Do you triage after-hours calls for an emergency dispatch, or send them home to wait until morning?
Curious how you triage after-hours calls when the owner and techs can't all drop everything. When a call comes in at 11pm in the middle of a cold snap, what specific questions do you ask to decide whether it justifies an emergency dispatch vs. a first-thing-in-the-morning visit? Do you lean on things like "no heat with an infant or elderly person in the house," "water actively leaking onto a ceiling or electrical panel," or "pipes already frozen/burst"? Where do you draw the line - for example, a pilot light out on a tank, a thermostat blinking but heat still coming, a slow drip under a sink?
And on the money side, do you charge an after-hours or emergency dispatch fee on top of the regular rate, and if so, what's your typical amount and how do you communicate it to the caller before anyone gets in the van? I'd love to hear the exact intake flow you've settled on and any rules that saved you from running out every night.