To stop missing after-hours calls, an HVAC company needs every call answered after closing time and booked on the schedule, with real emergencies sent to your team right away.
Here is how to set that up, step by step.
Six steps
- Call your own line after hours. Try it on a Saturday at 9 p.m., from a number your office won't know. Listen to what a customer hears.
- Write down what counts as an emergency. No heat in freezing weather, or no cooling in a heat wave, might be. A tune-up isn't. A gas smell means the caller should call 911 or the gas company first.
- Decide who gets the urgent calls. The on-call tech, the owner, or both, and how they hear about it.
- Pick how calls get answered. See the three ways below.
- Make sure the call ends with a booking. A message at 10 p.m. means a call back at 8 a.m. By then the customer may have called the next shop.
- Check what came in each morning. Look at what was booked overnight. If something was handled the wrong way, change the rule.
Three ways shops answer after hours
- The owner's cell phone. Nothing gets missed, but the owner never gets a night off.
- An answering service. Calls get answered, but you get a message, not a booked job.
- An AI receptionist. It answers, asks about the problem and books the visit on your schedule.
How to choose an after-hours option
- It answers at any hour, weekends and holidays included.
- It asks about the problem first.
- It follows your rules for what's urgent.
- It books the job, not just a message.
- Each booking and each emergency is emailed to your team right away.
- A caller who wants a person can ask for one.
Whatever you choose, test it again: call your own line at night and see what a customer hears.