Tell customers early when the weather moves a job

Tell them early and give a choice

The best time to move a job is as soon as you know. A text the evening before gives the customer time to change their own plans, like taking the day off work or moving the car out of the driveway. Offer two real times instead of asking what works for them. “Friday or Monday at 8” gets a quick answer. “Let me know what works” often starts a long back and forth.

Say why in a few words and skip the long apology. “Rain is coming Thursday, and the stain needs a dry deck” is enough. If the product label lists the weather it needs, you can mention that too. Then say what happens next: the new time, and that you will confirm the day before.

How CrewBuddy drafts the texts

With your calendar linked, CrewBuddy reads the day you name and picks out the outside jobs from the event titles and the notes you have shared. It writes one short text per customer with the options you gave it, in English or Spanish, and lists anything it is not sure about, like a job it could not tell was inside or outside.

It cannot move events or text customers from your number. You send each draft from your phone, and once a customer picks a time, you move the event in your calendar. Text CrewBuddy the answers as they come in and it keeps a short list of who has replied and who still needs a nudge.

You decide when the weather is bad enough to move a job. CrewBuddy can look up the forecast for your area when you ask and says where it came from, but a forecast can change, so check it yourself before you call off a day.

Running late and long days

The same goes for a job that runs long. A text before the time you promised, with an honest new arrival time, beats showing up an hour late. Fictional example: “Hi Maria, this is Dan from [company]. Our morning job is running long. I can be there by 1:30 instead of 12:30. Does that still work for you?” Text CrewBuddy “running late to Maria, about an hour” and it writes that note from your calendar.

Tell your crew too. CrewBuddy can write a short message with the new plan for the day that you forward to them. Keep gate, door and lockbox codes out of those texts and in your own job app.

The rain delay recipe has the exact message to send, and the running late recipe covers the long-day version. For the evening check of tomorrow’s jobs, see Google Calendar and the tomorrow check.