WindowBossPro Blog — Storefronts & Commercial

Two-Way Texting With Property Managers About Window Cleaning

Property managers do not want to call you. They are juggling landscapers, plumbers, roofers, tenants and owners, and a phone call means stopping everything. A text they can answer between meetings is how most of them prefer to deal with vendors. The question is whether those texts land in a place your whole office can see.

Why Texting Fits Commercial Clients

Following up on quotes was covered in Quoting Commercial Window Cleaning Work and Getting It Approved Online. That is one of many conversations you will have with a commercial client over a year. Others include schedule changes, access changes, complaints, extra work and billing questions.

Text is the right channel for most of them: short, written down and easy to answer. The problem is that in many small window cleaning companies, those texts go to the owner's personal phone. When the owner is on a ladder or on vacation, nobody else knows what the manager said.

Texting From the Office

WindowBossPro includes two-way texting with customers from the office. Messages to and from a property manager are tied to their client record, so anyone in the office with access can see the conversation. Replies come back to the office, not to whichever phone sent the last message.

That means the office person can answer a manager's question while looking at the account: every address, the last visit at each one, the photos, the statement and the notes.

Common Conversations With Managers

• Schedule changes. “Please skip Oak Medical this month, the parking lot is being resurfaced.” The office moves the visit and confirms.
• Access changes. “New lockbox code at Harbor Offices is 2290.” The office updates the access note on the address that day.
• Questions about a visit. “Was Pine Plaza done this week?” The office replies with the date and an after photo.
• Extra work. “Can you do the inside of unit 5 before the new tenant moves in?” The office sends a quote for online approval.
• Billing. “Can you resend the statement?” The office resends it, or points the manager to the customer app.

Texting Plus Automatic Alerts

Two-way texting is for conversations. Automatic alerts handle the routine notices. Each contact chooses which alerts they want: the night before, when they are next, and when the tech arrives. Alerts go out by text and email.

Many property managers turn alerts off, because they do not need to know every time you visit every building. Site contacts often want them on. A store manager who gets a night-before text can tell the opening crew. You can set this per contact, so the manager and the people on site each get what is useful to them.

Keep Texts Short and Useful

Managers get a lot of messages. A few habits make yours easy to read:

• Name the property in the first few words: “Pine Plaza: windows done today, photo attached.”
• Ask one question per text.
• Skip long dashes and fancy characters. Plain text messages are cheaper to send and display correctly on every phone.
• Confirm changes in writing: “Got it, Oak Medical moved to the 22nd.”

Plans include a monthly text allowance, counted in message segments sent and received: 500 on Start, 1,000 on Pro and 2,000 on Crew. Short, plain texts go a long way.

Handling Skips by Text

When a tech skips a commercial stop, for example because a key did not work or the store was closed, the skip arrives at the office with the tech's note. That is the moment to text the manager. “Harbor Offices: our key didn't open the side door this morning. Outside glass is done. Has the lock changed?”

A quick text turns a missed visit into a resolved one. For more, see When the Store Is Closed: Handling Skipped Commercial Window Cleaning Visits.

Who Answers, and How Fast

Decide who in the office owns manager texts during the day, and how fast they answer. Same morning is a good standard for commercial clients. If the owner is out on the route, someone else can still reply, because the whole conversation sits with the account rather than in one person's pocket.

When a text needs a decision only the owner can make, like a price question, reply right away anyway: “Got it, I'll check with the owner and get back to you by end of day.” A fast holding answer is better than a perfect one tomorrow.

One Thread, the Whole Office

Two-way texting with managers keeps every conversation with the account, where anyone in the office can pick it up. That is the difference between a vendor who answers and one who has to check with the owner. For the rest of the commercial toolkit, visit the WindowBossPro commercial window cleaning software page.