Industries Cleaning Services
Business texting and a shared inbox for cleaning services
Your cleaners are on their knees in someone's bathroom with gloves on and a machine running. They are not stopping to take a booking call. So the new-customer enquiry rings out, and the person who wanted a weekly clean books the company that texted them back within the hour. HiveThread catches those enquiries in one shared inbox, so whoever is running the office or between jobs replies fast, and the recurring revenue lands with you instead of the next name on the list.
Cleaning is a business of small, constant messages: "can we push Thursday's clean to Friday?", "can you also do the oven this week?", "the key is under the mat, dog is friendly." When those arrive across texts, Facebook and a website chat box on phones scattered between cars and the office, something always slips: a reschedule missed, a team turning up to a locked house. HiveThread puts every message in one place, drafts replies in your voice, and keeps each property's access notes and history right beside the conversation.
Sound familiar?
Cleaners on the job can't answer the booking calls
Mid-clean, gloved up, vacuum running: your team is not picking up the phone, and the new customer chasing a quote is not leaving a voicemail. They book whoever answers first. Texting flips it: "how much for a fortnightly clean on a 3-bedroom?" arrives in writing, waits in the inbox, and gets a proper answer between jobs, so the enquiry that would have rung out turns into a recurring booking instead.
Reschedules and add-ons slip through the cracks
A client texts to move Thursday to Friday, another asks to add the oven or the windows this visit, a third cancels last-minute. When those land on different phones and different apps, a team turns up on the wrong day or misses the extra the customer expected, and now you have an awkward call and a lost bit of revenue. One shared inbox means every change is in one place, visible to whoever is coordinating the run.
Access details live in one person's head
The lockbox code, "key under the pot by the back door", "park in visitor bay 4", "the cat stays inside": this is the detail that makes or breaks a clean, and it usually lives in one coordinator's memory or a text buried on a personal phone. When a different cleaner covers the job, they are locked out or lost. HiveThread keeps access notes and history pinned to each property's conversation, so anyone covering the run walks straight in.
A day with HiveThread
Tuesday, 9:05am: coordinating the day's runs
Priya opens the HiveThread inbox at the office while her two teams are already out on morning cleans. Overnight: a website-widget enquiry asking for a quote on an end-of-lease clean with photos of the empty flat, a Facebook message about starting a fortnightly service, and a text from a regular: "sorry, can we move tomorrow's clean to Thursday, having the floors done."
The AI has drafted replies in the business's voice. For the end-of-lease enquiry it has pulled the photos into a suggested quote range and asked the two questions Priya always needs: carpets, and whether the oven is included. She tweaks the price, sends it, and books the fortnightly enquiry into the run at the same time. The reschedule gets a quick "no problem, Thursday 10am works, see you then" and a note added to that property.
At 11am one of her cleaners texts from the road that a client's gate code has changed. Priya updates the private note on that property so it is there for every future visit, and reassigns an afternoon job to the closer team with a note about parking. Nobody is locked out, no clean is missed, and every change ran through one inbox the whole team can see, not three phones and a group chat.
How cleaning business use HiveThread
Quote one-off cleans from a photo of the space
End-of-lease, spring cleans and post-build jobs are hard to price blind. Customers text photos of the empty flat, the grimy oven or the after-party kitchen, and you can send a realistic quote without a wasted drive-out. The photos, the address and your reply all sit in one thread, and saved replies handle the "send us a few photos and your suburb" ask so a quote request never stalls while your teams are on the tools.
Lock in and manage recurring cleans
Weekly and fortnightly cleans are your bread and butter, and they run on constant small messages. Handle "can we skip this week?", "add the windows", and "same time next fortnight?" all from one thread per client, with the full history of what was agreed. Schedule a friendly reminder the day before each visit so clients know the team is coming, cutting the lockouts and no-access wasted trips that eat your margin.
Turn website and social enquiries into bookings
The chat widget on your website turns "do you do end-of-lease cleans in the eastern suburbs?" into an SMS conversation that follows the visitor onto their phone, where they actually book instead of abandoning a contact form. Facebook and Instagram messages about regular cleans and one-offs land in the same inbox, so the office catches every lead between runs rather than losing it to the company that replied first.
Keep access and property notes with the job
Lockbox codes, key locations, parking, pets and "the client works from home on Mondays" all sit as notes pinned to each property's conversation. When a different cleaner covers a run, they open the thread and know exactly how to get in and what to expect: no frantic call to the coordinator, no team standing on a doorstep unable to start the clean they drove across town for.
The features doing the work
One inbox for the office and the teams
Texts, website chat, Facebook and Instagram messages all land in a single shared inbox. Whoever is coordinating the runs answers every channel, so no booking or reschedule sits unseen on a cleaner's personal phone.
Every property's access notes and history
Lockbox codes, key locations, parking, pets and what was agreed last visit sit pinned beside each conversation, so any cleaner covering the run walks straight in without a call to the coordinator.
Quotes and replies drafted in your voice
The AI learns your services, areas and pricing from your website, then drafts quotes and answers about end-of-lease, regular and one-off cleans. You review and send, so every price a customer sees is still in your words.
Day-before reminders that cut no-access trips
Schedule a friendly "we're coming tomorrow at 10" the day before each clean, so clients are ready and your teams stop losing time to lockouts and wasted drive-outs. Replies come straight back into the same inbox.
Assign runs and cover jobs cleanly
Route a reschedule to the team on that run, leave an internal note about parking or a gate code, and watch typing indicators so two coordinators never send a client two different answers about the same visit.
Frequently asked questions
Can the office reply while our cleaners are on the job?
Yes, that is the whole idea. Every text lands in one shared inbox the office can answer while your teams are mid-clean and unable to pick up a phone. Assignments and private notes keep it clear who is handling each client, and any cleaner can open the same thread on their phone with the property's access notes and history right there.
Can I quote a clean from photos the customer sends?
Yes. Customers can text photos of the empty flat, the oven or the space they need done, and the photos land in the conversation with the address and your reply. It lets you send a realistic quote for one-off and end-of-lease jobs without a wasted drive-out, and only visit in person when the job genuinely needs it.
Will the AI reply to customers on its own?
No. HiveThread is not a chatbot. The AI drafts a suggested reply or quote from your own pricing and information, and a human on your team reviews, edits and sends it. For quoting a clean or confirming a reschedule, that human review step is exactly what you want before it reaches the customer.
Can we send reminders before each clean?
Yes. Schedule a friendly reminder to go out the day before each visit so clients know your team is coming. It cuts the lockouts and no-access trips that waste your teams' time, and because it is a text in a thread they already know, replies come straight back into the same shared inbox.
How long does it take to get started?
Most cleaning businesses are answering messages the same day. Connect a number, link your Facebook and Instagram pages, add the chat widget to your website, and invite your office and teams. There is no new hardware and nothing to install. It runs from the phones and computer you already use to run the runs.
Book the recurring clean the other mob let ring out
Available now in Australia, the US and Canada.
Give every quote, reschedule and enquiry one place to land and a team that can actually reply. Plans from $49/mo AUD ($25/mo USD).