TrashCanBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Paying From the Customer App: How Bin Cleaning Customers See and Pay Invoices

A customer who can answer their own billing question never needs to call you. "Did I pay for last month?" "Why was this one higher?" "Can I pay the open one now?" Every one of those is a phone call or a text thread, unless the answer is already in the customer's pocket.

Seeing the Invoice Prevents the Dispute

Many of the credit situations in Credits and Refunds for Skipped Cans: Handling It Fairly With Line Items start with a customer who did not understand an invoice. When customers can see each invoice, with its line items and date, they answer most of their own questions before they ever reach for the phone.

What Customers Can Do in the App

The TrashCanBossPro customer app runs on the customer's phone. On the billing side, customers can:

• See their invoices, with the line items for cans, add-ons and tax
• Pay open invoices online
• Update the card on file

Outside of billing, the same app shows the live route on cleaning day ("You're stop 12 of 20, the crew is 5 stops away"), lets them request service, sign up for services and pricing, choose their alerts, and rate and refer. A customer who opens the app to watch the route will notice the invoices too.

Card on File vs Paying in the App

For most residential customers, the card on file is charged when the tech taps Complete, so there is nothing to pay. The app is where they see what was charged.

Paying in the app matters most for three groups:

• Customers whose card was declined. They update the card and pay the open invoice in one sitting.
• Customers without a card on file. One-time jobs or customers who prefer to pay each invoice themselves.
• Monthly accounts. HOAs, property managers and businesses who get one statement each month and pay it when approved.

In each case, the payment is recorded on the account without anyone in the office retyping it.

Fewer Checks, Fewer Trips to the Bank

Checks are slow. They get mailed late, sit on a desk, need to be matched to an invoice and need to be deposited. For a business that runs on many small tickets, every check is a little bit of office time spent on a small amount of money.

Online payment in the customer app replaces most of that. You can still accept checks if you want, especially from HOAs and businesses that pay that way, but you do not have to make it the default. For more on why small tickets need billing that runs on its own, read Cash Flow on Small Tickets: Why Bin Cleaning Billing Has to Run Itself.

Getting Customers to Use It

The app only cuts calls if customers use it. Mention it in your welcome message, after the first cleaning, and whenever an invoice is open. When a customer calls with a billing question, answer it, then show them where they could have found it: "You can always see that under your invoices in our app."

The live route map is a good hook. Customers love seeing "the crew is 5 stops away." Once they have the app installed for that, the invoices are one tap away.

For HOAs and Property Managers

A board treasurer or a property manager has many vendors to pay. Being able to open one app, see the Monthly statement with every address labeled, and pay it online makes you one of the easy vendors. Easy vendors get paid first. They also tend to keep the contract.

When you set up the account, show the person who pays where the statement will be and how to pay it. Five minutes of setup saves a month of "did you get our statement?" emails.

Answering the Questions That Still Come In

Some customers will still text the office about an invoice. When they do, answer from the same invoice they can see, using the same line names. "That was two trash cans and the deodorize treatment on the 14th" matches exactly what is on their screen. When the office and the app say the same thing, customers learn to trust the app, and the next question never gets asked.

Over time, the office learns which questions still come up. If many customers ask about the same line, rename it on your service list. If many ask when they will be charged, add that to your welcome message. Every repeat question is a hint about what the invoice or the app could say more clearly.

The Short Version

Put every invoice where the customer can see it, let them pay online and update their own card, point new customers to the app early, and give HOAs and managers an easy way to pay their Monthly statement. For more billing guides, return to the trash can cleaning billing software page.