CarpetBossPro Blog — Carpet Cleaning Software

The Tech App: What a Carpet Cleaning Tech Sees on the Phone

The office can build a perfect schedule, but the job still happens in somebody's living room with a wand in their hand. The tech app is the part of carpet cleaning software that goes into that living room. If it is clumsy, techs will ignore it and go back to calling the office. If it is simple, it quietly becomes the way the company works.

From the Board to the Phone

The route a tech sees starts on the board described in Dispatch for Carpet Cleaners: Days, Vans and Route Order on One Board. Whatever order dispatch sets is the order on the phone.

The CarpetBossPro tech app runs in the browser on iPhone and Android, and can be installed to the home screen so it opens like any other app. There is no app store download and no special device. Techs use the phones they already carry.

Logging In

Techs sign in with the company login plus their own personal PIN. The PIN ties everything a tech does — jobs started and completed, photos, checklist entries, clock-ins — to that person. When someone leaves the company, turning off their PIN turns off their access.

The Day in Route Order

After logging in, the tech sees their jobs for the day in route order. Each job card shows the address with a navigation button, so directions are one tap away, plus:

• The job details: rooms and areas, upholstery, rugs, mattresses, tile & grout, square feet, number of rooms, carpet type and method.
• Add-ons: pet odor treatment, stain protector, deodorizer.
• Access notes: pets, gate code, where to park the van, where to run the hose.
• Past notes from earlier visits to that address.

Past notes are worth more than they look. “Red wine stain by the fireplace did not fully come out last year” tells the tech what the customer will ask about before they ask.

Start, Skip, Complete

Three buttons run the day. Start tells the office the job is underway. Skip tells the office it was not done, with a note saying why — nobody home, no parking, customer rescheduled. Complete finishes the job.

When a tech is on the way to a job, the customer gets an automatic on-the-way text. When the tech arrives, the customer gets an arrived text, if they chose that alert. Nobody has to remember to send them.

The Carpet Checklist and Photos

On each job the tech works the carpet cleaning checklist: walk-through, small furniture moved, pre-vacuum, pre-treat traffic lanes, spot treatment, the add-ons that are on the job, cleaning, grooming, furniture back on blocks or tabs, and the final walk-through with dry time explained. Then the tech records the rooms cleaned, the estimated dry time, stains that did not come out, a condition and a note for the customer.

Before and after photos are taken in the app and saved with the job. The office can see them, and the customer can see them in the customer app. More on that in Before-and-After Photos in Carpet Cleaning Software.

Getting Paid Before Leaving

When the tech taps Complete, the invoice is created. If the customer has a card on file, it can be charged right then. The tech does not need to collect a check, write a receipt or explain the bill — the customer sees the invoice in the customer app and gets their receipt.

For a carpet company, this changes the end of every job. Instead of a stack of tickets to bill on Friday, jobs are paid the day they are done.

When the Job Grows in the House

Customers often add work once the tech is inside. “While you're here, can you do the loveseat?” The tech can say yes, do the work, and note it on the job so the office adds the line item from the service list. The checklist records the rooms actually cleaned, so the office can see the difference between what was booked and what was done.

That note also helps next time. Because the next job at the house fills in from this one, a loveseat added this year is on the list when the office calls next year.

Time Clock and Crew GPS

The tech app also has a time clock. Techs clock in and out on the same phone they use for jobs, so hours are recorded as they happen. Crew GPS shows on the office map, so the office knows where each van is when a customer calls or a job needs moving.

What Techs Actually Like About It

Techs tend to warm up to the app for practical reasons. They stop getting calls from the office asking where they are. They stop calling the office for gate codes. They stop arguing with customers about whether the hallway was included, because it is right there on the job. And they leave each house with the job finished and paid.

To see how the tech app fits with dispatch, the customer app and billing, return to the CarpetBossPro carpet cleaning software page.