CarpetBossPro Blog — Carpet Cleaning Software

Two-Way Texting and Reminders in Carpet Cleaning Software

Most carpet cleaning customers would rather text than call. They text while they are at work, while the kids are at practice, at ten at night when they remember the sofa. A carpet company that texts back is easy to do business with. A company that only answers the phone is easy to skip.

Texting Across the Whole Account

Property managers, covered in Monthly Accounts: One Statement for Every Address a Property Manager Owns, often prefer a quick text about a unit that is ready to clean. Homeowners prefer texts about almost everything. Texting in CarpetBossPro covers both, and it runs from the office, not from the owner's personal phone.

Two-Way Texting From the Office

The office can text customers directly from CarpetBossPro, and customers' replies come back to the office. That simple change does a lot:

• Conversations live with the customer, not on one person's phone.
• Anybody in the office can pick up where someone else left off.
• The owner's personal number is not handed out to every customer.
• Replies to automated reminders reach a real person.

When a customer texts “can you add the loveseat tomorrow?” the office sees it, adds it to the job, and replies “Done, see you at 10.” The tech sees the loveseat on the job card in the morning.

Automated Reminders and Alerts

Many texts do not need a person at all. CarpetBossPro sends automated reminders and alerts by text and email. Customers choose which alerts they want: the night before, when they are next, and when the tech arrives. The tech app also sends on-the-way and arrived texts on its own as the tech works the route. The alerts are covered in detail in Night-Before, You're-Next and Arrived Alerts for Carpet Cleaning Customers.

Automated messages take the routine off the office. Nobody has to call tomorrow's customers one by one, and nobody has to text the next stop from the van.

Texting the Waiting List

The Waiting List shows every home that came due for its repeat cleaning. Texting is the fastest way to turn those pins into booked jobs. A short message works well:

• “Hi Karen, it's been about a year since we cleaned your carpets. We're in your area next Tuesday — want a spot?”
• “Your six-month cleaning is due. Same rooms as last time, plus stain protector downstairs?”

Because the new job fills in from the last job at the house, the office already knows what “same as last time” means.

Texting Leads

New leads from the website request form land in Form Responses. A quick text back is often the first contact: “Thanks for reaching out! How many rooms, and do you have pets?” Customers answer by text when it suits them, and the office builds the estimate from the replies.

The Monthly Text Allowance

Every plan includes a monthly text allowance, counting texts both sent and received, in the US and Canada:

• Start ($59/month): 500 texts
• Pro ($89/month): 1,000 texts
• Crew ($199/month): 2,000 texts

A one-van company sending reminders and answering customers will find the allowance on its plan goes a long way. A busier company with more vans and more automated alerts is the kind of company the larger plans are built for.

Texting the Day of the Job

Plenty of useful texts happen on the day itself. A tech running long at a whole-house job can ask the office to let the next customer know. A customer can text that the side gate is open or the dog is in the garage. A property manager can text that a unit's lockbox code changed this morning.

Because those messages land in the office instead of on a tech's personal phone, the person reading them can act: move a job, update an access note, or reply so the customer knows they were heard. The tech keeps working, and nobody is juggling a phone with a wand in the other hand.

Keep Texts Short and Useful

A few habits make texting work better for a carpet company:

• Say who you are in the first text to a new customer.
• Keep messages short. One question per text gets faster answers.
• Avoid fancy symbols and long links when a plain sentence will do.
• Answer the same day, even if it is just “Got it, we'll call you tomorrow.”
• Put anything the tech needs to know into the job or access notes, not just the text thread.

That last one matters. A text thread is a conversation. The job record is what the tech reads. If a customer texts a new gate code, put it on the address so every future visit has it.

To see how texting connects to alerts, the Waiting List and the customer app, return to the CarpetBossPro carpet cleaning software page.