PortaPottyBossPro Blog — Porta Potty Rental Software

Texting and Automated Alerts in Porta Potty Rental Software

Texting is how most customers want to hear from a service company now. A text gets read; a voicemail often doesn't. The last article, The Customer App: What Your Renters Can See and Do, covered the alerts customers pick. This one covers texting as a whole: the automated messages and the back-and-forth conversations.

Two Kinds of Texting

Porta potty rental software handles texting two ways:

• Automated alerts and reminders that go out on their own, based on the schedule and what the driver is doing.
• Two-way texting between the office and customers, for everything that needs a person.

Both happen inside the software, tied to the customer record, so anyone in the office can see the history.

That's a big change for companies where texting used to happen on the owner's cell phone. Customer conversations on a personal phone disappear when that phone is busy, lost or upgraded, and nobody else can see them. Moving texting into the software makes it part of the company's records instead of one person's phone.

Automated Alerts

The alerts customers can choose are the night before their service, when they're next on the route, and when the tech arrives. The driver app also sends "on the way" and "arrived" texts automatically, from the driver's Start and Complete taps. Alerts and service reminders go out by text and by email.

Automated alerts do two things. They save the customer a call to ask when you're coming. And they get the site ready: a gate opened, a car moved, a superintendent told the truck is close. A driver who arrives to an open gate finishes the stop faster.

Two-Way Texting From the Office

Some conversations need a person. A customer wants to change placement for the next delivery. A contractor asks if you can add two units on Friday. A homeowner replies to a pickup confirmation to say they need the unit one more day. With two-way texting, the office sends and receives those messages from the software, on the customer's record, instead of on someone's personal phone.

That matters when the person who usually handles a customer is out. The history is there for whoever picks it up.

Texts That Save Money

Some texts are worth more than others. A short message to a party rental customer near the end of their included days, asking if they're ready for pickup, can save a wasted trip or set up extra days fairly. A message the day before a big delivery confirming placement prevents a call from the driver on site. A reminder of a past-due invoice gets paid faster than a mailed statement.

Text Allowances by Plan

Plans include a monthly text allowance counted in segments, sent plus received:

• Start ($59/month): 500 segments.
• Pro ($89/month): 1,000 segments.
• Crew ($199/month): 2,000 segments.

Extra texts are available if you go over. A segment is a chunk of a text message; a short message is usually one segment, while a long one may count as more. Replies from customers count too, since the allowance is sent plus received.

Keeping Texts Short and Useful

Customers tune out messages that don't matter to them, so keep texts short and specific. "Your units at 410 Oak St will be serviced tomorrow" is better than a paragraph. Shorter texts also use fewer segments. Let customers choose which alerts they want; a homeowner with one party unit may only want "arrived", while a general contractor may want all three.

Email Too

Alerts and service reminders also go by email, and invoices go by email with online payment. Some customers, especially companies with an accounts payable department, would rather have email for anything about money. Use texting for the day-of service conversation and email for the paper trail.

Keep contact details current on every client and site. Site contacts on a construction project change as phases change, and a reminder that goes to last month's superintendent doesn't help anyone. When a new contact shows up on site, add them to the job site so the right person gets the next alert.

Choosing a Plan With Texting in Mind

If you send a lot of automated alerts across many weekly service sites, the text allowance is worth thinking about when you choose a plan. Count your active sites, think about how many alerts each customer is likely to want, and add room for two-way conversations. The pricing breakdown is in Porta Potty Rental Software Pricing: What $59, $89 and $199 a Month Get You.

Where Texting Fits

Texting ties the office, the driver and the customer together during the day. For how it fits with the Waiting List, dispatch and billing, visit the porta potty rental software overview.