A cancellation on Tuesday night meant a cleaner with nothing to do on Wednesday morning and an owner on the phone at 10pm trying to fill it. Cleaners forgot shifts they had not been reminded of, and quotes for new regulars waited until the weekend. The company wanted the schedule full, the rota confirmed and the owner's evenings back.
Three things kept going wrong, and each cost the business time, money or a customer.
Three agents built on the company's scheduling app, with cleaners' availability and travel time already in it, and the owner approving anything that changes what a customer pays.
The scheduling app already held every customer, cleaner and recurring booking, so the agents had the data on day one. The owner set the rules: which customers may be offered a slot, how far a cleaner may be sent, and that any price outside the rate card waits for her. For the first week the rota agent proposed the schedule and she published it herself; from the second week it published and she read it over breakfast.
Cancelled slots are refilled from the waitlist within the hour, usually with a one-off deep clean that pays more than the visit it replaced. Every cleaner gets their shifts the night before and knows the door code, so missed shifts have stopped. New regulars are quoted the same day and win more often. The owner has not rebuilt a rota after dinner since the second week.
'I used to do the rota at the kitchen table after the kids were in bed. Now it's done, everyone's been texted, and I read it with my coffee.'
Owner
Quotes were written up by the owner in the evenings, so they went out four days after a site visit and jobs were lost to faster competitors. Invoices went out late for the same reason.
Every job ended with paperwork: the EICR or minor works certificate typed up that evening, the quote for the next job written at the weekend, and landlords chasing for documents their agents needed by Friday. The firm wanted the paperwork done when the job was done.
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