TrashCanBossPro Blog — Sign-Ups & Booking

Weekly, Every-Other-Week or Monthly: Presenting Bin Cleaning Plans at Sign-Up

The plan question on your sign-up form looks simple. It is actually where most of your revenue gets decided. Lay the choices out clearly and most people pick a recurring plan that fits them. Lay them out badly and people either freeze, pick the cheapest thing, or leave.

Plans Are the Heart of the Sign-Up

The last article, From One-Time Clean to Monthly Plan: The Upsell at Trash Can Cleaning Sign-Up, was about turning single cleanings into recurring ones. This one is about the plan menu itself, the few lines on the form where the customer chooses.

Most bin cleaning companies offer some version of four choices: weekly, every other week, monthly and one-time. In TrashCanBossPro, recurring plans are set by minimum days between visits, 7, 14 or 28, and they come due on the Waiting List on their own. So whatever plan the customer picks, the schedule follows without anyone rebooking.

Who Each Plan Is For

Monthly. The default for most homes. Cans stay reasonably clean and the price is easy to say yes to. It is usually the plan you want most people on.

Every other week. For bigger households, families with babies in diapers, homes that compost or throw out a lot of food, and anyone in a hot climate during summer.

Weekly. For restaurants, small businesses, rental properties with heavy turnover, and the occasional homeowner who wants the cans spotless all the time. Weekly service fits right after every trash pickup.

One-time. For move-ins, home sales, a can with a specific disaster, or people who want to try you first.

Saying who each plan is for, in a few words, helps customers pick without having to think hard.

How to Lay It Out

A few layout choices make a real difference:

• Put the plan you want most people on first, or mark it "most popular." Usually that is monthly.
• Show the price per month for each plan, and the price for one-time, so people can compare.
• Price the one-time higher than a month of the plan. That makes the plan the obvious deal.
• Say what is included: "up to 2 cans, extra cans $5 each" or whatever your own pricing is.
• Keep it to four choices. Seven options lead to no decision.

Here is an example, using made-up prices for illustration:

• Monthly – $30/mo – most popular, up to 2 cans
• Every other week – $50/mo – great for big families and hot summers
• Weekly – $90/mo – for businesses and heavy use
• One-time – $45 – try us once

Tie Plans to Trash Day

Every plan is built around the city trash pickup day, which the form also asks for. Explaining that on the form helps: "We clean the day after your trash pickup, on the schedule you choose." It shows the customer you have thought about the one thing that makes bin cleaning work, and it tells them they do not need to do anything but leave the cans out. The trash day question itself is covered in Asking for Trash Day at Sign-Up: The Question That Sets the Whole Trash Can Cleaning Schedule.

Make Billing Clear

Next to the plans, say how billing works in one line. For example: "Your card is charged after each cleaning" or "billed monthly." In TrashCanBossPro, the card captured at sign-up can be auto-charged on completion or on a schedule, and invoices include line items and sales tax. Customers can see invoices, pay and update their card in the customer app.

Unclear billing is one of the main reasons people hesitate on a form. One sentence clears it up.

Changing Plans Later

Customers will want to change plans: every other week in summer, back to monthly in fall, or a bump up after a new baby. Say on the form that plans can be changed, and make it easy when they ask. Changing the days between visits on their address is all it takes, and the Waiting List brings the next cleaning due on the new schedule.

A customer who knows they can change their plan is more willing to pick a recurring one in the first place.

Tags for Reporting

Tag clients by plan, using tags like Monthly or Every-Other-Week. It makes the client list easy to filter, and over time it shows you which plans people stick with, so you can adjust the menu.

The Short Version

Offer four clear choices, say who each is for, show prices so the plan beats the one-time, tie it to trash day and explain billing in one line. For the rest of the booking tools, visit the TrashCanBossPro bin cleaning booking software page.