials and labour.

Click on the link below to find a step-by-step guide on 'How to Modify a Task Template'

FlatRateNOW instrumental in Sid's 25% sales growth in the last 2 years!

simons@flatratenow.net (Simon Shakir) — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 04:52:34 GMT

Sid Curran, an established Owner and General Manager at Curran Plumbing, has been in the plumbing industry for over 16 years. He believes in providing a great customer experience and solving customers' issues day in and day out.

FlatRateNOW has helped Sid achieve 25% sales growth over the last two years!

Watch the full video to learn how.

Master Plumbers and Gasfitters Association of WA appoints FlatRateNOW as their quoting solution partner!

simons@flatratenow.net (Simon Shakir) — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 05:27:55 GMT

Today, we are excited to share that we have partnered with the Master Plumbers and Gasfitters Association of WA (MPGWA). Our focus is to raise the potential of tradespeople all around Australia through innovative quoting solutions and delivering exceptional customer service.

FlatRateNOW CEO, Marcel Donnelly says, “MPGWA’s focus on enhancing the professionalism of the Plumbing Industry through education and innovative technology is extremely important to ensure that their industry is not left behind. As a critical trade, many trade business owners are so busy supporting customers and resolving plumbing issues that they forget to take time for themselves and focus on improving their business. Software like ours is important as it saves time in building quotes, reducing the administrative burden and opening more time for business owners to focus on their business.”

CEO of Master Plumbers and Gasfitters Association of WA, Murray Thomas, says “The Master Plumbers and Gasfitters Association of WA (MPGWA) are pleased to announce a non-exclusive partnership with FlateRateNOW (FRN) a quoting, invoicing, pricing, payment all in one software app, designed specifically for the plumbing and electrical trades. The app integrates with most existing web-based software packages.
MPGWA has reviewed, tested FRN and firmly believes that there are significant benefits to our members when using this app. It is easy to use and is especially strong in the area of providing accurate, professional, rate-based quotations to the plumbing and electrical maintenance industry.
FRN can produce small, medium and larger size quotes, provide options of makes and models of products literally within a minute. Additionally, you can create your own customised quotes on the apps Scratch Pad. MPGWA looks forward to working with FRN and our members to further enhance professionalism in the industry.”

FlatRateNOW delivers immediate value. With simple integrations to a number of Job Management Systems, tradies can focus on developing quotations in the field with their customer and allow the systems to automatically communicate approved quotes, reducing the double handling of text, eliminating spelling mistakes and creating more time for tradies to focus on their customer.

FlatRateNOW partners with O'Brien to drive incremental sales and deliver exceptional customer service!

simons@flatratenow.net (Simon Shakir) — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 04:29:13 GMT

Today we are excited to share that we have partnered with one of the most trusted brand names in Australia in plumbing and electrical - O'Brien. Our focus is to continually innovate and evolve to deliver exceptional customer service to the O'Brien and Laser members.

FlatRateNOW CEO, Marcel Donnelly says, "Customers are wanting access to information quicker than ever before and this is forcing the trade industry to evolve rapidly. When you've been called onsite to inspect an issue or solve a problem, you are expected to deliver a quote immediately - gone are the days of "I'll get the quote to you when I'm back in the office". With FlatRateNOW, you can deliver not just one detailed quote but multiple.. right there in their kitchen. This increases your chance of success and improves customer satisfaction because you invest more time educating your customer and less time focusing on what to write."

Head of Commercial & Systems at O'Brien Electrical & Plumbing, Ashley Clemmett, says "It is great to have another innovative partner working with us to further complement our fantastic software platform Members use and Marcel and his team at FlatRateNOW have demonstrated a proven track record working with trades businesses. I believe that having FlatRateNOW available as an add-on quoting option for LaserPRO' Enterprise will provide Members with enhanced quoting outcomes while their technicians are in the field".

FlatRateNOW delivers immediate value. With the simple 'click and add' approach to building quotes, O'Brien and Laser Tradies can effortlessly develop quotations in the field that will seamlessly integrate into LaserPRO' Enterprise to save time, reduce spelling mistakes and create more time for tradies to focus on their customer.

FlatRateNOW integrating with LaserPRO' Enterprise will improve your teams' on-site quoting potential and increase customer satisfaction without making the process more difficult!