PlumbingBossPro Blog — Plumbing Software

Two-Way Texting and Automatic Alerts in Plumbing Software

Most people would rather get a text than a phone call, and plumbing customers are no different. A text that says “Your plumber is on the way” is read in seconds. A voicemail saying the same thing might not get heard until the plumber is already at the door. Texting is also how a lot of customers want to ask questions. The trick is keeping those texts on the company's phone line and in the customer's record, not scattered across techs' personal phones.

Where Texts Come From

Plenty of texting starts with a website lead, as covered in Website Requests and Sign-Up Forms: Getting New Plumbing Work Into the Software. The rest comes from booked jobs and everyday questions.

In PlumbingBossPro, there are two kinds of messages. Automatic alerts go out on their own as the schedule and the route move. Two-way texting is the office and the customer talking back and forth. Both go through the company, not a tech's cell phone.

Automatic Alerts

Automated reminders and alerts go out by text and email. On the customer side, there are three main alerts:

• Night before — “Your plumbing service is scheduled for tomorrow.”
• When they're next — the tech is on the way to them.
• When the tech arrives — the plumber is at the house.

Customers choose which of these they want in The Customer App: What Plumbing Customers See, Request and Pay, so nobody gets more texts than they asked for. The on-the-way and arrived texts are sent automatically from the tech app as the tech works the route. The tech does not have to remember to send anything.

For a plumbing shop, these alerts do real work. A homeowner who knows the plumber is coming can make sure someone is home, put the dog away and clear out the cabinet under the sink. A restaurant manager can have the kitchen ready for the jetting crew. Fewer locked doors means fewer skipped jobs.

Two-Way Texting From the Office

Two-way texting lets the office text a customer and see their reply in the same place. It is good for the small stuff that does not need a call:

• “Can you come Thursday instead of Wednesday?”
• “The side gate code is 4412.”
• “The leak is under the bathroom sink, not the kitchen.”
• “Did you get the estimate we sent?”

Because the conversation happens through the company, anyone in the office can pick it up. If the office manager is out, the owner can see what was said. When a tech skips a job because nobody answered the door, the office can text the customer right away to rebook.

Replying to customers and the full set of automated alerts come with the Pro and Crew plans. The pricing page has the details for each plan.

The Monthly Text Allowance

Every plan includes a monthly text allowance, counted in segments sent and received:

• Start — 500 segments a month
• Pro — 1,000 segments a month
• Crew — 2,000 segments a month

A segment is one standard-length text. A long message counts as more than one. Replies from customers count too, since they are received texts. Keeping alert texts short and plain helps a shop stay well inside its allowance.

Texting is available for customers in the US and Canada. Email alerts work everywhere PlumbingBossPro does.

For most small shops, the allowance is plenty when texts are used for what they are good at: reminders, arrival notices and quick back-and-forth about scheduling. Where shops run through segments fastest is long messages with special characters or copy-pasted paragraphs. Write alerts like you would write a note on a door hanger: short, plain words, one idea per text. Customers read them faster that way too.

Good Texting Habits for a Plumbing Office

• Keep it short. One clear sentence beats a paragraph, and it uses fewer segments.
• Keep it professional. These texts are part of the customer's record. Write them like they will be read again.
• Move work talk off personal phones. Ask techs to send customers to the office line instead of trading texts from their own cells.
• Use texting for scheduling, not emergencies. A customer with water pouring through the ceiling should call. Say so on your website.
• Turn on the night-before alert by default. It catches most of the “I forgot you were coming” problems before they happen.

What It Adds Up To

Automatic alerts mean fewer “where's my plumber?” calls. Two-way texting means quick answers without phone tag. Both together mean fewer wasted trips to houses where nobody is home. For a two- or three-van shop, that time adds up over a month.

To see how texting fits with the tech app, the customer app and billing, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing software page.