#pocketsuite

We just launched v1.2 of PocketSuite and it is time to update everyone on what’s new in this release. Also we are going to start a tradition of blogging every time we launch a product update.

Build your Network - PocketSuite can now be used to find service professionals referred and recommended by your friends. Invite and connect with your friends on PocketSuite to increase the number of recommended photographers, DJs, dog trainers, etc.. in your network. Get notified when they join the network. We are bringing back the traditional and trusted way of finding referred professionals and making it fun, social, and mobile. Your dashboard now shows you everyone who’s either invited you to join PocketSuite or who you’ve invited to join PocketSuite. Add any service providers you want to book, pay, or refer to your friends and make sure you leave them a good review after you pay them. They will appreciate it!

Reviews - now when you make a payment in the app, you can rate the service and enter a short review of the service provider. If it makes sense (i.e. landscaper remodeled your yard) you can also take a picture and attach it to the review. Reviews are public and anyone connected to you or the service provider can read them. Only paying customers can review a service provider so make sure you book and pay them using PocketSuite otherwise you won't be able to leave a review.

"Smart" Service Provider Search - we search across all the nearby certified service providers in the PocketSuite community whenever you search for appointment availability. However, we crunch through all the signals in our system (real-time availability, pricing history, how long they have been in the system, how many transactions they have, how long it takes for them to respond, their review history, etc..) to rank the service providers. This saves you time and makes the selection process easier. We made this process even smarter in this release. Now we rank service providers you have rated in the past higher because generally speaking most people prefer to stick with the people they know and like. You can always specify a service provider to book directly in which case we only consider whether they are available for the times you want to book. Here comes the best part: we rank any service providers rated by your friends higher than service providers rated by complete strangers. As we learned in our recent blog post (http://bit.ly/1aPfnyu), most people trust reviews made by people they know more than reviews made from complete strangers. We believe a smart mobile app for delivering convenience to consumers and productivity to businesses should automate this process a little bit for everyone. 

Calendar Sync - we now automatically sync your PocketSuite appointments (bookings) with your local calendar. Any bookings created in PocketSuite will be added to a new calendar on your phone called “PocketSuite” and will appear on your calendar with the rest of your meetings and events. To enable this, simply grant PocketSuite access to your calendar when you’re prompted.

Cancel Appointments - you can now cancel any appointment in PocketSuite that hasn’t yet been billed. Once you cancel an appointment it will no longer appear in your calendar or on the dashboard.

Enhanced User Profile - we now allow everyone to enter a short bio or description of themselves which is publicly available. We also make it easy to explore who's connected to who. You can now go hunting through your friend's network to find the handyman they were referring to the other day who did such an amazing job repairing their kitchen sink. For increased transparency, you can also see the payment history and booking history for each person to get a sense of how much activity they've conducted on the system. The more activity they have the higher they will rank when you go searching in the app for a service provider. Finally we include the review history for everyone on their profile. These are public so you can read each and every review for that person. Note that only paid customers can leave reviews for them so these are definitely legit. 

Bug Fixes, Minor Enhancements - Thanks to several of our users for reporting these issues:

You can now send bills or payments with fractional dollar amounts (i.e. $105.88)

You can now zero out the total on an invoice and it will no longer show up on the dashboard

You can now tap to open links, email, and map addresses. This makes it easier to send links (i.e. Dropbox files, web pages) to other users and have them open them in PocketSuite.

Added confirmation to several screens: send payment, send bill, book client, and invite contacts

The booking rate field is now optional (this field is used to provide an estimate to clients who book you directly through the app)

The registration process has been simplified (bank and credit card setup moved out of registration)

We also updated our website for this release. We're excited about this release and we have a lot more surprises in the works that we will be announcing in the coming weeks so stay tuned.

The holy grail of every fortune 1000 CEO is the executive dashboard: a single view of all the key metrics used to run their company. We live in a post information age defined by an overabundance of data and information well beyond our capacity to digest much less act on it.

The executive dashboard is one solution to this problem. It is a summary view of the top 3 to 6 metrics for any given company. In addition to standard metrics like revenue and profit, most of the key metrics that show up on the executive dashboard are industry specific. 

Enterprise software companies for example care about their pipeline which is an estimate of future sales based on the number of deals in progress. Retailers care about their inventory turnover ratio which is a measure of how quickly it takes for them to sell out inventory. Airlines care about their average load factor which is a measure of the percentage of available seats that are filled during each flight. Consulting firms care about utilization which is the percentage of overall consultant hours that are billable to a client project.

Enterprise software companies like Oracle, SAP, and NetSuite provide executive dashboard capabilities for large and midsize companies as part of the enterprise resource planning systems they offer. Professional service firms and accounting software makers like Intuit provide similar capabilities for small businesses that can afford it. For the remaining 99% of the small business and freelance community, executive dashboards are a luxury they cannot afford.

Mobile professionals (independent business owners who spend more than 40% of their time away from their office) in particular have it hard because they’re required to make key decisions while on the go and away from their office or traditional sources of information. This is why we decided to build the world's first mobile executive dashboard here at PocketSuite.

