Coming in October: Exciting new features to run your business and help you grow

Important updates for U.S. providers slated for release October 27, 2022

Take charge from your new ServiceChannel homepage

Starting October 27, when you login to ServiceChannel, you’ll have a complete, at-a-glance overview of your current business — right from your NEW ServiceChannel homepage.

Here’s everything you need at your fingertips to stay on top with your customers and grow your business.

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Figure 1. Your new ServiceChannel homepage puts everything you need at your fingertips to stay on top with your customers and grow your business.

Manage work orders with ease

Your new homepage gives you the transparency and insight you need to focus your work day, further streamline operations and make your customers happy.

• See at a glance the status of all work orders, proposals and invoices. See all, or filter by client or creation date.

• Easily spot situations like no shows, late arrivals, or work orders with no action in the past week. See at a glance how your business is performing so you can take action to resolve issues and improve.

Optimize for growth 

Keep track of everything you need to take advantage of the unique opportunity ServiceChannel provides to win new business.

• Monitor the strength of your business profile. Make quick updates so the right new customers can find you.

• Easily see and track invitations from new customers so you can be sure to respond before they expire.

• Track your progress toward compliance with client requirements to streamline onboarding and build trust with your customers.

TAKE ACTION:

Watch for your new homepage coming October 27. Use it to plan your day, spot potential issues, track invoices and proposals, see and respond promptly to invites and messages from potential new customers, manage your compliance and keep your business profile up to date.

Respond to questions from potential new customers via text or online chat

Today, when a potential new customer finds you in search, if you have a mobile phone number on file with ServiceChannel, the customer can text you questions right from search.

Starting October 27, these messages will also appear in the message section of the ServiceChannel web app in a new online chat feature.

How it works   

A prospective customer sends you a question from your profile in search via a new online chat feature.

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Figure 2. The customer sends you a question right from your profile in search.

You get and respond to their message. If your mobile device is on file with ServiceChannel you’ll get a text message and can respond as always by text. Starting October 27, there will also be an alert in your ServiceChannel web app that you have a message.

To see your messages in the app, click on the Message icon (speech bubble) in the upper right of the navigation bar. You’ll see all pending messages, organized by client name and recency and can respond through the new online chat.

Figure 3. See all pending messages in the message center of your ServiceChannel web app and respond through a new online chat.

Email sent to your main contacts. To help ensure there are no missed opportunities, we’ll also send an email notification to the contacts who are listed as primary contact or financial authority on your account.

Figure 4. The primary contact and financial authorities listed on your account will also receive an email notification that a message is waiting.

This new chat feature will ensure that you can resolve simple questions quickly and connect faster with a new client.  You’re more likely to get invited to work and the invitations you receive will better match your skills, making it easy to say “Yes” to new business opportunities.

TAKE ACTION:

Reply to messages quickly using your mobile phone, or by logging into ServiceChannel and going to the Messages section. Note, if you don’t respond to messages within 14 days, the chat feature will be automatically disabled for your account.

Update your business profile if necessary to include the name and mobile phone number of the person responsible for new business opportunities. Login, click on the Profile tab and go to the Business Information section.

If your mobile phone is not the one listed with ServiceChannel, watch your email inbox for alerts about these messages from potential customers, then reply quickly online.

Faster, easier way to assign resolution and root cause codes related to a specific asset

Entering the right codes at the close of a work order to identify the cause of the problem and how you solved it helps you and your customers spot patterns and predict and prevent problems before they happen.

Starting October 27, if your work order contains an asset, you see a subset of codes that apply just to that type of asset, making it faster and easier to find the right code.

How it works

When you’re ready to check out of a work order, click “Stop” and you’ll see a short list of asset categories. You can scroll or enter a keyword to find the right category.

Click on the asset category to see a list of related resolution codes. You can scroll or enter a keyword to further refine the list of codes. Select up to 3 resolution codes that best describe the work you completed on the work order.

Then follow the same process to choose a root cause code.

TAKE ACTION:

Show your technicians how to use this new time-saving feature and make sure they always add the resolution and root cause codes when a work order is completed. 

Reminder: ServiceChannel mobile app support has been discontinued for older iOS and Android versions

As we announced earlier this summer, starting in August we stopped issuing bug fixes and enhancements to the ServiceChannel mobile app for Apple devices using iOS versions lower than 14.0 or devices using Android OS versions lower than 9.0.

TAKE ACTION: If you or any of your technicians are still using an Apple device with an operating system older than iOS 14.0 or an Android device with an operating system lower than 9.0, make sure these devices are updated as soon as possible with the latest operating system supported by the device.

Note that Apple devices prior to the iPhone 6S (iPhones more than 7 years old) and some Android devices cannot be updated with the required OS versions. To receive ongoing ServiceChannel mobile updates, including bug fixes, security updates and other enhancements, these older devices need to be replaced with newer models.

Helpful links if you’re not sure of your software version:

·        For iPhones

·        For Android devices

Find the software version on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod

You can find the version of iOS, iPadOS, or iPod software installed on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your device or by using your computer.

Check & update your Android version

You can find your device's Android version number, security update level, and Google Play system level in your Settings app. You'll get notifications when updates are available for you.