We're being asked by one of our commercial customers to" check-in" and "check-out" by phone over a system called "Service Channel." They say it will not effect our invoicing system, which is by the hour or any portion there of.?? We haven't even started and I'm not comfortable with this already. Have not heard any good things about this outfit. Any experiences with this??

Is this for a national account that handles retail customers? We have 12-15 customers that require us to check-in and out by phone. They will then only pay that amount of time. We charge a "trip charge" on each service call, so it hasen't really caused a problem, unless the guys forget to call. No call, no pay.
Richard

I've never heard of it.

I can't wait to find out how it works..
And why..


Dnk..

Looks like a way of outsourcing the tracking of service work for facilities managers. Check out this link:
http://www.servicechannel.com/

Radar

"If you dress it up real pretty, they will come."

Yes Sparky, that's the customer base they have. We have a trip charge and a 1 hour min so it probably won't effect us much. We cound never allow a pay by the minute scheme and that's what I'm hearing about this service. I can't even imaging sending out an invoice for 17 minutes!!
Sparky - That is not what you meant when you say the "pay that amount of time".. is it??

Not really pay by the minute, but if I am clocked in for 59 minutes and bill for 1.5 hours, they take a half hour off. I don't do much service anymore, but this morning I ran a quick call. Service Channel is who I had to check in with. It was a real pain. Is Network Services the national you are dealing with?