WindowBossPro Blog — Storefronts & Commercial

One Van on Homes, One on Storefronts: Splitting the Window Cleaning Week

Residential window cleaning and storefront routes are different kinds of days. A residential job might be three hours at one house, inside and out, with screens and tracks. A storefront route might be twenty-five stops in a morning, outside glass and doors, with keys and alarm codes. Trying to mix them on one van usually means one of them suffers. Most companies that do both end up splitting them.

Why Mixing Them Breaks Down

The cycles described in Monthly or Every Two Weeks: Setting the Storefront Window Cleaning Schedule only work if the storefront route actually runs on time. When one van does both, the big residential job always wins. It pays more today, the homeowner is waiting, and the storefronts can “wait a few days.” A few days becomes a week, and the storefronts start to slip past due.

The opposite also happens. A tech who runs storefronts at 6am is not at their best on a 2-story inside-and-outside house at 3pm.

The Common Setup

The pattern that works for many window cleaning companies is simple: one van on residential jobs, one van on the storefront route. The storefront van runs early, usually starting before the shops open. The residential van runs normal hours. When the storefront route finishes early, that tech can pick up small residential jobs, office buildings or property manager locations in the afternoon.

As the company grows, it becomes two residential vans and one storefront van, or a storefront van that runs four days and helps residential on the fifth.

Assigning Vans and Techs

In WindowBossPro, employees have their own PINs and van assignments. Assign the storefront tech to the storefront van. On the Scheduled List, which works as the dispatch board, filter by van to see each van's day on its own. The storefront van's day shows only storefront and commercial stops, and the residential van's day shows only homes.

Each tech's phone shows their own jobs in route order. The storefront tech never sees the residential job list, and the residential crew never has to think about which bakery opens at 6:30.

One Waiting List for Both

Splitting the vans does not mean splitting the business. Both kinds of work come due on the same Waiting List. Homes come due quarterly or twice a year, storefronts every two weeks or monthly, all on one live map with pins colored not due, due now and overdue past a 7-day grace.

Tags make the split easy to see. Filter the Waiting List or client list by Storefront or Commercial to plan the storefront van's days, and by Residential to plan the other van. Everything lives in one system, one set of reports and one billing setup.

Routing Each Van

Each van's day can be auto-routed Closest First or Furthest First from the shop. For the storefront van, auto-routing gives a good starting order, and the office adjusts by hand for opening times and access rules. For the residential van, longer jobs mean fewer stops, so the order matters less than fitting the day.

Crew GPS from each tech's phone shows on the office map. If a storefront owner calls asking where the tech is, the office can look and answer.

Protect the Storefront Day

The rule that makes this work: the storefront van's day is protected. Big residential jobs do not bump storefronts. If residential gets busy in spring, add hours to the residential van or hire help, but keep the storefront route on schedule.

Storefronts are year-round money. Residential is seasonal. Keeping the route steady through the busy spring is what keeps those accounts through the quiet winter. For more on starting that route, see Building a Storefront Window Cleaning Route From the First Ten Businesses.

When You Only Have One Van

Many owners start with one van. You can still split the week instead of the vans: storefront route Tuesday and Friday mornings, residential the rest of the time. Protect those mornings the same way you would protect a separate van. When the storefront route fills two full mornings, it is time to think about a second van.

Billing stays the same no matter which van did the work. Storefronts on card on file are charged when their tech taps Complete, property managers get their monthly statement, and homeowners get their invoices as usual.

Two Kinds of Work, One System

Splitting vans keeps each kind of work running the way it should, while one system keeps the business together. For more on the commercial side, visit the WindowBossPro commercial window cleaning software page.