Videos to get you started
You could call client support, of course you could. But if you look through these videos on how to control and do everything in Flobot - you probably won't have to.
We are always updating this page with new videos on how to use Flobot, new features, tips and tricks. And at the bottom of the page you will find other pages that are specifically designed to show you how to use Flobot for your industry. And of course, if you want to see a video here then all you need to do is ask.
One way to look at this is the analogy of teaching a man to fish.
'Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime'.
So, learn how to do it and you won't have to keep calling support. We prefer a more aggressive approach. Think of this as basic training. All soldiers need training before they are allowed to use firearms. Flobot is a powerful weapon. Train hard and use it to obliterate your competition.
A series of 'how to use' videos for Flobot
Follow each video to get a better understanding and training on how to use Flobot for your business. From set-up to the very first time you use Flobot. Adding your users, adding your Field Team Members, adjusting your settings. The moving on to posting you first enquiry into the database, turning that into a job or order, allocating an engineer or Field Team Member to attend in the schedule, building a quote in the app or in the system or a mixture of both, sending the estimate to the client, the client accepting the quote on-line or you doing in manually, exploring the automated work-flow processes built into Flobot or choosing a manual work-flow where you create an invoice, take a payment either through a card payment system or reconcile it with a bank transfer, then creating a project sheet from the quote to share with the engineers in the field so they know what to do when they get there, exploring the options of sending automatic emails to suppliers for the products and scheduling when they will arrive, enabling the engineers to create an electronic job sheet with a signature and pictures, exploration of uploading and filling out bespoke form designs and 3rd party applications and attaching them to the job-sheets, receiving a completed e-job-sheet form the field engineer and sending it to the client automatically, sending the final payment and closing the job. And we will talk about the client app, engineer apps, estimators apps and client portals too. Probably one of the longest sentences in the World there!
Let's make a start with the settings.
A video on how to add a price list
Flobot allows you to upload a list of your prices. You can use this price list as a reference or make it appear in the quote so that you don't have to remember the prices as you build a line item estimate. And you can make a buy price - that is the price you buy the item for and a sell price - obviously the price that you sell that item to the client.
Price lists items don;t just mean physical items, they include fitting prices, services, waste disposal, fixed prices, parking, congestion, whatever that might be.
How to use the dashboard
The first thing you will see when you login to you Flobot account each morning is the Dashboard. The dashboard has a number of very useful tabs that give you an overview of how your business is looking. A snapshot if you will.
Waiting for a jobsheet, how many engineers you have available, how many quotes you have sent that you have not had any information on from your clients, alerts on jobs that need attention. It also has a dashboard that shows where your engineers or field team members are now, what device they are using and this is displayed on Google maps.
Finally you have the support and help buttons.
How to use the search bar
Flobot has a very useful search bar that allows you to search for your records in the CRM database. But it allows you to search from some very specific entries. Obviously you can search for your client by name, postcode, zip code, telephone number, email address and order number.
But you can search for invoices, accounts, po numbers, user defined numbers, accounts with appointments on them and without, sites, nicknames and quotes.
Very fast and very powerful.
Videos on how to use the schedule
The schedule is the heart of the system in Flobot. It allows you to make appointments for estimators and field team members of course, deliveries, collections, dismantling scaffolds etc. But it can also be used to allow a client to select a time they would like their service or an appointment for a visit. I can also be used to see when deliveries are being received into the warehouse for example. Or because it is so visual, it an even be used to see when projects have been completed, when an electronic job-sheet has been submitted or even when a job has been paid.
How to make an appointment
Build and view schedules in real time. A guide on how to make an appointment for an estimate or a job.
The right people in the right place at the right time. Flobot enables you to schedule your field team in real time while your customer is on the phone, eliminating the need for you to spend hours building schedules to work out who to send where. When a customer requests a specific type of job, Flobot presents only the field team members who are capable of fulfilling that job and who cover that area. It means you always send the right field team member to the job - every time.How to make multiple appointments
Flobot. How to make an appointment for lots of engineers in the same time slot. For example if you need a team of service engineers on one job then you want to be able to select lots of engineers so they can all go together.
How cosy! This video has no sound by the way..
How to unblock slots in the schedule
People go on holiday and people can't work certain days. This video shows you how to block and unblock the slots in the schedules of your Field Team Members (FTM) in Flobot.
If the slots are blocked it is telling you that for whatever reason, this engineer of field team member is not available for work and you can't book them for a job..
How to leave admin notes in the calendar
There are many times when you just want to leave a quick note for yourself or other people in the admin team about an event that is happening on a certain day. A good place to do this is to leave it in the calendar itself. After all, in field service companies the calendar is key.
This is a short video on how to do just that.
