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August 15, 2011

Socket – Automated Price Quotes

Sending out price quotes and estimates is just a part of doing business for many companies, however the process of creating custom quotes and emailing them to prospective clients can easily become a drain on both resources and time. Socket is an quoting system that automates the process of sending out price quotes to reduce workloads on overburdened entrepreneurs, while also making any company’s pricing information more accessible to curious customers at the same time.

Socket isn’t an app that will work for every company, however its features and tools can help people in a number of industries save time and money. If you find yourself sending out price quotes for the same services on a regular basis, then Socket is an app that might work for you. Add information about all the products and services you offer – including titles, descriptions, and basic pricing details – and create quote forms where those products and services will appear. Once you’ve created all the quote forms you need, you can integrate them with your existing company website in just a few simple clicks. The quotes creates with Socket are completely branded, and they’re created in a way that encourages customers to order immediately and pay for their products and services on your company site. The web-app even stores analytics information – making it possible for companies to follow up with customers who dropped off the radar after obtaining their instant quotes.

Customers who visit company websites that use Socket can get access to pricing information for virtually any service immediately just by filling out basic contact forms and listing the services or products they’re interested in obtaining. Instant quotes are sent to customers’ email inboxes as PDFfiles with specific instructions on which steps to take next to schedule an appointment or order the services as described. Payments can be made directly on business’ websites, eliminating any of the traditional barriers to obtaining products and services online.

Practical Uses:

  • Give immediate price quotes to people who are interested in your company
  • Offer estimates to customers who want to hire your yard maintenance company for regular work
  • Follow up with customers who asked for quotes but failed to schedule any work
  • Spend less time in front of a computer and more time managing paying jobs

Insider Tips:

  • Instant price quotes are send as PDF files via email
  • Socket’s quoting system can be used externally with clients or internally among sales employees
  • Analytics tools show business owners which potential customers asked for quotes
  • Socket integrates with MailChimp and Constant Contact

What we liked:

  • Instant quotes can be integrated into any site by copy/pasting a few lines of code
  • Quotes can be built by dragging and dropping individual services or items into place
  • Socket makes it easy for companies to accept payments online
  • Customers can enter discount codes when asking for instant quotes

What we didn’t like:

  • Users who exceed their usage limits twice will be automatically upgraded to a more expensive plan

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: May 2011 (Beta)
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: Vancouver, British Columbia
  • Founded by: Deversus Software
  • Web site: http://www.socketapp.com

Costs:

  • Battery plan is $29/month
  • Generator plan is $59/month
  • Tower plan is $99/month
  • Station plan is $249/month
  • Grid plan is $749/month

Comments

  1. I love the layout of this site and how it explains the product – great design. The names of the plans are quirky too.

  2. Thanks for the review! Just an FYI, Socket also integrates with Salesforce and Highrise.

  3. GPS Commander uses Socket to allow our prospective GPS tracking customers to generate real-time accurate and professional quotations right from our website. Then, if they want to become a customer of ours, they simply click the Buy Now button right in the GPS Commander branded PDF quote they received from our site and they are taken to a professional check-out. Socket makes our products and pricing much more accessible to the public. We can also designate some of our quote forms for internal use only, allowing our sales people to quickly crank out custom, professional quotations, while keeping our sales people and corporate branding consistent. We highly recommend Socket-App.com!

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