PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Weekly Service Scheduling

Customers Requesting Porta Potty Service From Their Phone

The Voicemail Problem

Arrival texts, covered in Arrival Texts on Porta Potty Service: Letting the Site Know the Truck Is Here, tell the customer what you did. The customer app lets the customer tell you what they need. Without it, service requests come in through every possible door: a call to the office after hours, a text to the driver's personal phone, a message to the owner's cell, a comment to the delivery driver on another job. Each one has to be caught, written down and retyped. Some get lost.

Letting customers request service from their phone closes most of those doors and leaves one that always works.

What Customers Can Do in the App

The PortaPottyBossPro customer app is for your customers, not your crew. From it, customers can:

• Request service, such as an extra pump-out.
• See today's route on a live map when they are on it, with how many stops away the crew is.
• Sign up for services and see your pricing.
• Update their card on file.
• See invoices and pay them.
• Set their alert preferences: night before, when they are next, and when the tech arrives.
• Rate the service and refer others.

For scheduling, the service request is the big one.

How a Request Becomes a Job

When a customer requests service in the app, it reaches the office as a request tied to that customer, rather than a voicemail someone has to decode. The office turns it into a job on the Waiting List, where it sits on the map with the rest of the day's work. From there, it is assigned to a truck and day like any other job. The driver sees it on the phone with the units, unit numbers and placement notes already filled in from the site.

Why It Is Faster

A request made at 7am from a job site can be on a truck by noon, because the office sees it immediately and can see on the map which truck is already nearby. The customer does not have to wait for someone to answer the phone or call back. And because the request is tied to the right site, there is no confusion about which of the contractor's projects needs the visit.

Extra Service Without Breaking the Schedule

A requested extra pump-out is a separate job. It does not reset or replace the site's regular weekly service, which keeps coming due on its own based on the minimum days between visits. You decide whether the regular visit still goes out on schedule. Extra Pump-Outs on Request: Fitting Unscheduled Service Into the Week covers how to handle extra pump-outs on the Waiting List.

Getting Customers to Use It

Customers use the app when they know about it and when it works the first time. Some ways to get them started:

• Mention the app when you deliver units or set up a new account.
• Include it in your welcome text or email.
• When a customer calls for extra service, help them do it in the app next time.
• Make sure the first request they make gets handled quickly.

Superintendents on construction sites are busy and do not want to call an office. A button on their phone fits how they work.

Keep Texting Available

Some customers will always prefer to text. That is fine. Two-way texting from the office keeps those requests in one place, tied to the customer, so the office can turn them into jobs the same way. The point is that requests land with the office, not on a driver's personal phone.

Requests Tell You Something

Every request is a small piece of information about a site. A contractor who requests an extra pump-out every week is telling you the site needs more service. A park that requests help after every holiday weekend is telling you to plan for it next time. Look at where requests come from each month. The sites that ask most often are the ones where a change in frequency or unit count will save both of you trouble. High-Use Porta Potty Sites: Spotting Them and Servicing Them Before Complaints covers what to do with those high-use sites.

Pricing Requests Fairly

Customers are more comfortable requesting service when they know what it costs. Set up extra service with a clear price and make sure customers know it. If a customer signs up through the app, they see your services and pricing when they sign up.

The Result

Fewer missed requests, faster response and an office that is not chained to the phone. To see how customer requests flow onto the Waiting List and into the service schedule, visit PortaPottyBossPro portable toilet service scheduling software.