TrashCanBossPro Blog — Sign-Ups & Booking

What to Ask on a Bin Cleaning Sign-Up Form: Cans, Trash Day, Gate Code and Plan

A sign-up form has two jobs that pull in opposite directions. It has to be short enough that people finish it, and complete enough that your crew can clean the right cans on the right day without calling anyone. Getting the questions right is how you do both.

Start With What the Crew Needs

Some customers will come through the softer path in The Request Form: For Trash Can Cleaning Customers Who Want a Quote First, but most homeowners will use the sign-up form. So build it backward from the tech's job card.

In TrashCanBossPro, every address carries the number of trash, recycling and yard waste cans, the city trash pickup day and can location notes. They show under the address on the office lists and on the tech's phone as something like "2 trash · 1 recycling · Trash day Tue." Each of those is a question the sign-up form should answer, so nobody has to call the customer later to fill in the blanks.

The Must-Ask Questions

Contact details. Name, mobile phone and email. The phone number is the one that matters most, because reminders and welcome texts go there.

Service address. Where the cans are, which is not always where the bill goes. A landlord might live across town from the rental.

How many cans, by type. Ask for trash, recycling and yard waste separately. A house with two trash cans and one recycling bin is a different job from a house with one of each, and if you price by can count, this is your price.

Trash day. The city's pickup day for that address. This single answer decides which route the customer belongs on, because cans get cleaned right after they are emptied. There is a whole article on it: Asking for Trash Day at Sign-Up: The Question That Sets the Whole Trash Can Cleaning Schedule.

The plan. Weekly, every other week, monthly, or one-time. Show the price next to each choice in plain terms.

The card. Captured with the sign-up so the first cleaning is paid without a callback.

The Questions That Save a Trip

These two are easy to skip and expensive to miss.

Where the cans live. Most customers will roll the cans to the curb, but not all. Some leave them by the side of the garage, behind a fence, or in an alley. A short box labeled "Where are your cans kept?" turns into a note the tech sees on the job card.

Gate code. If the cans are behind a locked gate or inside a gated community, the tech needs a way in. Ask for the code on the form and save it with the address, not in a text thread. A tech who arrives at a closed gate without a code is a skipped stop and a return trip.

Phrase both as optional. People with cans at the curb can skip them.

Questions to Leave Off

Every extra field costs you a few sign-ups. Leave off anything the crew does not need for the first cleaning:

• "How did you hear about us?" as a required field. Make it optional, or use a different link for each door hanger batch instead.
• Can sizes or brands. Your tech will see them.
• Long terms-and-conditions boxes. Link to them instead.
• Birthdays, household size or anything that feels nosy.

If a question is only "nice to know," ask it later in a welcome text or not at all.

Wording That Helps People Finish

Write the form the way you would talk at the curb.

• "What day does the city pick up your trash?" reads better than "Collection day."
• "How many trash cans? Recycling? Yard waste?" with a number picker beats one box for "Cans."
• "Gate code (if your cans are behind a gate)" makes it clear when to answer.
• "Your card is charged after each cleaning" heads off the worry before it starts.

Test it on your phone, standing outside. If it is annoying for you to fill out, it is annoying for customers.

What Happens to the Answers

The finished sign-up lands in Form Responses. One click converts it into a client, and the answers come along with the address. The cans, trash day and location notes show up on every list and on the tech's phone from the first cleaning on. That is the payoff: ask once, never ask again.

If someone leaves a field blank or gets it wrong, fix it on the client record before the first cleaning. A quick text from the office ("Is your trash day Tuesday or Wednesday?") is far cheaper than a wasted trip.

The Short Version

Ask for contact info, address, cans by type, trash day, can location, gate code, plan and card. Skip the rest. For more on the booking tools behind the form, visit the TrashCanBossPro bin cleaning booking software page.