WindowBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Online Payment From the Customer App for Window Cleaning Invoices

Not every customer wants a card on file. Some like to see the bill first and pay it themselves. Some businesses have a rule against stored cards. Some homeowners just like to be in charge of when money leaves their account. For all of them, online payment from the customer app is the next best thing to auto-charge, and far better than waiting on a check.

The Customer App, From the Billing Side

Updating a card was covered in Letting Window Cleaning Customers Update Their Own Card in the Customer App. Paying an invoice is the other half of the same screen.

In the WindowBossPro customer app, customers see their invoices and can pay them online from their phone. The invoice shows the same line items you billed: the cleaning with the window count and sides, story add-ons, screens, tracks, hard water and sales tax. The customer can read exactly what they are paying for, then pay it.

Who Online Payment Suits

• Homeowners who will not store a card. They still pay quickly, just on their own terms.
• Customers who want to check the bill first. Common with first-time customers and big one-time jobs.
• Storefront owners. Busy shop owners pay from their phone between customers instead of writing a check at the end of the month.
• Deposit invoices. When you invoice a deposit on a big job, the customer pays it from the app. See Deposits for Big Window Cleaning Jobs: A Simple Policy Built on Invoices.
• Customers whose card declined. They can update the card and pay the open invoice in one visit to the app.

Why It Beats Mailed Invoices

A mailed invoice takes days to arrive and days more to get opened. A check takes days to come back and then has to be deposited. Every step is a chance for the invoice to get lost on a counter.

Online payment collapses all of that. The invoice is created when the tech taps Complete. The customer can see it right away. They pay from the same phone they read your texts on. The money starts moving that day.

It also helps your office. There is no stack of checks to log and no wondering whether a check is in the mail or never coming.

Introducing It to Customers

Customers will use online payment if they know it exists and it is easy to find. A few ways to introduce it:

1. At sign-up and on the estimate. “Pay online from our app, or keep a card on file and we'll charge it after each cleaning.”
2. On every invoice. Tell customers they can pay in the app.
3. In person. If the customer is home, the tech can mention it at the door: “Your invoice will be in the app in a few minutes.”
4. In past-due reminders. A reminder that says where to pay gets paid faster than one that does not.

Online Payment and Card on File Work Together

Online payment is not a competitor to card on file. Many customers start by paying online and switch to card on file after a few cleanings, once they trust that the bills are right. Make that switch easy. After a customer has paid online two or three times, a short text works well: “Want us to just charge your card after each cleaning? You can save it in the app.”

For the office, the goal is to have every residential customer either on card on file or paying online the same day. Paper should be the exception.

The App Keeps Customers Engaged

Customers who use the app for one thing tend to use it for others. The live route map on service day, “You're stop 12 of 20 — the crew is 5 stops away,” is the hook for many. Requesting service, signing up for a new service and rating a visit all happen in the same place. A customer who opens the app to watch the crew come down the street is a customer who finds the invoice there afterward.

The ratings and referrals in the app matter for billing too, in a roundabout way: happy customers who refer friends are the ones who pay on time.

When Customers Still Want Paper

Some will. A few customers will always want a mailed invoice and will always pay by check, and a few businesses have an accounts payable process that requires it. Do not fight it. Keep them, bill them, and follow up when needed. Just make online payment the default you offer everyone else.

Paid From the Phone

Online payment from the customer app gets customers who will not store a card paying the same day anyway. Offer it at sign-up, mention it on every invoice and point to it in every reminder. To see how WindowBossPro handles invoices and payments, visit the window cleaning billing software page.