CarpetBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Dispatch

Night-Before Reminders: Getting Furniture Cleared and Pets Put Away Before the Van Arrives

The best carpet cleaning jobs start the night before. A customer who knows the crew is coming tomorrow picks the toys up off the bedroom floor, moves the breakables off the end tables, figures out where the dog will spend the morning, and makes sure someone will be home. A customer who forgot answers the door in their robe with a living room full of laundry.

A night-before reminder is the difference.

The First Text of the Visit

The previous guide, On-the-Way and Arrived Texts for Carpet Cleaning Customers, covered the texts on the day. The night-before reminder comes first, and in carpet cleaning it often does the most work.

CarpetBossPro sends automated reminders by text and email. Customers choose their alerts, and the night-before reminder is one of them. Once the job is on the dispatch board for tomorrow, the reminder goes out on its own. Nobody in the office has to work through a call list in the evening.

What the Reminder Should Help With

A good night-before reminder for carpet cleaning helps the customer get ready, not just remember. The things that make the next morning go smoothly:

• Small items off the floor. Toys, shoes, laundry baskets, plants and anything fragile.
• Breakables off furniture. If the crew is moving small furniture, the lamps and frames on it should already be off.
• Pets. A plan for the dog or cat during and after the cleaning.
• Parking. Room for the van close to the door, since the hoses have to reach.
• Someone home. Or a key, lockbox or code if they will be out.

Keep it short. Customers skim reminders. One or two lines of what to do are better than a long list nobody reads.

Catching the Forgotten Appointment

The other job of the night-before reminder is catching customers who forgot or whose plans changed. A reminder the evening before gives them a chance to say “Oh no, we're out of town tomorrow” while there is still time to do something about it.

Replies come back to the office through two-way texting. When a customer replies that tomorrow will not work, the office can move the job and fill the slot from the Waiting List before the van leaves in the morning, instead of finding out on the doorstep. That is covered in Rescheduling Carpet Cleaning Jobs Without Losing the Customer or the Day.

Set the Schedule Before the Reminders Go Out

Night-before reminders work best when tomorrow's schedule is settled by the afternoon. Build each van's day, auto-route it, move any customer who needs a certain time, and print route sheets if your techs use them. When the reminders go out, they go to the right customers for the right day.

Late changes still happen, but the more settled the board is by evening, the fewer customers get a reminder for a day that later changes.

Reminders and Dry Time

The night before is also a good moment to set expectations about dry time. A line like “Please plan to keep cleaned rooms clear for a while after we finish” helps the customer plan their evening. The tech explains dry time on the final walk-through and records an estimated dry time on the checklist. Dry time scheduling was covered in Booking Around Dry Time: Scheduling Carpet Cleanings So Customers Can Still Live in the House.

Repeat Customers Need Reminders Too

It is easy to assume a customer who has used you for years does not need a reminder. They do. A yearly cleaning is booked weeks ahead and forgotten in between, and a six-month customer has a lot going on in six months. The reminder costs nothing and protects a stop you worked to keep.

For repeat customers, the reminder is also a chance to confirm the job. If the new job filled in from last year's visit with the stairs and the sofa, a reply like “skip the sofa this time” reaches the office the evening before, not on the doorstep. The office updates the job and the tech's card shows the change in the morning.

Text, Email or Both

Some customers read texts right away and ignore email. Some prefer email. CarpetBossPro sends reminders by text and email, and customers choose the alerts they want. Texts count toward your plan's monthly text allowance: 500, 1,000 or 2,000 texts sent and received on Start, Pro and Crew, for the US and Canada.

Fewer Surprises at the Door

Night-before reminders cut down on the customers who forgot, the floors still covered in clutter, and the dog who greets the tech at the door. They take nothing from the office once set up. To see how reminders fit with the dispatch board, on-the-way texts and the customer app, visit the CarpetBossPro carpet cleaning scheduling software page.