The mobile executive dashboard today shows you how much money people owe you, how much money you’ve made, and how many upcoming appointments you have with clients. This is the cornerstone of the PocketSuite user experience bringing peace of mind, security, and control to freelancers and independent business owners on the go.

As a helpful overview for those looking to hire a plumber, a dog walker, a DJ, a caterer, or any other service provider, we took the liberty of laying out the most popular and helpful options available for consumers.

Now, there are pros and cons in all aspects of your search for the right service professional. Some are free, some are costly. Some are review-based, some are more broker-types. We (at PocketSuite) have our own biases, but we’ll leave it up to the consumer to choose what he/she prefers as the fun, easy and trustworthy way to find the right professional that fits his/her needs.

Free Directories / Search

Yellow Pages / SuperPages – The traditional and classic “Yellow Pages” model, but now online. These sites are simply listing sites, with very limited “ratings” systems. Not much more to say on these platforms, as Yellow Pages have been around for decades. Lacking the social aspect puts these platforms at a disadvantage, so much so that the Dex Media (which owns SuperPages) stock price (Nasdaq: DXM) has performed like the Yellow Pages…it’s disappearing…

Craigslist – You can hire, find, and buy pretty much anything and anyone on Craigslist. In terms of hiring “professionals”, it’s a great site for low-skilled labor on short notice. You can target location, job/gig type, and comb through many options available. Not to mention you can even create any type of task you want and put a price on it – a reverse search process. The downside with Craigslist is that you don’t quite know what type of person or product you’ll be getting. No real reviews or profiles or ratings or even a vetting process.

Paid Directories

Angie’s List – Angie’s List is a platform that allows users to access more “trusted reviews” of businesses, but in exchange charges a monthly (or annual) fee. These reviews are “trusted” because you have to provide your name and contact info when submitting a review, so in theory you get reviews from folks who have actually used the professionals. This is how they can charge people to use the platform. However, there is an enormous conflict of interest as those same providers getting “reviewed” are the ones paying money to advertise on Angie’s List. Hmm…

Consumer Review

Yelp – Yelp is free for both users and businesses, and is probably the most popular review website on the internet today. Anyone can post any reviews on any business and rate said business on a scale of 1-5 stars. The authenticity of Yelp reviews have also come under fire, so the rule of thumb is the more reviews the better in terms of gauging the accuracy of business reviews. You are trusting the masses to write an accurate depiction of a business, as opposed to a friend’s recommendation or review.

Social Media

Facebook – Ever heard of it? Facebook is great for questions and posts like “Anyone know a good plumber in the Mission of San Francisco?” Over the course of those next couple days you’ll get responses from friends you’re connected to – some you trust, some you don’t. This type of question is very popular, especially when traveling re places to eat and stay. The downside is Facebook isn’t meant to cater to people looking for service providers, so a lot of useful search/review/book/payment functionalities for consumers just aren’t there. Not to mention when you want to find a plumber to fix a leaking toilet, you don’t want to sit and wait for your friends to respond with a variety of options…you want that plumber NOW!

Twitter – Twitter is a great place to source any type of information about pretty much anything. That’s a vague description, but Twitter in itself is just an open platform for people to share information real-time. In terms of finding the right service pro, Twitter is a pretty useful platform to search for customer feedback and gauge sentiment on a professional or small business. You can also search “DJ” in the search bar, and comb through various tweets and DJ’s on twitter. The issue with Twitter is that there’s so much information on the platform, that you end up doing a lot of leg-work combing through people’s thoughts on various businesses, and then actively search out the contact info of said professionals.

MarketPlace Options

Elance / Thumbtack / etc. – These types of websites are similar in that they are designed to pole the client and ask what services he or she needs upfront, then match them up with the appropriate service provider or independent worker. The business models all differ a bit in terms of who they charge (i.e., some charge clients to post a job, others take a % of the business’s fee, or simply  a fee for lead generation), and also in terms the skillsets of the independent workers recommended (i.e, an experienced graphic designer vs. someone to purchase your groceries). This is a helpful tool, but you’re trusting each of these platforms to set you up with the “right” providers. Reviews and ratings simply aren’t a priority on these sites. Not to mention, most don’t have app versions, so you’re usually tied to your desk doing your search that could take 5-10 site pages of refining your search to finally get to a potential lead. And once you use a professional you like, you won’t go back to this marketplace process…You’ll simply call up that same professional directly for more work down the road.

Real-Time Booking, Payments, and Reviews Tied to Social Graph

PocketSuite – The PocketSuite app is new and free for all (both clients and businesses). It’s designed to take everything revolving around hiring a worker or freelancer (i.e., the discovery, booking, communication, payment, etc.) and make it easy and mobile. PocketSuite lets you search for business providers in the classical sense – you search based on businesses or professionals your friends have used and love. You can also search by proximity and availability as well (i.e., if you don’t have any friends). Then when you find your desired hire, you can book, communicate and then pay all via text. Don’t worry about carrying around cash or writing a check or managing papers & receipts. The PocketSuite app makes the process from initial discovery to payment trustworthy, fun and super easy.