PressureWashingBossPro Blog — Commercial Accounts

Two-Way Texting With Store and Property Managers on Commercial Pressure Washing Accounts

Store managers and property managers live on their phones. They do not sit at a desk waiting for vendor emails. They are walking the floor, handling a broken cooler, dealing with a tenant complaint. A short text gets read. A long email gets read eventually, maybe. For commercial pressure washing, where most of the conversation is quick questions and quick answers, texting is usually the best way to reach the person who decides whether you keep the account.

Text From the Office, Not the Crew's Phone

Measuring and bidding, covered in Measuring Commercial Flatwork From Satellite Before You Bid, wins the account. Communication is a big part of keeping it.

In a lot of small companies, the manager ends up with the owner's or a crew member's personal cell number. That works until the crew member leaves, the owner is on vacation, or nobody can remember what was agreed in a text thread from March. In PressureWashingBossPro, two-way texting runs from the office. The manager texts the company, the reply comes to the office, and the conversation stays with the account where anyone in the office can see it.

Texts That Help the Account

Some texts are worth making routine on commercial accounts:

• Before a visit: “We'll be washing the drive-thru and pad tonight after close. Please leave the enclosure open for us.”
• After a visit: “Sidewalk and entry done this morning. Before and after photos are on file if you need them.”
• When something is off: “A delivery truck was parked on the pad this morning, so we'll come back for it tomorrow.”
• When you notice something: “We noticed gum building up along the side entrance. Want us to add that next month?”

None of these take long. Each one reminds the manager that you are doing the work, even though they never see you.

The “when you notice something” text is the quiet way commercial accounts grow. The crew sees the property every month, often more closely than the manager does. When they spot a stained entry, a dirty awning or a pad that is not on the contract, a note in the job notes lets the office follow up with a friendly text and, if the manager is interested, a bid built from your service list and approved online.

When the Manager Texts First

Managers text with requests and complaints: “Can you do an extra wash before our grand opening Saturday?” “The stain by the back door is back.” “New code for the dumpster lock is 2284.” When those replies come to the office, the office can act on them right away:

• Add a one-time job for the extra wash.
• Pull up the last visit's photos to see what the stain looked like.
• Update the access notes on the address with the new code, so the crew sees it on the next visit.

That last one matters a lot. A code texted to a crew member's personal phone often never makes it to the next person on that route. A code texted to the office goes onto the address once and shows on every crew card from then on. More on that in Keys, Codes and Managers on Site: Access Notes for Commercial Pressure Washing.

Keeping the Tone Right

Commercial managers deal with a lot of vendors. The ones they keep are the ones that make their job easier. A few habits help:

• Short. One or two sentences. They are reading it between other things.
• Specific. Name the location if they manage more than one: “Store 3 on Elm.”
• No surprises. If something went wrong, tell them before they find out.
• Plain characters. Simple punctuation keeps texts short and costs fewer segments.

And respect their hours. The “work is done” text can wait until the office opens and the manager is starting their day. Avoid buzzing a manager's phone in the middle of the night.

Text Allowances

Every plan includes a monthly text allowance: 500 segments on Start, 1,000 on Pro and 2,000 on Crew, counting texts sent and received. Commercial texting is usually light compared to residential reminders, a handful of messages per account per month, but it is worth knowing how it adds up if you also send automated reminders to residential customers. Texting works for customers in the US and Canada.

Texting Plus Everything Else

Texting is one part of how you stay in front of commercial clients. Photos show the work. The monthly statement shows what was done where. Texting is the human part, the quick note that says someone is paying attention. Together they make it hard for a manager to imagine switching to a company that does not do the same.

To see how texting fits with the rest of commercial accounts, from routes to photos to monthly statements, go back to the commercial pressure washing software page.