WindowBossPro Blog — Recurring Cleanings

Adding Screens and Tracks Every Other Visit on a Window Cleaning Plan

Screens and tracks are the part of a window cleaning that customers notice later. They do not see the tracks while you are working, but they notice the first time they open a window and a summer's worth of dead bugs and leaves falls on the sill. Cleaning screens and tracks on every visit takes time. Skipping them entirely leaves the job half done. Every other visit is the middle ground many window cleaners settle on for plan customers.

Why Not Every Visit

Seasonal timing, covered in Seasonal Timing for Window Cleaning Plans: Spring Pollen and Fall Leaves, is a big part of deciding when screens and tracks make sense. Fall, in particular, is when tracks are fullest.

On a quarterly home, the glass gets dirty enough to clean every three months. The screens and tracks usually do not. Pulling, washing and reinstalling every screen, and vacuuming and wiping every track, can add a lot of time to a visit on a big house. Doing it four times a year often costs more than the customer wants to pay and more than the screens need.

Every other visit splits the difference. A quarterly home gets screens and tracks twice a year. A twice-a-year home might get them once a year, usually in the fall.

Making It Part of the Plan

The cleanest way to sell it is to include it in the plan description from the start. On the estimate, show something like:

• Quarterly plan: outside every visit, inside twice a year, screens and tracks twice a year.
• Twice-a-year plan: inside and outside each visit, screens and tracks in the fall.

WindowBossPro builds estimates from your service list, which can include per-window, per-screen and track line items alongside story add-ons and hard-water removal. Price the screens and tracks so they cover your time. If you want plan customers to feel the value, you can include them in the plan price on the visits they apply to. Plan pricing is covered in more depth in Pricing Plan Visits vs One-Time Window Cleaning Jobs.

Telling the Tech Which Visit This Is

The hard part of every-other-visit extras is making sure the tech knows whether today is a screens day. A plan that says “screens every other visit” is only useful if someone knows which visit was last.

A few ways to keep it clear:

• Put it in the job details. When the office assigns the cleaning from the Waiting List, add screens and tracks to that visit's job. The window details on the tech's phone then read something like “28 windows · 2-story · Inside & Outside · Screens.”
• Leave a note after each visit. The tech adds a note when they complete the job: “Screens and tracks done.” or “Glass only, screens next visit.” The next tech reads it on the phone.
• Tie it to the season. If screens are always in the fall, add them to the fall visit and leave them off the rest. Simple to remember.

The invoice should match. When screens and tracks are on the job, they show up as line items on that visit's invoice, so the customer can see what was done.

Notes That Save Time on Screen Days

Screens and tracks bring their own access questions. Record them on the address so they are on the phone every time:

• Which windows have screens and which do not.
• Screens that are hard to remove or that the customer asked you not to touch.
• Where to lay screens out to wash and dry.
• Torn or bent screens you noticed last time, so nobody gets blamed for old damage.

Before-and-after photos in the tech app are handy here too, especially of damaged screens. A photo taken before you touch them settles any question later.

Selling Screens and Tracks as an Add-On

Not every plan customer wants screens and tracks included. Some only want the glass. For them, screens and tracks make a great seasonal add-on. In late summer, text quarterly and twice-a-year customers through two-way texting: “Fall is a great time to clean the tracks before the leaves come down. Want us to add screens and tracks to your next visit?”

Customers who say yes get the extra on their next job. If they like it, offer to make it part of their plan going forward.

A Fuller Job Without Doubling the Time

Every-other-visit screens and tracks give plan customers a complete job over the year without making every visit long. Put it in the plan, put it on the right job, and leave a note so the next tech knows. For the full set of recurring tools in WindowBossPro, head back to the recurring window cleaning software page.