WindowBossPro Blog — Tech App

Writing Job Notes the Next Window Cleaning Tech Can Actually Use

Every window cleaning company has a few techs whose heads are full of knowledge about the route: which gate sticks, where the ladder goes on the Millers' deck, which storefront manager wants the inside done after 2pm. When those techs are out sick or move on, that knowledge goes with them unless it was written down. Job notes are how it gets written down.

Notes Are How the Card Gets Better

The end-of-job checklist in No More Missed Windows: Using the Window Count and Sides as the Tech's Checklist relies on a good card. Job notes are how cards get good.

In WindowBossPro, the tech can add notes to a job from the phone. The office sees those notes with the job. When a note contains something that will matter on every future visit, the office copies it onto the address as an access note, and from then on it shows on the job card for every tech who cleans that house. A note on today's job helps today. A note on the address helps forever.

Two Kinds of Notes

It helps to know which kind of note you are writing:

• Today notes. Things that are only true for this visit. “Rain started at 1:15, rear not done.” “Customer asked to skip the nursery, baby sleeping.” “Cracked pane in the dining room, photo attached.”
• Forever notes. Things that will be true next time too. “Gate code changed to 4481.” “Ladder on patio slab, not the lawn, lawn is soft.” “Two skylights on the south roof.” “Dog escapes, keep gate shut.”

A simple convention helps the office sort them: start forever notes with “For the card:” or “Add to notes:”. Then the office knows to copy that line onto the address.

What Makes a Note Useful

Write for a tech who has never seen the house, reading the note in the driveway. A useful note is:

• Specific. “Left side gate” not “the gate.” “Upstairs bathroom window” not “one window upstairs.”
• In walking order. Which way to go, what you hit first, what comes next.
• Short. One or two lines. A paragraph will not get read at the curb.
• Actionable. Say what to do, not just what is there. “Sprinklers run Tue mornings, schedule after noon” beats “sprinklers.”

Bad: “Watch the dog.”

Better: “Large dog in back yard, friendly but jumps. Customer brings him in if you text office first.”

Bad: “Ladder in back.”

Better: “Upper rear: ladder on patio slab, left of the slider. Mulch bed on the right is soft.” Ladder notes have their own guide: Ladder Placement Notes: Telling the Next Window Cleaning Tech Where the Ladder Goes.

What Belongs in a Note

The most valuable notes for window cleaners cover:

• Access: gate codes, which door to use for inside work, dogs, alarm reminders from the customer.
• Equipment: ladder spots, pole-only windows, anything above what the stories field suggests.
• Easy-to-miss windows: skylights, windows behind shrubs, garage windows, a transom above the front door.
• Glass condition: etched glass, failed seals, scratches. Note them so nobody gets blamed later.
• Customer preferences: “Prefers inside done first.” “Leave screens on the porch, owner reinstalls.”
• Timing: sprinklers, business hours for storefronts, best time of day for the inside.

When in doubt, write it down. A note that turns out to be unneeded costs a few seconds to read. A note that was never written can cost a callback, a lost dog or a tech stuck at a locked gate.

What Does Not Belong

Keep notes professional. Assume the customer may someday hear what is in them. No opinions about the customer's housekeeping, no complaints about tips, nothing you would not want read out loud. Keep payment details out of notes entirely; cards on file are handled by the billing side, not written anywhere in text.

Also avoid notes that only make sense to the writer: “Same as last time,” “You know,” or “See Mike.” Mike might not work there next spring.

The Office's Half of the Job

Notes only become permanent if the office acts on them. A good office habit is to read the day's notes each evening, copy anything marked for the card onto the address, and fix anything wrong in the client record, such as a window count that does not match the house. That ten minutes a day is what turns individual techs' experience into company knowledge.

Write It Once, Read It Every Visit

A quarterly house is cleaned four times a year, a storefront twice a month. Each note written well is read dozens of times by whoever is on that route. That is the cheapest training a window cleaning company will ever do. For more on the tech's phone, visit the WindowBossPro window cleaning app page.