Text Messaging for Home Services Best Practices Guide

Modernize the home services experience.

Woman in yard texting utilizing text messaging for home services

Your home services team relies on fast communication. Whether you’re answering basic queries or coordinating appointments and services while out in the field, slow email responses or missed phone calls can lead to team-wide bottlenecks. With business text messaging, you can speed up communications and streamline your work. In this text messaging for home services best practices guide, you’ll learn: 

  • What business texting for home service providers is
  • Benefits of text messaging for home services
  • How SMS is transforming business for home services providers
  • What types of home services providers can use business SMS
  • How home services SMS improves customer and team communications
  • What SMS templates for home services providers look like
  • Home services SMS best practices

First time learning about business SMS? Head to our business text messaging terminology page to review industry terms. Otherwise, let’s dive into our text messaging for home services best practices guide.

What Is Business Texting for Home Service Providers?

Home service provider SMS is texting used by home services companies. It relies on business SMS platforms, which help teams receive, send, and organize lead and customer messages. These platforms accept messages from native SMS apps and other channels, like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, and Google’s Business Messages.

Woman in polo shirt with cleaning basket texting
Man sitting in van with utility case texting

What Are the Benefits of Text Messaging for Home Services?

More and more home services companies are replacing slow, inefficient communication channels with SMS. Text messaging for home services is ideal for sending day-to-day content. With high open and response rates, it’s the best channel for ensuring your customers read timely alerts and coordinate their appointments. Ultimately, home service provider SMS:

  • Increases lead engagement, since it’s easy for them to send questions through SMS

  • Boosts customer satisfaction, since they can coordinate services easily

  • Saves team time, since they can automate many communications and workflows

Statistics on Home Services Providers and SMS

Business texting for home service providers is the ideal channel for fast, timely communications—and high levels of customer satisfaction. The stats say it all:

How Is SMS Transforming Business for Home Services Providers?

Home services companies aren’t traditionally known for being tech-savvy. But today’s customers expect convenient communications from all of their business relationships, whether they’re patronizing Amazon or a neighborhood cleaning company. Home service provider SMS is modernizing home services communications, helping these companies provide seamless experiences and grow returning business.

Electrician texting on smart phone

How Can Home Services SMS Improve Customer Communications?

Your customers love texting. Right off the bat, offering home services SMS will boost their satisfaction. It’s convenient for them since they use it nearly every day. It also offers back-end technology that improves customer communication workflows overall.

Person's hands using phone with check mark on screen

Send Quotes and Get Fast Approvals

After you send initial quotes via email, getting approvals and securing bookings quickly can be difficult. Leads and customers don’t check their emails frequently and often take a while to reply. With business texting for home service providers, you can send detailed quotes and know customers will open them right away. After answering follow-up questions, you can even book appointments via SMS.

Person's hands writing on calendar

Simplify Appointment Confirmations and Reminders

You can automate appointment confirmations and reminders with a home service provider SMS platform. Just text SMS confirmations immediately, then schedule reminders for later. You can also add customers to SMS drip campaigns that send reminders on a schedule. Appointment reminders through a convenient channel reduce no-shows and boost your revenue.

Tradesman leaning against van to text

Manage SMS Customer Service Questions and Requests

Timely replies can win new customers and secure bookings quickly. Customer queries or responses to your SMS content land in your shared inbox, where permissioned team members can reply no matter which channel the original messages come from. Plus, you can create auto-replies for office hours and after hours so customers know when to expect answers.

Woman in yard texting and smiling

Send Timely Operations Updates

In the home services industry, there’s almost always a new challenge to address or an unexpected wrench thrown in your schedule. With text messaging for home services, you can keep customers in the know throughout the process. Providing customers with transparency can boost customer satisfaction—even if your team is running behind.

Hands on mobile phone with feedback review on screen

Follow Up with Surveys

Surveys are a great way to ensure your customers are satisfied and make improvements for the future if they’re not. You can automate surveys through an SMS integration with your survey platform. You can also use home services SMS to remind customers about surveys sent via email or another channel.

What Types of Home Services Providers Use Business SMS?

Any home services provider can use business SMS. As long as you communicate with customers on a daily basis, it can improve your operations. It offers every company, from landscaping to plumbing businesses, unique benefits. 

