PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Routes & Dispatch

ETA Texts on a Porta Potty Route: On the Way, Arrived and the Night Before

A route that runs on time is good. A route that runs on time and tells customers about it is better. Most calls to a portable toilet office on a route day are a customer wondering when the truck will show up. The previous article, Live Crew GPS on the Office Map: Dispatching Porta Potty Trucks You Can See, covered how the office sees the trucks. This one covers how the customer hears about them.

The Four Moments That Matter

On a route day, there are four points where a customer might want to hear from you:

• The night before: service is tomorrow.
• When they're next: the crew is heading their way soon.
• On the way: the driver has started toward their site.
• Arrived: the driver is on site now.

PortaPottyBossPro covers all four. The driver app sends on-the-way and arrived texts automatically as the driver works through the route. Customers can choose alert preferences for the night before, when they're next, and when the tech arrives.

Why Customers Care

Different customers want texts for different reasons. A superintendent wants to know the units were serviced so the crew stops complaining. A homeowner wants to move the car out of the driveway. An event planner wants to know the delivery is on its way before vendors arrive. A rural customer needs to drive out and open a gate.

Letting customers pick their alerts means each one gets what is useful, and nobody gets texts they did not want.

What a Good Text Says

A route day text should answer one question and stop. The company name, what is happening and when is enough: the crew from your company is on the way to service your units, or your units were serviced today. Avoid long messages with links and extra offers on a service text. The customer is reading it on a job site or between meetings, and every extra word costs segments.

The night-before alert is the one with the most room for useful detail, such as a reminder to open a gate or keep the area around the units clear. A clear path to the units saves the driver time on every stop.

The Driver Does Not Have to Remember

The worst text system is one that depends on the driver remembering to send it. In the driver app, the on-the-way and arrived texts go out automatically as part of working the route. The driver taps Start and Complete on the job as usual and the customer hears about it. That means texts go out consistently, even on a hectic day.

Route Order Makes Texts Accurate

Texts are only as useful as the route behind them. A customer who gets a when they're next text and then waits two hours loses trust in the texts. That is one more reason to keep route order sensible and stable. If you move stops around during the day, the texts follow the new order, but frequent big changes make any timing feel unreliable. Closest First or Furthest First: Choosing Route Order From the Yard covers setting a steady order.

Two-Way Texting for Replies

Customers reply to texts. They ask questions, send a new gate code, ask for an extra unit. Two-way texting lets the office see and answer those replies in one place, tied to the customer. That keeps the conversation off the driver's personal phone and on the record.

Texts and Your Plan

Texting is part of every plan, with a monthly allowance of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 segments sent and received on Start, Pro and Crew. Extra texts are available if you go over. When deciding which alerts to turn on by default, think about volume: a route of twenty stops a day, five days a week, with three alerts per stop adds up. Each text that goes over one segment counts as more, so length matters as much as count. Most companies find that letting customers choose their own alerts keeps volume sensible, because many customers only want one or two.

Keep messages short and plain. Short texts use fewer segments, and they are easier to read on a job site.

Email for the Rest

Not everything belongs in a text. Service reminders and alerts can go by email as well, which suits office managers and property managers who live in their inbox. Texts are best for the moment the truck is coming; email is fine for what is coming next week.

Measure the Calls

The real test of ETA texts is the phone. After a few weeks with texts turned on, ask the office whether where is the truck calls have dropped. The customer's own view of the route, covered in You're Stop 12 of 20: The Customer's View of Your Portable Toilet Route, cuts them further. For how texts fit with planning, dispatch and live GPS, see PortaPottyBossPro portable toilet route software.