PLUMBING
Two businesses on one phone: the emergency and the repipe need different follow-up
A burst pipe wants a reply in seconds and a truck on the way. A repipe wants three weeks of steady, written follow-up while the family decides. They are two different businesses, and most plumbing companies run both off the same phone that nobody is answering.
A note on what this is. It is not a claim about which kind of work pays better. It is about why one follow-up rhythm cannot serve both, and what to do instead.
The emergency
Water is on the floor. The caller is dialing down a list and will stop at the first voice. Speed is the whole game. A text back within a minute, a truck dispatched, a tech on site. Nobody is comparing quotes at 11 PM with a wet kitchen.
The repipe
A West Miami house from 1958 on its original cast iron. The owner gets three quotes and takes two weeks. Nobody is in a hurry. The company that follows up on day four, day nine and day fourteen, in writing, in the language the family speaks, is the one that gets signed. The other two assume they lost on price.
TWO RHYTHMS
One phone, two boards
- Board one: emergency. New call, texted back, dispatched, on site, done. Hours, not days.
- Board two: quotes. Quote sent, follow-up running, approved, scheduled. Weeks, not hours.
- Same inbox. Every text and call on one thread per customer, whichever board the job is on.
- A job that starts as an emergency and turns into a repipe moves from one board to the other without retyping anything.
Why the notebook fails here
A notebook on the dash can hold the emergency. It cannot hold day nine of a repipe quote, in Spanish, for a family that has not decided yet. That follow-up needs a date and a message that go out without anyone remembering.
The follow-up on a quote stops the moment the customer replies, books, or says no. It never runs on a job that already answered.
Questions we get asked about this
Does moving a job between boards text the customer?
Only if you set it up that way. It is off by default. Moving a card is for you; messages to the customer are a separate, approved step.
How long does repipe follow-up run?
As long as you set it. Two to four weeks is normal. It stops the moment the customer replies, books, or asks you to stop.
Can one person see both boards?
Yes. Your office sees both, filtered or together. Techs see the jobs assigned to them.
Related
Which one are you losing?
Bring last month's calls to a 30-minute call. We will sort them onto two boards in front of you and see which rhythm you are missing.