TrashCanBossPro Blog — Recurring Plans

Reminder Texts Before Every Recurring Trash Can Cleaning

A bin cleaning stop depends on one thing the customer controls: the cans have to be out. You can have the best route, the hottest water and the friendliest tech, but if the cans are back in the garage, the stop is a skip. The simplest tool for getting cans to the curb is a reminder before every cleaning.

Every Plan Customer Needs a Reminder

Turning one-time customers into subscribers, as covered in Turning One-Time Bin Customers Into Trash Can Cleaning Plan Subscribers, brings new people onto your routes. Reminders are what keep those routes running smoothly once they are there.

Monthly customers especially need them. Four weeks is plenty of time to forget which day the cleaning crew comes, and most people bring the cans in right after the trash truck leaves.

The Day-Before Reminder

TrashCanBossPro sends automated reminders before each scheduled cleaning by text and email. The classic message is short and clear:

“Reminder: we clean your cans tomorrow. Please leave them out at the curb after trash pickup.”

That one message does several jobs at once. It tells the customer when you are coming. It tells them what to do. It reminds them that they are getting a service they pay for. And it gives them a chance to reply if something is wrong, like a gate code that changed or a car that will be parked in front of the cans.

Replies come back to the office through two-way texting, so the office can update the address notes before the tech arrives.

Alerts the Customer Chooses

On top of the reminder, customers can pick the alerts they want in the customer app:

• Night before. A heads-up the evening before the cleaning.
• When they're next. A message when the crew is on the way to their stop.
• When the tech arrives. A message when the crew pulls up.

The tech app sends the on-the-way and arrived texts automatically as the tech works the route, so nobody in the office has to send them. Customers who like to know everything turn them all on. Customers who just want the cans clean can keep it to the night before.

The customer app also shows the day's route on a live map. A customer can see something like “You're stop 12 of 20, the crew is 5 stops away” and decide when to roll the cans back out.

Reminders Work Best on Trash Day

Reminders and trash-day scheduling work together. If you clean on or right after the city pickup day stored on the address, the cans are already at the curb. The reminder just asks the customer to leave them there instead of rolling them back.

If you clean on a different day, the reminder has to ask the customer to put the cans back out, which is a bigger ask. That is one more reason to build routes around trash day. More in Scheduling Trash Can Cleaning Plans Around the City Trash Day.

Keep Messages Short

Texts are billed by segment. A segment is roughly 160 plain characters, and some special characters, like curly quotes or long dashes, can make a message use more segments. TrashCanBossPro plans include a monthly text allowance of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 segments sent and received on Start, Pro and Crew.

For reminders, short is better anyway. Customers read a one-line text. They skim a paragraph. Say when, say what to do, and stop.

Reminders Pay for Themselves

Every reminder that gets a can to the curb is a cleaning completed instead of skipped. That is a charge that goes through, a customer who stays happy and a trip the crew does not have to repeat. Over a season, fewer skips means more completed cleanings, tighter routes and fewer customers who feel they are paying for nothing.

They also make your company feel organized. A customer who gets a clear reminder, an on-the-way text and a clean can feels like they hired a professional, not a guy with a pressure washer.

When a Customer Replies

Some reminders get answers: “We're out of town, can you still come?” or “The gate code changed to 4471.” Treat every reply as a job for the office that day. Update the can location notes, move the cleaning on the dispatch board if needed and reply so the customer knows it was handled. A reminder that starts a quick two-way conversation often saves the stop entirely.

Remind Every Time

Turn on reminders for every recurring customer, let them pick their alerts and schedule around trash day. For more on recurring plans, visit the trash can cleaning subscription software page.