WindowBossPro Blog — Routes & Scheduling

Crew GPS on the Office Map: Watching Window Cleaning Routes as They Run

Once the vans leave the shop, most window cleaning offices go blind. The route was built, the texts are going out, but where is everybody? Is Van 2 still on that big 3-story, or did they move on? Which crew is closest to the customer who just called? Without a map, the answer is a phone call to a tech who is up a ladder.

From Customer Texts to Office View

The last article, ETA and Arrived Texts: Telling Window Cleaning Customers When the Van Is Coming, covered what the customer sees as a route runs. This one covers what the office sees.

In WindowBossPro, crew GPS from the techs' phones shows on the office map during the workday. It is the location of the tech's phone while they are logged in to the tech app, not a tracker bolted into the van. For most window cleaning crews, the phone is always with the tech, so it shows where the work is happening.

Answering “When Will They Be Here?”

The most common reason to look at the map is a customer call. With the map open next to the route on the dispatch board, the office can see where the van is and how many stops are left before the caller. That turns a vague “sometime this afternoon” into “they're two stops away, probably within the hour.”

Many of those calls go away on their own once customers use the alerts and the live map in the customer app. But some customers will always call, and the office should be able to answer without interrupting the crew.

Placing Same-Day Work

When a same-day request comes in, the map shows which van is nearest the new address and the dispatch board shows what each van has left. Together, they tell you which crew can take it with the least disruption. The new job goes into that van's route, and the tech's phone updates.

The same logic works when a job is skipped and the office wants to send someone back later. A van finishing up nearby is a better choice than sending the one that is already on the far side of town. For the full add-on process, see Same-Day Add-Ons: Fitting an Extra Window Cleaning Job Into Today's Route.

Spotting a Day That Is Running Behind

The map plus the route tells you whether a day is on pace. If it is 1 p.m. and a van is still on stop two of six, something is up. Maybe the hard-water job was worse than expected. Maybe the customer added the garage windows. The office can check in, decide whether the last stop or two should move to tomorrow, and text those customers before they spend the afternoon waiting.

The opposite happens too. A van that is flying through a cluster of small 1-story homes may finish early. If the office sees that coming, it can pull a nearby due job off the Waiting List and add it to the end of the route instead of sending the crew home with daylight left.

Catching it at 1 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. is the difference between a polite reschedule text and an annoyed customer who stayed home for nothing.

Not a Leash

Good crews do not like feeling watched, and they should not have to. Crew GPS works best as a dispatch tool, not a discipline tool. Tell the crew why it is there: so the office can answer customers, place add-ons and help when a day goes sideways, without calling them on the ladder.

Combined with the time clock, which techs use on the same phone, and the Start and Complete taps on every job, the office has what it needs without hovering. Most techs come to like it, because it means fewer phone calls.

One Map for the Whole Company

As a company grows, the map becomes more useful. With one van, the owner usually knows where the van is because they are in it. With two or three vans and someone in the office, the map is how the office keeps track of the whole day without a stream of check-in texts. See Adding a Second Van: Splitting Window Cleaning Routes Between Two Crews for more on running multiple vans.

Because you are never billed per user, every tech can have the app, so every van shows on the map.

See the Day as It Happens

Crew GPS closes the gap between the route you built in the morning and the day as it actually runs. The office sees where everyone is, customers get better answers and the crew gets fewer calls. For the rest of the routing and scheduling tools, visit the WindowBossPro window cleaning route software page.