You need to call a company for help with a product, or have a few questions. You grow tense – you know the drill. You are prepared for battle, hoping you choose the “right” phone extension option to get the answers you need. Choosing Sales will probably connect you to a very happy and friendly person ready to take your credit card number but may not be able to answer your questions.

Choosing the Support option usually means you’ll talk with someone who is far from friendly and makes you feel as if you’ve interrupted their day (and that’s even after you’ve been on hold for 30 minutes just to talk with them).

That’s not the case with us.

There’s a reason why we don’t use a phone menu system to corral you into a Sales or Support queue – it doesn’t matter – you talk to the same people no matter the nature of your call.  Often times sales calls turn into a support call with specific questions and walk throughs.  Likewise, support calls can turn into a sales call when a customer decides they need an upgrade, extra license, or online backup.  Good customer service is helping people solve their problems through the best solution, before or after the sale.

Nathan Boles helping CattleMax customers

Our customer service team has used CattleMax for years for their own cattle, so they know the ins and outs to get you through problems you may run across. And, since they’re producers just like you who were once looking for the same type of solution themselves, they also know how to answer your sales questions to make sure you’re selecting the right edition or including services you might need.

Give us a try – we truly want to help you succeed!

As you prepare to spring ahead in time when you set your clock forward this weekend, you can also spring ahead in your record keeping with the free, educational CattleMax Online Workshops.

This spring, there are several great new features in the workshop selections:

• Each workshop is offered more often, and at later times to accommodate more producers in different locations
• The signature “Record Keeping Made Easy” workshop is offered multiple times throughout the month to help those just getting started or looking at the trial, no matter when they begin
• The “breed association interface” series has begun, and will feature a different breed interface each month

Stay tuned each month for schedule updates, and register early to take advantage of these special, FREE learning and training opportunities offered by CattleMax. Remember, they are open to anyone, no matter your experince wit the software.

View the schedule now to see what’s available and register.

Would you like to see a full video demonstration for CattleMax CS to learn how you can succeed with cattle management software?

The new CattleMax Guided Tour was created just for you. The 12 minute full tour addresses many of your common questions and highlights the features most important to cattle producers, with descriptions of why they are useful for your record keeping.

If you want to see if CattleMax has the tools you need, watch the tour to find out. Or, if you have purchased CattleMax CS, and you’re just not sure which toolbar contains the feature you are looking for, the Guided Tour can help.

It only takes 12 minutes, and is available to watch as often as you want. Watch the CattleMax Guided Tour now.

If you’re looking for instructions on a specific feature or record area, visit our video tutorials.

Our collection of video tutorials have been a big hit this fall, and we wanted to keep helping you with more detailed instruction in action. For those of you just beginning with CattleMax CS, or maybe even computerized record keeping itself, we understand it might be a bit overwhelming, or you might not be sure where to start.

Right now, we’re working on a brand new video series dedicated to helping you get started. Our Getting Started Series currently consists of five videos:

1. Registration and Activation
2. Herd Files: Creating, Converting, Backing Up, Restoring & Sending
3. Support Resources
4. Cattle Record Basics
5. Setting Up: Breeds, Ranches, Pastures, Cattle Groups

Are you a long-time customer who remembers something you needed help with when you were getting started? Are you just beginning with CattleMax CS now and have ideas about videos that would help? Leave a comment here with any suggestions on other videos we could add to this series.

For the month of December, we already had two online workshops designed for those just getting started with CattleMax CS or still evaluating the trial version to take a guided tour and have an opportunity to ask questions and learn from each other. Both workshops were successful, and our evening workshop boasted the largest attendance yet.

We still have four more opportunities for you to learn with the CattleMax Team through our free online workshops this month.

Next Friday, December 19^th, we’re hosting two workshops on Basic Reporting in CattleMax CS. It’s designed for producers who want to learn about using the reporting features in CattleMax and will give a basic introduction to the different reporting features and how to use them.

Then on Monday, December 22^nd, we’ll have two opportunities for you to learn how to use the extensive AI (Artificial Insemination) and ET (Embryo Transfer) inventory and breeding records in CattleMax CS. We’ll cover everything from entering your first semen or embryo inventory records to using clean-up bulls to reporting your AI success.

View the schedule and register today!

When Penny and I first met, everyone wondered how we would turn out – her degree in Agriculture,  mine in Information Technology & Business.  The question was answered during our senior year at Texas A&M University when we combined our skills and created a cattle database for her family to manage their cattle.  Cattle and technology – it just made sense to us even though it didn’t to many others.  Even to this day when I attend conferences outside of agriculture, people are surprised when I say “cattle software”.

As Cattlesoft grew, our customer service volume increased to where we needed to hire more help.  There aren’t too many people out there who understand cattle production and also can troubleshoot computer software, so this makes finding and training customer service representatives challenging, especially for a company that touts its exceptional customer service.

Last Summer, we had a predicament on our hands – most of our customer service reps were graduating from Texas A&M and moving on.  We asked ourselves “How are we going to find several customer service reps and have them trained on CattleMax for the Fall?”

It was one evening when we were out checking cows that we came up with the idea of mentioning the job listings in our customer newsletter.  Within one week had over 50 applicants for 3 positions.

After many great interviews, we hired Ken, Nathan, and Lana. Not only were they familiar with CattleMax having used it for years, but they also understand what it’s like to be on the other end of the phone.

That’s not the kind of thing you can train for, it has to be experienced.