CarpetBossPro Blog — Tech App

Start, Skip, Complete: The Three Buttons That Run a Carpet Cleaning Day

A carpet tech's day can be described with three words. They start a job, they finish it, or they cannot do it today. The CarpetBossPro tech app turns those three moments into three buttons: Start, Skip and Complete. Each tap tells the office something it would otherwise have to call and ask.

Three Buttons on Every Card

Photos are covered in Before-and-After Photos From the Carpet Tech's Phone, Shown to the Customer in Their App. They are taken between two of the three buttons: after Start and before Complete.

Every job card has Start, Skip and Complete. They are big and simple on purpose. A tech with wet hands, a hose over one shoulder and a customer talking to them should be able to hit the right one without thinking.

Start

Start means “I'm here and the job is underway.” Most techs tap it as they begin the walk-through with the customer. Tapping Start opens the carpet cleaning checklist and marks the job as in progress for the office.

For the office, that changes the job on the board from scheduled to underway. Combined with crew GPS, the office can see where each van is and what each tech is doing without a phone call. If a customer calls asking whether the tech is still coming, the answer is on the screen.

Start also gives the office a sense of timing. A job started at 9:15 that is still underway at 12:30 is running long, and the office can warn the next customers or shuffle the afternoon.

Skip

Skip means “this job is not happening today.” Carpet jobs get skipped for real reasons:

• Nobody home and no key or code.
• No place to park the van within reach of the hose.
• The customer rescheduled at the door.
• Furniture or belongings covering the floor so the job cannot be done.
• Something about the job is different enough that the office needs to re-quote it.

When the tech taps Skip, they write a short note saying why: “No answer at door, called customer, no reply” or “Customer asked to move to next week.” The job comes off today's list with the note, and the office sees the skip and the reason.

The office can then text the customer, reschedule on another day, or send it back to the Waiting List. The tech does not wait on a decision. They move on to the next card.

Complete

Complete means “the job is done.” It is the most important tap of the visit, and it should come after the final walk-through, the after photos and the checklist records are done.

Tapping Complete does several things at once:

• The job is marked done on the office's board.
• The finished checklist, with rooms cleaned, dry time, stains, condition and note, is saved on the job.
• The photos stay with the job, where the customer can see them in the customer app.
• The invoice is created.
• If the customer has a card on file and auto-charge is set up, the card can be charged.

For a repeat customer, the clock starts on their next cleaning. When the plan's minimum days between visits have passed, the home comes due again on the Waiting List on its own. Payment at completion is covered in Charging the Card on File When the Carpet Tech Taps Complete.

Common Mistakes

The three buttons are simple, but a few habits keep them accurate:

• Tapping Complete too early. Some techs tap it in the driveway before the final walk-through. That can trigger the invoice before the customer has seen the work. Finish first, then tap.
• Forgetting to tap Start. Without Start, the office does not know the job is underway. Make it the first thing at the door.
• Skipping without a note. A skip with no reason forces the office to call. One sentence saves that call.
• Batching at the end of the day. Tapping everything at 5pm defeats the point. The office and the customers depend on the taps happening in real time.

The Buttons Feed the Customer Texts

The customer side moves with the buttons too. As the tech works through the route, customers get automatic on-the-way and arrived texts, and customers watching the customer app see their place in today's route. That is covered next in Automatic On-the-Way and Arrived Texts From the Carpet Tech App.

Three buttons, used honestly, turn a tech's phone into a live view of the day for the whole company. For more on the tech app, visit the CarpetBossPro carpet cleaning app page.