CarpetBossPro Blog — Upholstery, Rugs & Tile

Upholstery Job Notes: What the Next Tech Should Know About a Customer's Furniture

A year from now, a different tech might clean this sofa. They won't know the cushions are zipped, that the left arm had a stain that didn't lift, or that the customer asked last time about the dining chairs. Unless somebody wrote it down. Good job notes turn every visit into a head start for the next one.

Notes Travel With the Home

Realtor and move-out work was covered in Realtor Referrals for Upholstery, Rug and Tile Cleaning Before a Listing or After a Move-Out. Those one-time jobs often turn into repeat customers, and repeat customers are where notes pay off most.

In CarpetBossPro, a new job at a home fills in from that home's last job, so job details carry forward. Access notes live on the address. Past notes show on the tech's phone. Whatever a tech writes today is what the next tech reads before walking in.

What to Note About the Furniture

Keep notes practical and general, the kind of thing any tech would want to know:

• Which pieces. “Sofa and loveseat in the living room, recliner in the den.”
• Size and layout. “Sectional is six seats with a chaise on the left.”
• Cushions. “Seat cushions removable, back cushions attached.”
• Existing wear or damage. “Seam on right arm is loose, noted before cleaning.”
• Problem areas. “Dog sleeps on the right end of the sofa.”

Leave out technical instructions about how to clean the fabric. That judgment belongs to your trained tech, who will look at the piece on the day. Notes are for facts that save time and avoid surprises.

Notes About Rugs, Mattresses and Tile

The same idea applies to everything else that isn't carpet:

• “Dining room rug sits on hardwood, heavy table on it, customer moves the chairs.”
• “King mattress in the main bedroom, customer strips the bed before we arrive.”
• “Kitchen tile includes the breakfast nook. Guest bath is past the laundry room.”

Add the size where it helps the quote. “Living room rug is about eight by ten” lets the office price next year's visit without asking the customer to go find a tape measure.

Notes like these turn into fewer callbacks. A tech who knows the guest bath is behind the laundry room doesn't miss it.

Notes About Access and the Customer

Access notes on the address cover pets, gate codes, where to park the van and where to run the hose. They show on the tech's job card every visit. On upholstery jobs, a few extra details help:

• Whether the customer wants to be there for the walk-through
• Which door to use, and whether shoes come off
• Where furniture can be moved to while the floor is cleaned
• Anything the customer is particular about

Keep these respectful. Write them as if the customer might read them. “Customer likes to see each piece at the final walk-through” is useful. A complaint about the customer isn't.

Notes for the Office vs. Notes for the Customer

There are two kinds of notes, and it helps to keep them separate. Job notes are for your team: the details above. The note for the customer on the checklist is what the customer reads. It covers what was done and anything they should know, such as a stain that didn't come out or how long to stay off the sofa.

The checklist also records rooms cleaned, estimated dry time, stains that did not come out and a condition: Good, Needs attention or Repair recommended. Between the job notes, the checklist and the before-and-after photos saved with the job, the next tech has a clear picture of the last visit. More on customer notes is in When a Stain Won't Come Out: Recording It on the Job and Writing the Customer Note.

Building the Note-Writing Habit

Techs are busy and notes are easy to skip. A few habits help them stick:

• Write notes before tapping Complete, while the job is fresh.
• Keep them short. One clear line beats a paragraph nobody reads.
• Update old notes when something changes, like a new sofa or a new dog.
• Read past notes before starting, and fix anything that's out of date.

Owners can help by reading notes during the week and praising the good ones. Techs write better notes when they see them being used. The tech app runs in the browser on iPhone and Android, and techs sign in with the company login and a personal PIN, so every note belongs to the tech who wrote it.

For how job notes fit with the rest of your upholstery, rug and tile work, return to the CarpetBossPro upholstery cleaning software page.