Barrierline

Find a customer, add one and read their page

For the office

Open Customers to find anyone you serve, add a new customer, and open their page.

Find a customer

Type in the box on the Customers page. It looks at name, address, phone and email. Search at the top of any page looks at name, address and phone, and you pick a match to open it. The chips All, Owes, No plan and Due this month narrow the list, and the sort menu orders it by customer, last visit, next visit or what they owe. A customer whose plans are all paused shows Plan paused in the Plan column. Once someone is paused, cancelled or marked do not service, chips for Paused, Cancelled and Do not service appear with how many are in each. A customer who left shows a pill beside their name, such as Cancelled Oct 3, and a cancelled row is dimmed. They are still in All and found by name, and what they owe still shows. They are not counted under No plan or Due this month. A Next visit that says Booked is a visit on the schedule; one that says Due by plan means their plan has them due and it is not on the schedule yet. If you type a phone number nobody has, the page says “No customer has that number” and offers Add them as a new customer, with the number already in the form. The same goes for the search at the top of any page.

Add a customer

  1. Press Add a customer.
  2. Type the Name. It is the only thing you must fill in.
  3. Add the Service address, Kind of property, Phone and Email.
  4. Add For the tech, on every visit, such as a gate code, the dog or where to park. (A move-in fills this from a Gate/Notes column in your sheet.)
  5. Add Office notes if you want them.
  6. Press Save.

For the tech, on every visit goes to the techs’ phones. Office notes never do. To bring in everyone at once, press Move in from your old system on the Customers page. See which files to export.

Read a customer’s page

The top strip shows Plan, Next visit, Owes and Last tech. For a customer you moved in who has no visit here yet, it also shows Last visit with the date from your old system. On the left are their contact details, Email and reminders (whether they agreed to get email: see email), For the tech, on every visit, and Money, where you can press Bill now for finished visits, Record a payment or start a New invoice (see billing). Mark OK to email covers invoices, receipts, visit reports and visit reminders, and a customer who is paused, cancelled or marked do not service gets no reminder.

The tabs are Visits, Plans, Warranties, Stations, Feedback, Contract and Their page. Click a visit to open its record. Plans is covered in plans and Their page in customer-page.

If you moved in from other software, Visits also has Before the switch. Those older visits are only for reading.

Customers who asked not to be texted

Under a customer’s details, Texts says whether their phone number is on your do-not-text list. Press Change to: they asked not to be texted (add how they asked, if you like) or Change to: we decided not to text them (say why, so the next person knows). The number goes on the list with the day, who put it there and where it came from: your old software, the customer, or your office. To take it off, press Change to: they asked to be texted again and say why. What the customer asked for (or your old software said) only the owner can take off. Nothing is deleted: a number that came off the list stays in the record with who took it off and why.

The list is by phone number, not by customer, so it still holds if the customer’s details change, and a customer who shares that number is on it too. If a customer’s phone box holds more than one number, the list covers each of them: a text is not offered when any one is on it, and putting the customer on the list puts each number on it. If a number came from your old software and the customer asks again later, their own request replaces it on the list, so undoing the move-in never takes it off. The Customers list marks them No texts. A tech’s phone offers no text to a number on the list, even with no signal, and the stop says so; a change you make reaches it the next time it syncs. The owner’s phone checks when it opens a customer, and offers a text only once it knows. Calling is still fine. Barrierline does not send texts itself yet, so the list is how your own phones keep from offering one. The list is in Download everything as do-not-text.csv.

Pause, cancel or stop serving a customer

Open the customer and press Change status. Pick one:

  • Active: they are a customer. This is how you bring someone back.
  • Paused: for now, such as a snowbird or a hold until they pay. You can add the day you expect them back. It is only shown. Nothing resumes by itself.
  • Cancelled: they are done with you. Pick why: the price, they moved, went with another company, unhappy with the service, the pest is gone, something else, they didn’t pay, or their business closed. A reason is optional, except that Something else needs a short note.
  • Do not service: they are never to be booked again. A note is required, so the next person who answers the phone knows why.

Add a note if it helps, and the day it started if it was not today. The two boxes Pause their plans and Cancel their booked visits show how many each is. They are ticked, and for do not service they always are. A visit a tech has already started stays as it is, and the form says how many. A tech’s phone with no signal may have started or finished a visit you just cancelled: the finished visit goes on the record as done, never refused, and the Inbox tells you (finished a visit you had cancelled). No new visit books for the customer. Visits are cancelled, never deleted, so they stay on the customer’s page. If you untick Cancel their booked visits but leave Pause their plans ticked, the visits the plans booked still come off with the plans, cancelled; only visits you booked by hand stay. Press Save status. The page says what it did, such as “Maria Gonzalez is cancelled (the price). 2 plans paused, 3 visits cancelled.”

Active again resumes nothing. Their plans stay paused until you press Resume on each one in the Plans tab. When you do, the plan books its days again, including the days of visits that were cancelled when the status changed. Visits you booked by hand and cancelled stay cancelled; book them again if they are still wanted.

To fix a wrong reason, note or day, open Change status, pick the status they already have, and save. The reason, note and days are filled in for you. It adds a line to Status history and does not count as a second customer lost.

Under the customer’s details, Status history lists every change: when, from and to, why, who made it, and what it took off. It can’t be edited.

What each status does:

  • Plans do not book visits for a customer who is paused, cancelled or marked do not service. Fill from plans and the nightly booking skip them and say so.
  • Booking by hand for a paused or cancelled customer is allowed, because you may be booking a one-off or winning them back. The screen warns first and has Make them active. For a customer marked do not service, nobody can book a visit: Schedule a visit and Add a stop say so before you type anything. The owner’s phone says it too: Book a visit shows the same warning above the day, and for do not service the Book it button stays off. Change a status on the office website.
  • Renewals and the Inbox warnings about a termite bond ending leave out a customer who is cancelled or marked do not service, and a renewal invoice is not made for them. Their bond stays on their Warranties tab (see warranties).
  • Might leave drops them. Reports counts them as customers lost, with the reasons, next to the plans stopped (see reports). Their own page says the account is closed and gives your number. That page does not show a termite bond or warranty either, so give them a copy first if they still hold one (see customer-page).

There is no switch that holds visits until a customer pays, and nothing is sent to a customer or chased. To hold visits for someone who isn’t paying, pause them with the reason They didn’t pay.

Book a visit from the customer

Press Schedule a visit. It starts from their plan’s service, tech and window. When the address is found on the map, it also shows up to three techs who already have a stop close by (“Near them now” for today, “Near them that day” for another day). Click one to pick that tech and the hour after the stop they already have there. You can change the time. If Time window is empty when you press Book it, it asks What time should we tell them? Type the hours, or choose Any time that day. The confirmation then ends with what to tell the customer, such as “Tell them 9:45 to 10:45 AM.” The visit goes to the end of that tech’s route.

A visit that could not be done

It shows in red on the customer’s page. Put back on route asks who takes it (the same tech to begin with) and when (Anytime, after their current stop to begin with, or a set time), then says where it went and gives you an Undo.

Who might leave

Under Customers, click Might leave. It lists customers who are active, with a plan running, once signs of trouble add up. A rating of 1 or 2 stars is enough by itself. The others count together: callbacks, two or more stops that couldn’t be done, money more than 60 days late, a bond or warranty that ended without a renewal, and two or more asks from their page to move a visit. Each reason is written out.

Call has their number. Press We talked and they come off the list until something new happens. Undo shows for a few seconds after.

Still stuck? Email help@barrierline.com.