The cost of the group text
Every service business starts with a group text. It is instant, everyone already has it, and it works — until you need to know why a crew deviated from the scope eleven months ago and the thread lives on a phone belonging to someone who left in March.
The information was never yours. It was on a device you do not control, in a thread you cannot search, tied to no job record. That is not a communication problem; it is a records problem wearing a communication costume.
What belongs on the record
- Anything that changes scope, sequence, price or schedule.
- Anything a customer approved verbally on site.
- Anything that explains why the job differs from the plan.
- Anything you would want to read before a warranty claim conversation.
Keep the surfaces separate
Internal crew discussion and customer-facing messages are different audiences with different consequences. Blending them is how an internal remark about a difficult site reaches the homeowner.
Keep the internal channel internal, keep the customer thread customer-facing, and let both attach to the same job without leaking into each other.
History outlives employment
When someone leaves, their access ends and their contribution to the record does not. Deleting a departed employee's history is deleting the explanation for work you are still warranting. Deactivate the person; retain the record.
The distinction to hold onto is operational versus personal. Keep what explains the work. Do not build an archive about the individual for its own sake.