Stephen Sowa owns a small commercial swimming pool company based in Addison, IL and he uses Backpack to inventory equipment, send reminders to contact clients, and more. Stephen tells us more:
How do you use Backpack and why do you like it?
One very frustrating thing we run into is one of our clients calls us to get a piece of equipment fixed, but they do not know the specifics on that piece, i.e. heater, pump, filter.
We used to either rely on memory, or we would have to wait until the engineer got back to us with the information. Sometimes they would give us correct information, but most of the time not. So we would have to drive to the facility and gather information. Sometimes we would have to tear apart a pump to see if the updates had been done, because this dictates which parts we need. As you can see, we would waste a lot of time just gathering information when we could be repairing.
Enter Backpack. I use Backpack to inventory all their equipment, model numbers, serial numbers and any odd parts that facility has. Now when a client calls us all we need is what that piece of equipment operates. I then can log into Backpack via my Blackberry and get all the information I need to pick up parts on the way to the job site. The minimal amount of money we pay for Backpack has returned itself many times over in productivity.
Which features do you use most?
I use the reminders a lot. I have all my families birthdays in there. I also use it to remind me to contact customers. When customers shut down their pools for the winter and I know I need to contact them well before summer starts to quote them on something, I set a reminder. I also use them to remind myself to shop around for insurance, and I upload the contact information into it own file. Now I know when I need to start making calls and where they are at.
I also use linking. Any project I have going on I put it on my front page and then create a link to the file. This way I don't forget about it, and I don't have to wade through my pages sidebar to find it.
What did you use before and why did you switch?
I used nothing prior to Backpack. I needed something that was highly customizable, inexpensive and portable. Before I had a Blackberry I used a phone and a Palm. I would never keep my Palm on me because I had no where to keep it where it would be safe. Not only that but database programs did not fill my needs, swimming pools and spas have a lot of the same equipment, but it does vary. Each facility is it's own unique person. When I first heard about 37signals, I checked it out that evening and started playing around with it. Then when I found out it was mobile, I was in heaven. Now I could access the information anytime and anywhere I had cell service. Backpack was inexpensive, mobile and highly customizable.
Tell us a story about a project where Backpack really helped you out.
I received a call from one of my hotels to fix their heater on a Friday night. If that wasn't bad enough I was leaving on vacation in a couple of hours. When I got to the hotel I was able to quickly fix the heater. But as I walked up to the pump room I could here the bearings starting to grind on the pool pump. I knew the motor was going to take a crap while I was on vacation. On my way home I called a service tech friend of mine to let him know that he was probobley going to have a service call while I was gone. I told him that I would email him the page on the account, and he would have all the information he needed to fix the pump. I then called my office and my motor shop to let them know what was going on, and emailed them the same page. Sure enough, two days after I left, the pump motor went out, and everybody had the information they needed to make the job go smoothly. And the best part about it is that I didn't know the pump went out until after I got back from vacation.
Thanks Stephen!
Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.
