Forum Discussion

SamAshborn's avatar
SamAshborn
Contributor 2
3 days ago

How do you handle after-hours calls once winter emergencies start?

Once winter weather hits, after-hours calls jump and most of them are real emergencies — burst pipes, no heat, a door locked out at midnight. How are you handling that shift without burning out or missing the jobs that actually pay?

 

Specifically curious about three things: how you split call forwarding between on-call techs (or who picks up when you're off), what your voicemail says after hours (do you set a response-time expectation or just take a message?), and what this season costs you in sleep or lost jobs. If you rotate on-call among your team, how do you keep it fair and how do you separate a real emergency from a "can wait till morning" quote?

 

I'm looking at how home service owners protect their weekends and evenings once winter starts — would love to hear what's working and what's worth skipping.

3 Replies

  • PestFreeCanada's avatar
    PestFreeCanada
    Verified Community Coach
    3 hours ago

    This may sound stupid and arrogant, but when no one else is willing to do it, I jump in the truck and go out and do it! I will take on anything that I can handle, and if I can't, I will ask the client of they can wait until the morning. If that is a no I tell them I am sorry, I wish you all the best.

    I made sure I got myself a reliable 4X4 truck, winter tires, warm warm warm winter boots, waterproof gloves and long underwear. I will ask my top guy once if he wants the work and if he says no or doesn't respond within 30-40 mins, I am in the truck down the snowy, cold road.

    I pride myself on doing the things other companies say no to and this is no exception.

  • TheJobberVA's avatar
    TheJobberVA
    New Member
    3 hours ago

    Not an owner, but I build call handling for service businesses, so here’s what holds up once winter hits.

    SCREEN FIRST: Your greeting asks one thing: Press 1 if you have no heat, a burst pipe, or you’re locked out. Press 2 for anything else. Press 1 rings the on-call tech. Press 2 gets an automatic text and a callback in the morning. This cuts most of the 2am calls that could wait.

    VOICEMAIL THAT SETS A TIME: Thanks for calling. If this is an emergency, press 1 and our on-call tech will answer. If it can wait, leave your name and address and we’ll call you back before 9am.Callers who know when to expect you don’t dial the next company.

    FAIR ROTATION: Weekly shifts, one person on call, one backup. If the on-call tech doesn’t pick up within 3 rings, it rolls to the backup. Pay a flat on-call fee per night plus the job, because unpaid on-call makes people quit. Nobody goes on call two weeks in a row.

    TEXT EVERY MISSED CALL: Sorry we missed you. Is this an emergency? Reply with your address and what’s happening. Their reply tells you in 10 seconds whether to get up or sleep.

    PRICE EMERGENCIES AS EMERGENCIES: After-hours calls are the jobs that actually pay, so charge a separate after-hours rate and say it up front.

    What costs you more right now: emergencies you miss, or being woken for things that could wait? SamAshborn​ 

  • HUGEHomePros's avatar
    HUGEHomePros
    Verified Community Coach
    12 hours ago

    So we don't do emergency work however we do get hit up quite a bit on the nights and weekends. I use Snipey Leads (a Go High Level modification) and it does a few things for us. 

    1. Has an amazing after hours chat bot. We had to tweak the inputs to it but it will text people back, asking them some questions about their job, getting pictures then lets them know we are out of the office at the moment and will get back to them first thing in the am
    2. When someone calls and we don't answer they get texted a voice message that says we are out of the office but we will text them instructions to send pictures etc. 
    3. We get notifications in the chat function in our Click Up - this is our in company system for keeping track of things. I can quickly see if this is an existing client and if it's something urgent
    4. The crew - for us the true emergencies would be something going wrong after hours. Every job is assigned a crew lead and the home owner has their cell number. These crew leads are to take ownership of their jobs and if something is wrong after hours they have to be the first to respond. 

    There's definitely not one solve for this problem, it's an ecosystem of solutions and fail safes to cover your butt. As far as leads go, we are still pretty small revenue wise so if I see something come through on thumbtack or yelp after hours (those platforms evaluate your response time) I go ahead and answer it when I see it. Takes just a minute for a first touch, doesn't necessarily take time away from the family.