TreeBossPro Blog — Scheduling

The Customer Portal on Tree Service Day: Live Crew Map, Visits and Alert Choices

Tree customers want to know two things: when you are coming and what they owe. Answering those by phone takes a large chunk of office time every week, and it is time spent on questions that have simple answers. A customer portal lets customers look those answers up themselves, and on service day, watch the crew approach on a live map.

The Customer's Side of the Schedule

In Moving Your Tree Service From a Whiteboard to Scheduling Software, the focus was on getting your own team onto the schedule. The customer portal extends that same schedule to the customer, so the office, the crews and the customer are all looking at one version of the truth.

That matters more in tree work than in many trades. Customers often need to do something before the crew arrives, whether that is moving a car, opening a gate or keeping the dog in, and they are much more likely to do it if they know exactly when the crew is coming.

Upcoming and Past Visits

Customers can see their visits in the portal. When is the removal scheduled? When is the stump grinding follow-up? When was the last pruning visit? Having that visible cuts down on calls asking for dates, and it helps customers on recurring pruning cycles or PHC programs see what is coming next.

When you move a visit for weather or a storm, the updated date shows in the portal along with the text the customer receives, so there is never a question about which date is right.

It also helps when more than one person is involved. A spouse who was not home for the consult, a landlord who wants to know when work at a rental is happening, or a property manager juggling several buildings can all see the same information without calling the office to have it repeated.

Live Crew Map on Service Day

On the day of service, customers can see a live crew map. For tree work that is especially useful. The customer can move cars, open the gate or bring pets inside just before the truck and chipper arrive, instead of guessing all morning.

Combined with the one-tap on-the-way and arrival alerts from the crew app, the live map removes most of the guessing from service day, and most of the calls asking where the crew is.

Alert Choices

Not every customer wants the same messages. In the portal, customers can choose their alerts. Some want every reminder, on-the-way and arrival text; others want only the reminder the day before. Letting them choose means fewer annoyed customers, fewer opt-outs and better attention to the alerts they do get.

It also takes a task off the office. Instead of noting each customer's preferences by hand, the customer sets them and the system follows them.

Invoices, Online Payment and Card on File

Customers can see invoices and pay online in the portal. They can also keep a card on file, which makes paying for recurring work and follow-up jobs like stump grinding nearly effortless. Fewer checks to chase, fewer reminders to send and faster payment on completed work.

For customers on recurring programs with auto-billing, the portal is where they can see what was charged and when, which heads off billing questions before they become phone calls.

Customers who pay through the portal also see their history in one place, which is useful at tax time, when selling a home or when comparing what they spent on their trees from one year to the next.

Bring Customers Into the Loop

The portal works best when you introduce it on purpose. Mention it at the estimate, in your first reminder texts and on invoices. Over time, customers get used to checking it instead of calling, and the office's phone gets quieter.

A customer who can see their visit date, choose their alerts and watch the crew arrive is more likely to be ready, which makes the whole schedule more reliable. Payment is the other half of the portal, and the next guide covers how billing ties into the schedule. See how the portal fits with the rest of TreeBossPro on the tree scheduling software page.