MaidBossPro Blog — House Cleaning Software

Getting a Cleaning Business Off Paper and Group Texts

Plenty of successful maid services run on a paper calendar, a spreadsheet and a group text. It works because the owner holds it all together. The trouble is that it only works as long as the owner is holding it. A vacation, a sick week or a second team, and the cracks show.

The Paper Problem Grows With the Company

Maid Service Software for a Company With Several Teams described how much coordination several teams need. Paper and group texts can carry one team. They struggle with two and break with three.

What Is Wrong With the Group Text

The group text is the most common tool in a small cleaning company, and it causes the most quiet problems:

• Old information never leaves. Last year's door code is still in there, a few hundred messages up.
• Codes go everywhere. Every cleaner, current or former, has every code ever sent.
• Changes get missed. A schedule change sent at 7am is easy to miss when the thread is busy.
• Nobody knows what was done. “Done!” with a thumbs up is not a record of which extras were finished.

What Is Wrong With Paper

Paper calendars and printed schedules have their own issues. They are out of date the moment something changes. They live in one place, usually the owner's bag. They do not send reminders, create invoices or warn you when a regular client is about to drop off. And they cannot be in two cars at once.

Spreadsheets are better, but they still need someone to update them, and they do not reach the team in the field. A spreadsheet can tell you who is weekly, but it will not tell a cleaner standing at a locked door what the code is, and it will not send the client a reminder the night before.

A Step-by-Step Way Off

You do not have to change everything on a Monday. A gradual move is easier on you and your team:

1. Get the client list in. Import your clients by CSV. Addresses are placed on the map automatically.
2. Move the codes. Put each home's entry notes on the job: lockbox, key, door code, alarm, rooms to skip. This is the step that lets you retire the group text for codes.
3. Add the cleaning details. Type, beds, baths, square feet, pets and extras, starting with next week's homes.
4. Set recurring cleanings. Weekly, every two weeks or monthly, each with its usual day, time and team. Every visit for the next few months goes straight onto the schedule.
5. Put the team on the app. Give each cleaner a PIN and a team. Their day appears on their phones in route order.
6. Turn on alerts. Night-before reminders and on-the-way and arrived texts start going out on their own.
7. Move billing over. Ask recurring clients to put a card on file. Invoices are created when the team taps Complete.

Many companies get through these in their first week or two. The detailed plan is in Setting Up House Cleaning Software in Your First Week.

Bringing the Team Along

Your cleaners may like the group text. It is familiar. A few things help them make the switch:

• Show them what is in it for them: the code is on the card, the navigation is one tap, and they do not get texts at 9pm about tomorrow.
• Set a date for the group text to stop being used for codes and schedules.
• Walk each cleaner through the app once. Log in with the PIN, read a card, tap Start, take a photo, tap Complete.
• Answer questions with “check the card” for the first couple of weeks, so the habit sticks.

Keep a group text for the human side of the team if you like: who is bringing coffee, birthday wishes. Just move the work out of it.

Clean Up the Old Codes

Once the codes are in the system, delete the old threads and printed lists that held them. If a former employee had access to a client's code, consider asking that client whether they would like to change it. That is a good habit any time you move systems.

What Changes for the Owner

The biggest change is not on the team's phones. It is in the owner's head. The schedule is no longer something only you can read. Any team can clean any home. The office can answer “when are you coming?” without calling you. You can take a day off and the week still runs.

That is the real reason to get off paper and group texts. Not because they do not work, but because they only work with you holding them. To see how the pieces fit together, visit the house cleaning software page.