CarpetBossPro Blog — Carpet Cleaning Software

Night-Before, You're-Next and Arrived Alerts for Carpet Cleaning Customers

A carpet cleaning job needs the customer more than most service jobs do. Someone has to open the door. The toys and the small tables need to be off the floor. The dog needs to be in another room. The car needs to be out of the driveway so the van can fit. All of that is easy if the customer knows when you are coming, and miserable if they do not.

Alerts Start Where the Customer App Leaves Off

The customer app, covered in The Customer App: Live Route Map, Invoices and Photos for Carpet Cleaning Customers, lets customers check the route whenever they like. Alerts come to them instead, so they do not have to check.

CarpetBossPro has three customer alerts. Customers choose which ones they want in their alert preferences.

The Night-Before Reminder

The night before a cleaning, the customer gets a reminder. This is the alert that does the most work for a carpet company. It is the customer's cue to:

• Pick up toys, shoes and anything small on the floor
• Plan where the pets will be
• Move the car out of the driveway if the van needs it
• Make sure somebody will be home, or leave the access the office arranged
• Think of any extra rooms or furniture they want to add

That last point is a quiet win. Customers often reply to a night-before reminder with “can you do the sofa too?” Replies come back to the office through two-way texting, so someone can say yes and add it to the job before the van leaves in the morning.

The You're-Next Alert

When the customer is next on the route, they get an alert. For carpet cleaning, where jobs run long and a morning can shift by an hour depending on how dirty the last house was, this is more useful than any time window given the day before.

The customer who works from home can finish the call, put the dog out back and clear the entryway. The tech arrives to a house that is ready. A few minutes saved at every door adds up over a day.

The Arrived Alert

When the tech arrives, the customer can get an arrived alert. This helps when the customer is upstairs, in the backyard, or not home at all — a landlord, a property manager, or a homeowner at work who arranged a lockbox. They know the van is there and the work has started.

On-the-Way Texts From the Tech App

Separate from the three alerts, the tech app sends automatic on-the-way and arrived texts as the tech works the route. The tech does not need to remember to text anyone or type a message at a stop light. They work the job list, and the texts go out.

This is one of the small changes techs notice right away. No more calling the next customer from the van to say “we're running late, we'll be there in twenty.”

Text and Email

Reminders and alerts can go by text and by email. Texts are what most customers read on the day of a job. Email works well for customers who prefer it, and for property managers and office contacts who keep their schedules in their inbox.

Texting is part of every plan, with a monthly allowance of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 texts sent and received on Start, Pro and Crew, in the US and Canada. Two-way texting with customers from the office is covered in Two-Way Texting and Reminders in Carpet Cleaning Software.

Use the Day Before to Ask for Help

The night before a carpet cleaning is the best moment to ask the customer for a little help. When the office texts a customer about tomorrow's job — to confirm a time or answer a reply to the reminder — keep the message short, but use it:

• Ask them to pick up small items and anything fragile from the floors being cleaned.
• Mention parking if the van needs the driveway.
• Invite them to reply with any rooms or furniture they want added.

Customers who get that kind of message tend to be ready, and ready customers make for shorter, smoother jobs. It also sounds like a company that has done this many times, which is exactly the impression you want before a stranger walks into someone's home.

Let Customers Choose

Not every customer wants every alert. A retiree who is home all day might only want the night-before reminder. A busy parent might want all three. A property manager with twenty units might want arrived alerts and nothing else. Because customers pick their own alert preferences, each one gets the messages that help and skips the ones that do not.

Customers who are well informed are customers who are home, ready and happy when the van pulls up. To see how alerts fit with the tech app, the customer app and dispatch, return to the CarpetBossPro carpet cleaning software page.