PressureWashingBossPro Blog — Pressure Washing Software

The Customer App: What Your Pressure Washing Customers See and Do

Most of the phone calls a washing company gets are not new business. They are “when are you coming,” “can you send me that invoice again,” and “I got a new card.” The customer app answers those without anyone picking up the phone.

The Customer's Side of the Crew App

The crew app, covered in The Crew App: Pressure Washing Software on the Operator's Phone, is how your operators run the day. The customer app is what your customers see of that same day, and of their account.

Like the crew app, it runs in the browser on the customer's phone. There is nothing for them to find in an app store.

The Live Route Map

On their service day, customers can see the route on a live map with their place in line: “You're stop 12 of 20 — the crew is 5 stops away.” That one line answers the most common question in the trade.

For a house wash, it means the homeowner knows when to move the cars, close the windows and bring the dog in. For a business, it means the manager knows roughly when the rig will pull into the lot. Fewer surprises on arrival means fewer delays once you are there.

Alerts the Customer Chooses

Customers pick their own alert preferences:

• The night before. A reminder that tomorrow is wash day, so they can move cars and close windows.
• When they're next. A heads-up that the crew is finishing the previous stop.
• When the crew arrives. Confirmation that the rig is at the property.

Letting customers choose keeps the messages wanted instead of annoying. A homeowner who works from home might want all three. A property manager might only want the arrival alert.

Requesting Service and Signing Up

Customers can request service from the app. A homeowner who had their house washed last year can ask for the driveway this year without calling. Customers can also sign up for services and see your pricing, which suits simple, repeatable work you are happy to sell without a custom quote.

Requests and sign-ups land in the office where they can be turned into jobs. Sign-up forms with card capture are covered in Website Request Forms and Sign-Up Forms That Feed Your Pressure Washing Software.

Invoices, Cards and Payments

The billing side of the customer app saves the office a lot of time:

• See invoices. Customers can look up past invoices instead of asking you to resend them.
• Pay online. An open invoice can be paid right from the app.
• Update their card. When a card expires or changes, the customer updates it themselves, so the next auto-charge goes through.

That last one matters more than it sounds. An expired card is a common reason an auto-charge fails. When the customer can fix it in a minute without calling, more invoices get paid on time.

Ratings and Referrals

Customers can rate the service and refer friends and neighbors from the app. Washing work spreads by street. One clean driveway makes the neighbors look at theirs. Making it easy for a happy customer to pass your name along is worth doing.

Getting Customers to Use It

A customer app only helps if customers open it. A few simple habits make that happen without any extra work:

• Mention it at the estimate. When you send a quote, tell the customer they will be able to watch the crew's progress on wash day and pay from their phone.
• Let the texts do the rest. The night-before and on-the-way alerts point customers toward the app at exactly the moment they want to know where you are.
• Point billing questions to it. When someone asks for an old invoice, show them where to find it once. Next time they will look there first.

Commercial contacts benefit too. A restaurant manager can see invoices for each location, and a property manager can request an extra visit for a common area after a messy event without chasing you by phone. The fewer calls those contacts have to make, the easier you are to keep on the vendor list.

Fewer Calls, Better Impression

A small washing company that gives customers a live map, their own alerts and online payment looks organized. That impression matters when you are quoting against someone who still sends a text from their personal phone saying “be there around 2ish.”

The customer app is included with PressureWashingBossPro, not an add-on. To see how it ties into the crew app, texting and billing, visit the PressureWashingBossPro pressure washing software page.