JunkBossPro Blog — Crew App

When the Customer Adds More Junk on Site: From the Crew's Note to the Invoice

It happens all the time. The crew loads the couch that was booked, and the customer says, “While you're here, can you take the old grill? And maybe those bags by the fence?” More work is good news for a junk company, but only if it gets priced fairly and ends up on the invoice. Otherwise the crew just did free hauling.

Extra Junk Is an Upsell, Not a Favor

Charging the card at the end of the job is covered in Charging the Card at the Curb: Card-on-File Payment When the Crew Taps Complete. That only works if the invoice matches what left on the truck, and the add-on at the door is where it most often does not.

Crews are friendly people, and saying “sure, we'll grab it” is easy. Saying it without a price attached is how a 1/4 load turns into a 1/2 load billed as a 1/4. Do that a few times a week and it adds up.

Step One: Confirm the Price

Before anything new goes on the truck, the customer should know what it costs. The easiest way to make that happen is to give crews a simple rule for common add-ons, based on your own service list:

• A single extra item, like a grill or a mattress, is a single item price, for example $129.
• Enough extra to move the job up a load size moves it to the next load price, for example from a quarter load to a half truck load at $329.
• Anything big or unusual, like a hot tub, a piano or a shed, gets a call to the office before it goes on the truck.

The exact prices are yours. What matters is that the crew can say a number with confidence, or knows when to call.

Step Two: Note It on the Job

Once the customer agrees, the crew writes it on the job right away: “Customer added old gas grill and 4 bags from side yard, agreed to move up to 1/2 load.” A before photo of the added items helps too.

The note does three things. It tells the office what to bill. It records that the customer agreed. And it explains the change if anyone asks later why the invoice is higher than the estimate.

Step Three: The Office Adds the Line

The office sees the note and adds the matching line item from your service list, so the invoice matches the work. Pricing comes from the same list your estimates use: single items, quarter, half, three-quarter and full truck loads, mattresses, appliances, hot tubs, pianos, sheds, cleanouts, same-day service or whatever else you set up. A grill is priced the same whether it was on the original estimate or added at the door.

If you charge cards at completion and the add-on is big, it helps to get the line added before the crew taps Complete. A quick text to the office while the crew is loading is often enough. Otherwise, set those jobs to charge on a schedule so the updated invoice is the one that gets charged.

When the Add-On Is Too Big for Today

Sometimes the customer's “one more thing” is the whole basement. That does not fit on today's truck or in today's schedule. The right move is to finish the booked job, note what the customer wants next, and let the office turn it into a new estimate or a new job on the Waiting List.

The Waiting List shows every request that is not booked yet on a map, so the office can see that the basement is near next Tuesday's route and offer that day. An on-site estimate visit can go on the schedule like any other job if it needs one.

Load Size as the Crew's Check

The load size on the card is the crew's built-in check. If the card says 1/4 load and the truck is half full, something was added, whether the customer asked or not. Reading the card at the curb and comparing it to the truck at the end makes those gaps hard to miss. Reading the card is covered in Load Size, Item Count and What's Going: Reading the Junk Removal Job Card.

Every Item on the Truck, on the Invoice

Add-ons are some of the easiest money in junk removal: the truck is already there and the crew is already working. A clear price, a short note and a line from your service list make sure you get paid for them. To see how add-ons fit with the rest of the crew's tools, visit the JunkBossPro junk removal app page.