SolarCleaningBossPro Blog — Commercial Arrays

Two-Way Texting With Facility Managers on Commercial Solar Cleaning Jobs

Facility managers are busy people. They look after HVAC, plumbing, parking lots, tenants, roof leaks and a dozen vendors, and your solar cleaning is one small item on that list. They rarely answer the phone on the first ring and their voicemail is full. But most of them answer a text.

Why Text Instead of Call

The quote in Quoting Commercial Solar Arrays: Per-Panel Pricing, Add-Ons and Online Approval is how the work starts. Texting is how it keeps moving every quarter after that.

A text is quick to read between meetings, easy to answer with one line, and leaves a record both sides can see. “Can the north spigot be on Tuesday at 6am?” gets “Yes, I'll tell maintenance” in two minutes. The same question by phone can take three days of tag.

Texting From the Office, Not a Tech's Phone

In SolarCleaningBossPro, two-way texting runs from the office. Texts go out from your company, and replies come back to the office where anyone on the team can see them. That matters for commercial accounts:

• The conversation stays with the company, not on one tech's personal phone.
• When a crew member leaves, the history with the facility manager does not leave with them.
• Whoever is in the office can answer, so the manager is not waiting on one person.
• The facility manager always texts the same number.

What to Text About

Over a quarter, a commercial account usually needs a few short conversations:

• Scheduling. “The warehouse and carport are due. Does Tuesday or Thursday next week work better?”
• Access. “We're there tomorrow at 6am. Will the roof key be at the front desk?”
• Parking. “Could you send a note asking staff to park outside the carport Saturday morning?”
• Problems found. “The crew found a cracked panel on row 3 of Building B. Photo attached to the job. You may want your installer to look.”
• Done. “All four buildings are done. Photos are saved with each job. The statement covers all four at month end.”
• Billing. “Do you have a new PO number for this year?”

Automatic Texts on the Day

On the cleaning day, the tech app sends on-the-way and arrived texts automatically when the crew heads to the site and gets there. Automated reminders and alerts also go out by text and email. For a facility manager, an arrived text is useful: they know the crew is at the front desk and can send someone down with the key.

Contacts can choose their alerts: the night before, when the crew is next, and when the tech arrives. A manager who only wants the arrived text can have just that.

For bigger accounts, there may be more than one person who wants to know. The facility manager wants to know when the crew arrives. The maintenance tech who holds the key wants a heads-up the night before. The owner wants nothing until the statement. Ask on the first visit who should hear what, and set the contacts up that way. Getting it right means fewer people annoyed by texts they did not want, and fewer people surprised by a crew they did not expect.

Remember that texts sent from the office are part of the account record. Six months from now, when someone asks who approved the Saturday visit, the thread is still there.

Keep It Professional

Texting a business is not the same as texting a homeowner. A few habits help:

• Put the building or address in every text. A manager with six buildings needs to know which one.
• Keep it short and to the point.
• Text during business hours unless they have said otherwise.
• Do not send promotions meant for homeowners. Tag commercial clients so they are easy to tell apart.
• If a conversation turns into a contract question, move it to email or a call and note the result on the client.

Your Text Allowance

Each plan includes a monthly text allowance counted in segments, sent and received: 500 on Start, 1,000 on Pro and 2,000 on Crew. Commercial accounts usually use only a handful of texts per quarter, but it is worth keeping messages short. Long texts take more segments. Texting is available in the US and Canada.

When the Manager Changes

Facility managers move on. When a text goes unanswered, or a new name replies, update the contact on the client right away, and update any custom fields that named the old manager. Send the new manager a short introduction: who you are, what you clean, when the next visit is due. It is often the moment an account is most at risk, which we cover in Keeping Commercial Solar Cleaning Accounts Renewing Year After Year. To see how texting fits with the rest of commercial work, visit the commercial solar cleaning software page.