WindowBossPro Blog — Window Cleaning Software

Importing Your Customer List Into Window Cleaning Software

Your customer list is the most valuable thing your window cleaning company owns after the van. Getting it into new software cleanly is the first real step of setup, and it is easier than most owners expect. A tidy spreadsheet and an hour of attention are usually all it takes.

The Import Is the First Real Step

Switching Window Cleaning Software Without Losing a Customer laid out the overall plan for a switch. This article zooms in on step one: getting customers and addresses out of wherever they live now and into WindowBossPro.

Get the List Into a Spreadsheet

The import works from a CSV file, which any spreadsheet program can save. Where your list starts determines the work:

• A spreadsheet already. You are most of the way there. Save a copy and clean it up.
• Another system. Most software can export customers to CSV. Export, then clean up.
• Paper or a notebook. Type your recurring customers into a spreadsheet first. Start with the ones due soonest.
• Phone contacts. Export contacts, then delete everyone who is not a customer.

Columns That Matter

Keep the import simple. The columns that matter most are:

• Name — the person or business you bill.
• Phone and email — for texts, reminders and invoices.
• Service address — street, city, state or province, and postal code, each in its own column if possible.
• Billing address, if different from the service address.

Window details, recurring plans and tags can come later. Trying to cram everything into the first import is how mistakes happen.

Clean Up Before You Import

A few minutes of cleanup now saves hours later:

• Remove duplicates. Sort by phone number and by address; the same customer often appears twice.
• Fix addresses. Full street addresses with city and postal code place correctly on the map. “The blue house on Elm” does not.
• Drop old customers. Someone you have not cleaned for in five years may not belong in the active list.
• One row per address. If a client has two properties, list each one on its own row with the same client name, then confirm after the import that both addresses sit under one client.

A Practice Run First

If your list is long, try a small import first. Take twenty rows — a mix of homes, storefronts and a client with two properties — and import just those. Check how they look in the client list and on the map. If the columns lined up and the pins landed where they should, import the rest with confidence. If something looks off, you have fixed it on twenty rows instead of six hundred.

Keep the original file untouched, too. Work on a copy, so if anything goes wrong you can always start again from what you had.

Import and Check the Map

Import the CSV into WindowBossPro and every address is placed on the map automatically. That map is your best check. Look for pins in the wrong town, pins in the middle of a lake, or an address you know is missing. Fix those few by hand.

Then scroll the client list. Make sure names, phones and emails came over in the right columns, and that clients with several properties have all their addresses under them.

What to Add After the Import

With customers and addresses in place, layer on the rest. A sensible order:

• Recurring plans for every recurring customer, starting with the ones due soonest. This is what makes them come due on the Waiting List.
• Window details on each address: windows, stories, sides, extras.
• Access notes: gate codes, pets, ladder spots, skylights.
• Tags like Residential, Storefront, Commercial and Quarterly.
• Monthly billing for property managers and multi-location businesses.

You do not have to finish all of it in one sitting. If an address has no window details yet, the tech can fill them in on the first visit with a note. For more on how clients and tags fit together, see Clients, Addresses and Tags: Organizing Customers in Window Cleaning Software.

Cards on File

Cards are not part of a CSV import. Customers add their cards in the customer app, usually when they pay their first invoice in the new system. Ask recurring customers at their next visit and most will be on auto-charge within one cleaning cycle.

Your List, Now on the Map

Clean the spreadsheet, keep the columns simple, import, check the map and add plans, details and tags in order of who is due. That is all an import takes. Next, see Getting Set Up on Window Cleaning Software in a Day, or read more on the window cleaning software page.