Deposits ended the no-shows on first-time cleans

A cleaning crew that arrives to a locked door has already spent the money. Two people, a drive across Boise, and 90 minutes of a day that cannot be sold to anybody else.

Tidewell runs 11 crews and had been absorbing about two of those a week — almost always a first-time clean booked by somebody who had never met the company.

Why the reminder was not enough

Tidewell was already sending confirmations. The problem is that a free appointment with a stranger is easy to forget and free to skip.

• Repeat customers almost never missed. First-timers missed constantly.
• A missed first clean also cost the recurring contract behind it.
• Calling to confirm the morning of caught maybe half of them.

$45, and only on the first one

Jordan Ellis turned a deposit on for one service: the first clean. $45, taken at booking, credited on the invoice when the crew finishes. Recurring cleans and move-outs ask for nothing.

The booking page says what the deposit is and what happens to it, in one line, above the card field. Ellis rewrote that line three times before it stopped costing them bookings.

People do not mind paying a deposit. They mind not knowing whether they are paying twice. Say it goes on the invoice and the objection disappears.

What changed

No-shows fell to about one a month. At 11 crews that is roughly $3,180 a month of trips Tidewell no longer pays for, and 96% of deposits are credited on an invoice rather than refunded — the crews are showing up and so are the customers.

Booking volume did not drop. Ellis watched it for six weeks expecting it to.

What they would tell another crew

Put the deposit on the service that hurts, not on everything. And ask for a number that reads as a hold, not a payment — $45 on a $220 clean gets taken without a second thought.