MaidBossPro Blog — Recurring Cleanings

Reminder Texts and Emails for Recurring Cleaning Clients

A recurring client who forgot you were coming is a client who left the dog loose, the alarm on and a sink full of dishes, or worse, a client who is not home and did not leave the key. Reminders cost almost nothing and prevent most of the visits that go sideways. For a business built on standing clients, they are some of the most valuable messages you send.

Why Recurring Clients Need Reminders

Billing, covered in Auto-Charging Recurring Cleaning Clients After Each Cleaning, happens after the visit. Reminders happen before and during it, and they matter for a few reasons:

• Schedules based on days, not dates, are easy to lose track of. An every-two-weeks or monthly client may not know offhand which week is theirs.
• Things move. When a holiday or sick day shifts a visit, the client needs to know the new date.
• Prep helps the team. A client who knows you are coming tomorrow puts the dog in the crate, clears the counters and leaves the key.
• Last-minute changes come in early. A reminder the night before is when a client remembers they have a plumber coming and asks to move.

The Three Client Alerts

MaidBossPro sends automated reminders and alerts by text and email. Clients choose which alerts they want:

• Night before: “Your cleaning is scheduled for tomorrow.” The most useful one for most recurring clients.
• When they're next: a heads-up when the team is about to head their way. Handy for clients who work from home and want to be off a call or out of the way.
• When the team arrives: lets clients who are away know the team is at the house. Many clients find this reassuring, especially in the first few months.

Letting clients pick matters. Some love every update. Others find three texts a visit too many and would rather get just the night-before reminder. Respecting that keeps your messages welcome instead of annoying.

Texts From the Team's Phone

On the day, the team app sends automatic “on the way” and “arrived” texts as the team works their route. Nobody on the team has to stop and type a message between homes. The team taps through their day, and the clients hear about it.

The customer app adds a live map. On cleaning day, clients can see the route and their place in it: “You're stop 4 of 6 — the crew is 2 stops away.” That saves a lot of “what time will they be here?” calls to the office.

Two-Way Texting for Everything Else

Automated reminders cover the routine. Everything else goes through two-way texting with clients from the office. When a client replies to a reminder, “Can you skip the kitchen tomorrow, we're remodeling?”, the reply comes to the office, and someone can answer and update the job.

Good uses of two-way texting with recurring clients:

• Confirming a moved date after a holiday week
• Asking for a new door or alarm code after a failed entry
• Offering an open slot to a client who skipped a visit
• Following up on a failed card
• Telling clients about a team change

Keep Messages Short

Texts are billed in segments, and your plan includes a monthly text allowance: 500, 1,000 or 2,000 segments sent and received on Start, Pro and Crew. Short messages use fewer segments and get read faster. Some habits help:

• Skip long sign-offs and repeated company taglines.
• Use plain punctuation. Fancy dashes and curly quotes can make a text take more space.
• Put the key information first: day, time window, and anything the client needs to do.

Email is a good home for longer messages, like a price update or holiday schedule, while texts stay brief. A good night-before text can be as simple as: “Reminder: your cleaning is tomorrow. Please leave the key in the lockbox and put Biscuit in his crate. Reply here with any changes.” Day, instructions and a way to respond, in one short message.

Holiday and Schedule Changes

When a holiday shifts your schedule, reminders go out for the new date once you have moved the cleaning. A day or two before a holiday week, it is also worth sending your recurring clients a short email explaining any changes. Holiday Weeks on a Recurring Cleaning Schedule covers how to plan those weeks.

Fewer Surprises, Better Visits

Recurring clients who know when you are coming have the house ready, the key out and the dog put away. That makes for faster visits and fewer skips. Texting is available for customers in the US and Canada. To see how reminders fit with the rest of recurring work, visit the MaidBossPro recurring cleaning software page.