Plumbing service calls arrive all day and rarely in a convenient order. A dripping faucet, a water heater that quit, a sewer backup at a restaurant at lunch: each one is a phone call first, and each one needs a different answer about when someone can come.
Sort by urgency before you schedule
The person answering the phone should know three groups by heart:
- Now: active leaks, no water, sewage, gas smell. Hours.
- Soon: no hot water, a toilet that won’t stop running, a slow drain in the only bathroom. Same or next day.
- Routine: a dripping faucet, a fixture swap, maintenance. When it fits.
Give each group a response time and count it in your business hours, so a Friday-night call for a dripping faucet isn’t late by Monday morning.
Take the call once
Plumbing service calls go better when the questions are the same every time, in the same order: where is the water, is it still running, has the main been shut off, is there an access code or a dog. Getting it right on the first call saves the technician a call from the driveway and the customer a second explanation.
Promise a window, not a minute
Plumbing jobs run long. A “quick” disposal swap becomes a corroded drain line. Customers forgive a window more easily than a missed time, so promise a range, like 10 to 12, and tell them when the plumber is on the way. If the window is going to slip, call before it does.
Send the right plumber
Not every plumber should take every call. A water heater replacement needs someone who carries the fittings and can lift the tank; a camera inspection needs the person with the camera. Match the call to skills and tools first, then to who is closest. A slightly longer drive beats a second trip because the first plumber didn’t have what the job needed.
When a job runs long
The real test of a schedule is the second half of the day. When the first job takes three hours instead of one, every later visit moves, and so does every promise. Decide in advance who reshuffles the day and who calls the customers whose windows are now at risk.
How Sentra Scheduler handles the calls
The office takes a call on phone entry: the caller, the address and the job type’s questions on one screen. Calls also come in from the request button on your website and by email. Each job type has its own response time in business hours, and the job board shows what’s new, in progress and past due, with a warning to the team lead when a job passes its target.
On the schedule, drop the call on a plumber’s lane. Drive time from the last stop is planned in, and the visit gets an arrival window, such as 10–12. You can email a booking confirmation, a reminder the day before and an On my way when the plumber leaves for the job.
When a job runs long, Push the rest of the day moves that plumber’s later visits back in order, around drives and breaks, with one Undo. Any visit that would now start outside the window its customer was promised is flagged, so the office knows exactly who to call.
After the call: learn from the week
Plumbing service calls leave a trail worth reading. Once a week, look at which calls went past their response time, which jobs ran longest against their estimate, and which customers called back. Patterns show up quickly: a job type that always runs long needs a longer default, a part that keeps causing a second trip belongs on the truck, and a neighborhood that generates most of your urgent calls may deserve a plumber who starts the day nearby.
It also helps to separate the calls you chose to take from the ones you had to. Routine work booked into a quiet afternoon is profitable; the same work squeezed between two emergencies is not.
In Sentra Scheduler, reports show response times by job type, and job costs report labor, parts and equipment by job type, team, crew and month, so the weekly look takes minutes instead of a spreadsheet.
Close with proof and real costs
In the crew app, the plumber can put a job on hold with a reason, like waiting on a part, or hand it to a coworker who’s closer. At close-out they answer the job type’s questions, take the after photo, and log hours, parts and equipment from your price list for job costs. The customer can sign on the phone, and the signed ticket goes out by email.
Sentra Scheduler doesn’t send text messages. Done visits can go to QuickBooks Desktop as invoices, by the hour from approved timesheets or at a flat price; see time clock and billing.
Getting started
- Write down your three urgency groups and a response time for each.
- Make a short list of questions per call type.
- Use arrival windows instead of exact times.
- Decide who reshuffles the day when a job runs long.
For the whole picture for a plumbing company, see plumbing companies. For more on setting targets, read service response times.