Text SMS for Landscapers laying grass

Landscaping Companies

Landscaping companies can work without customers on the premises. However, you often have quick questions for them. With text messaging for home services, you can text customers with critical questions from your home services SMS phone app and expect answers in real-time. All answers arrive in a shared inbox, where any permissioned team member can reply. 

Rubber gloved hand spraying cleaner on surface

Cleaning Services

Cleaning services rely on appointment confirmations and reminders. If your customers don’t remember their appointments, you may not be able to enter their residences. Business texting for home service providers makes it easy to remind customers of upcoming engagements. You can schedule a series of reminders through an SMS drip campaign

Electrician working on central heating

Plumbers and Electricians

Plumbing and electrical companies often deal with emergencies, when fast communications are critical. An SMS service for plumbers and electricians makes it easy for your customers to get in touch immediately. With a shared inbox, you or your operations team can coordinate the service. Another team member can even pick up the chat as they prepare to take on the job.

Heating and cooling professional checking air conditioner with customers watching

Heating and Cooling Businesses

Heating and cooling businesses offer regular services, including yearly tune-ups. But just because your customers are due for their tune-ups doesn’t mean they’ll remember. Send regular reminders through an SMS drip campaign, and schedule appointments when customers reply. For emergency situations, you can coordinate with off-site customers from afar.

Roofers laying roof shingles on house

Roofing Operations

Replacing or repairing roofs is a complex process, requiring close customer communications from beginning to end. Send your initial quote via text for a quick reply. You can also send updates and new invoices once you’ve started work and found new roofing issues. Later, you can use home services SMS to let customers know about new city codes and other updates. 

How Can Business Texting Improve Team Communications?

Text messaging for home services doesn’t just help you manage customer communications. It can help you manage internal communications, too.

Electricians working on a fuse box

Use SMS to Quickly Communicate with Staff in the Field

Office-based teams can text field technicians with customer updates, question resolutions, and other timely information. Fast communications are important when team members are on the ground, searching for home entrances or encountering unforeseen circumstances. Field workers can also text in if they need the office to get in touch with customers quickly. 

Smartphone displaying calendar

Rely on SMS to Easily Organize Work Schedules

Home service provider SMS is also a powerful tool for organizing shifts. Your administrative team can text out upcoming schedules. Then your field technicians can reply individually with any questions or concerns. For example, home service company Responsible Pest Control texts their entire list of staff members personalized scheduling details using custom fields.

Plumber texting on his phone

Send Training Reminders

Home services team members are always on the go. While trainings and big policy updates may be in person, it’s difficult to schedule follow-ups and training support for everyone. Use business SMS to send training reminders that team members can quickly read, right when they need to read them, even if they’re on a site or in transit. 

Sample SMS Templates for Home Services Providers

You can use SMS templates to quickly answer frequently asked questions or personalize mass texts. You can also use them to automate replies and set up SMS drip campaigns. As part of our text messaging for home services best practices, we’ve included a variety of SMS templates. Feel free to adjust and use any that work well for your brand.

Hands texting on wooden tabletop
  • Hi! You’ve reached Mom & Pop Cleaning. A team member will be with you within 10 minutes. Text STOP to stop receiving texts.
  • Hi there, {{customer name}}. You have an upcoming appointment on {{upcoming appt date}}. Text YES to confirm, NO to cancel, or RESCHEDULE to start rescheduling. Text STOP to unsubscribe.
  • Hi, {{customer name}}. This is {{agent name}} with North Side Plumbing here. It looks like you’ve already approved the quote for the job. While I gather my tools, can you text me with a picture of the problem? Text STOP to unsubscribe.

Home Services SMS Best Practices

A home service provider SMS platform will be easy to set up. Additionally, a platform like this is often intuitive, so you’ll be able to start texting leads and customers right away. To achieve the highest level of engagement you can, keep these home services SMS best practices in mind.
  • 1 Secure a written opt-in from leads and customers to opt in before you start texting.
  • 2 Offer leads and customers opportunities the chance to opt out at the start of each new chat.
  • 3 Avoid abbreviations and acronyms to reduce the chances of confusing recipients.
  • 4 Use automations to help your team manage a high volume of texts.
  • 5 Set up auto replies for after hours and during hours queries.

Text Messaging for Home Services

Expedite communications with staff in the field, easily organize work schedules, get fast quote approvals, and simplify the appointment process with home services text messaging.