How to use the capacity schedule
Sometimes you don't want to allocate an appointment or a job to a field team member (engineer) right away. You may want to see how many jobs you have and then allocate them all out in one go. Or perhaps the client has requested a time to have the job done form the automated job acceptance email we have in Flobot.
In which case you need to know how to use the capacity schedule. It's like an overflow or management schedule and this video shows you how it works and how to use it..
How to make internal meeting appointments
Sometimes you just want to use one program for scheduling. Instead of using Outlook or Gmail for internal meetings for the admin team you might want to use Flobot. Or you might want to get some of the field team involved with the meeting at the office or shop or warehouse.
Flobot is not really designed to do this but it is a hack. Whatever you want it for it is, this is how to do it.
Videos on how to build quotes
Building and sending professional quotes and estimates is the life-blood of a service business. Flobot has a fantastic, comprehensive quote building tool that allows you to store every quote in one place, get the quote accepted by the client with an acceptance of the terms and conditions and then uses that quote as the basis of the legal agreement between the vendor and the customer and then turns it into a project sheet so the engineer can do the work.
How to make a dynamic quote template
A video showing you how to make a dynamic quote of estimate in Flobot so you can use it again and again. Dynamic means that like an excel file you can link the ratios of your materials and labour. So change one value and have them all change in one go.
This a nice time-saving feature. It means that you can get a brand new estimate or quote out to your client in a very short amount of time..
How to build a remote quote
Sometimes you just don't to go to the property to make a quote or estimate. Sometimes you simply can't. Like now with the Coronavirus and the quarantine.
But you still need to keep the business ticking over - even if you can't provide the service yet you can prepare for the time when the pandemic is over and get that estimate to your client.
Use the The Flobot Whatsapp module to build a remote quote.
Videos on adding an enquiry
When you need to take a customer into the database for the first time, this is how you do it. You may have a form that enters the data straight from the website into the enquiry. But if you have someone call up and want to purchase a service from you for the first time, then this is how you do it.
How add a new customer enquiry
The enquiry screen is fully customizable in Flobot but this video show you how to take a brand new customer into the CRM. Once they are in the database you can allocate field engineers to them, send invoices etc.
Also it shows the to-do list. This is a nice list of recent enquiries that you can collate handling stats on. It means ou can see how fast your customers are being serviced and of course it is kept in one place so you don't lose any enquiries.
Videos on the Flobot field app
The Flobot field app is an integral part of the whole system. It allows th office admin team and the field team to share data about the nature of the job. When the job takes place, where, what to do when you get there, what to do when you have finished. And it gets images and signatures form the client into the system to share with the client, for reference and for storage.
How to login to the Flobot App and submit the job sheet
This is a basic video of showing how to login to the “Flobot Field Service App” and submit the job sheet from the app by Field team member and locate the submitted job sheet from the Flobot web system.
Videos on payments and invoicing
You can easily create and send invoices to your client with Flobot. You can also send invoices to your accounts software such as Quickbooks and Xero. And you can receive information form those accounts packages back into Flobot. Whats more, you can take card payments directly into Flobot with Sagepay or reconcile other payments such as bank transfers, cheques, cash, card machines and even Bitcoin if you want to.
Simple invoicing on Flobot
Flobot allows you to upload a list of your prices. You can use this price list as a reference or make it appear in the quote so that you don't have to remember the prices as you build a line item estimate. And you can make a buy price - that is the price you buy the item for and a sell price - obviously the price that you sell that item to the client.
Price lists items don't just mean physical items, they include fitting prices, services, waste disposal, fixed prices, parking, congestion, whatever that might be.
How to take payments and reconcile payments in Flobot
Flobot allows you to take cad payments directly into the system. Of course, you will need a payment gateway installed from Sagepay and a merchant bank of course. This video shows you how to take a manual payment from a card into Flobot or perhaps send a payment link to your customer so they can pay online.
The video also shows how you can reconcile other kinds of payment into the system. Cash, cheques, bank transfer (BACS) or even a hand-held card payment machine..
Videos on small changes
You might call it house keeping. Just the little things you need to tweak and change every so often, how to change passwords, turn things on and off, add templates, emails to clients etc. This is a section on how to do those things.
Flobot training for specific industries
Software training for scaffolders - Flobot training and 'how to' video especially for scaffolding companies.
Software training for carpet fitters - Flobot training and 'how to' video especially for flooring shops.
Software training for removals companies - Flobot training and 'how to' video especially for removal companies.
Learning how to use Flobot
We have hundreds of videos that will show you and teach you how to use Flobot effectively and of course they are a great way to learn.
However, it's not the only way. We have a first class support system if you get stuck at any stage just get in touch with them. We also run regular work-shops, provide screen-share one-to one guidance and we can even visit you on site to train your office staff and field engineers.
And that might be anywhere in the World. Because if we can't get to you, maybe one of our partners can.
