PlumbingBossPro Blog — Tech App

Automatic On-the-Way Texts From the Plumber's Phone

Almost every plumbing call needs someone home. The plumber cannot fix a kitchen faucet from the driveway. When the customer does not know when the van is coming, they step out for coffee, take the dog for a walk or schedule a work call right at the wrong moment. Then the plumber waits, or skips, and the day slides. An on-the-way text fixes most of that, and in PlumbingBossPro nobody has to type it.

Texts That Send Themselves

Photos are what the plumber takes on site, as covered in Before-and-After Photos in the Plumber App: Clogs, Leaks, Corroded Fittings and Old Tanks. The on-the-way text is what reaches the customer before the plumber ever arrives.

As the plumber works through their list in route order, on-the-way texts go out automatically to the customers who want them. The plumber does not stop to send a message, look up a phone number or remember who asked to be warned. The app does it as part of working the route.

Customers Choose Their Alerts

Not every customer wants the same texts. In PlumbingBossPro, customers choose their alerts:

• Night before. A reminder that the plumber is coming tomorrow.
• When I'm next. A heads-up when the plumber is headed their way.
• When the tech arrives. A text when the plumber is at the door.

A homeowner who works from home might only want the arrived text. A landlord with a tenant at the property might want all three so they can warn the tenant. A restaurant manager might want the night before so they can plan around the kitchen being in use. The customer picks, and the app follows their choices.

Why It Matters for Plumbing

Plumbing calls are different from outdoor service work. The plumber almost always needs to get inside: under the sink, into the basement, into the garage, up into the attic. If no one is home, the call does not happen. An on-the-way text gives the homeowner time to get back, open the door, move the car out of the garage so the water heater is reachable, and put the dog in a back room.

It also makes the company look organized. A plumber who shows up after a clear text feels professional. A plumber who shows up unannounced, in the middle of a window the customer was told was “sometime between 8 and noon,” feels like a gamble.

The text helps the plumber too. Fewer skipped calls means fewer return trips to the same address, and fewer return trips means the route the office built in the morning actually holds up until the afternoon. On a day with a water heater replacement at the end, losing twenty minutes to an empty house at the second stop can push the install past dinner. A customer who knew the van was coming is usually standing at the door.

Replies Go to the Office

When a customer replies to a text, the reply goes to the office through two-way texting, not to the plumber's personal phone. That keeps the plumber focused on the work in front of them and keeps customer messages in one place.

If the customer writes “running 15 minutes late, can he start with the outside spigot?” the office reads it and decides whether to pass it to the plumber or move the call. The plumber is not juggling texts from six customers while holding a wrench.

Texts and the Live Map

Customers who want more than a text can open the customer app and see the day's route on a live map, with their place in it: “You're stop 12 of 20 — the crew is 5 stops away.” Plumbing days usually have fewer stops than that, but the idea is the same. The homeowner can glance at their phone and see whether the plumber is one stop away or four.

Between the night-before reminder, the on-the-way text and the live map, fewer customers call the office to ask when the plumber will show up. That is time the office gets back.

Keeping Texts Short

Texting plans in PlumbingBossPro include a monthly allowance of segments, sent and received: 500 on Start, 1,000 on Pro and 2,000 on Crew. Short, plain texts go further. That is one reason the automatic texts are kept brief: who is coming and roughly when. Customers do not need a paragraph to know the plumber is on the way.

The next text in the day is the arrived text, covered in The Arrived Text: Letting the Homeowner Know the Plumber Is at the Door. For the rest of the tech app, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumber app page.