How a Plumbing Scheduling Software Offers Flexibility in Unpredictable Jobs

If you own a plumbing business, you probably have a lot on your plate. Much of your day-to-day workload likely consists of routine scheduling tasks:

• Keeping track of your technicians’ schedules
• Responding to customer appointment requests
•  Communicating with customers about their upcoming appointments
• Penciling in emergency and last-minute services

While these routine tasks are vital to the success of your plumbing company, they take time away from the heart of your business, which is providing expert, knowledgeable plumbing services to your community.

That’s where plumbing scheduling software comes in.

Scheduling software offers an easy-to-use solution to daily scheduling and customer communication tasks. This software automatically reminds customers of upcoming appointments, allows potential customers to schedule online, and gives your team members a unified location to plan their workloads and work schedules.
Scheduling software could make your life as a local plumbing business owner a lot easier. Read on to learn more about this revolutionary software and how you can incorporate it into your business practices.

What Is Plumbing Scheduling Software?

At first glance, “plumbing scheduling software” may sound like a complex program that will take time for you and your team to learn. In reality, however, scheduling software can simplify and streamline many aspects of your day-to-day workload.
Plumbing scheduling software is a program that your business can use through your website and as a mobile app to streamline several aspects of your scheduling process. Plumbing scheduling software from companies like Weave can simplify processes such as:

• Customer appointment creation
•  Customer communication
• Employee scheduling
• Employee communication
• Appointment cancellations

You don’t have to be a tech expert to implement scheduling software in your business practices. When you work with the Weave team, we will handle all of the onboarding and implementation processes for you then teach you how to use the straightforward software to optimize benefits to your plumbing business.

How Scheduling Software Offers Flexibility in the Plumbing Industry

As a plumbing business owner, your schedule probably varies dramatically from day to day. Some days you spend more time in the office, while on others, you spend more time working with customers directly. Plumbing is a flexible profession, and incorporating scheduling software into your daily routine will help enhance your flexibility.

Scheduling software makes it easy for employees and customers to specify their availability for appointments. Customers can schedule appointments on your website and see all open time slots for their desired service. If they need an emergency service, they can see the next available emergency time slot.

Additionally, employees can use the scheduling software to assign themselves to previously scheduled customer appointments. This software removes the headache of working around employee availability and creating weekly schedules that give all employees a fair workload.

Overall, scheduling software makes it easier for your business to be flexible with scheduling and meet customers’ and employees’ unpredictable, last-minute demands.

What Are the Benefits of a Plumbing Scheduling Software?

Utilizing plumbing scheduling software within your business can provide a range of benefits for you, your employees, your customers, and your overall business success. Here are some of the primary benefits that plumbing scheduling software can provide.

Streamline Customer Appointment Process

Scheduling customer appointments is one of those routine tasks that probably takes up a significant portion of your day. Customers can call with their appointment requests at any time. When they do, you need to drop everything, open the schedule, and find a time that works for the customer—taking your attention away from other pressing tasks. Research shows that 80% of callers sent to voicemail will hang up, which means you lose their business.

One of the most valuable benefits that scheduling software can provide is streamlining the customer appointment process. Through this software, customers can schedule their own appointments on your business’s website without needing to talk to you or your team directly.

When customers open your online scheduler, they will be able to input information about their service needs, view available appointments, and choose a time slot that works for their schedule. Your software will then send your business a notification about this new appointment and send the customer a confirmation email.
Scheduling software takes the middleman out of the customer appointment process, allowing you and your team to focus on more pressing tasks.

Automate Customer Communication

Communicating with customers is one of the key aspects of improving customer satisfaction and showing your commitment to customer needs. However, given how busy your and your team’s schedules are, you may tend to neglect regular customer communication.

Scheduling software allows you to automate customer communication while keeping your messages personalized and friendly. In a poll by Nuance Communications and Research Now, 95% of respondents prefer text message communication over voicemail. You can customize the messages that the software automatically sends to customers. These will make communications sound like they are coming from your team.

At Weave, our scheduling software utilizes Smart Confirmations to confirm customer appointments. The software can send a pre-appointment text message to the customer that reads something like:

“Hi Lisa,

You have a plumbing appointment on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Does this time still work for you?”

The customer can then respond to the message in whatever way they see fit. If they send an affirmative text, such as “Yes,” “Works for me,” or “I can make it,” the software will automatically interpret their response without you having to review it.

Improve Customer Retention

Encouraging past customers to schedule routine maintenance appointments is an excellent way to improve customer retention. Plumbing scheduling software can send auto texts to customers to remind them to schedule maintenance appointments after a predetermined time, such as six months or a year.

You can also use these auto texts to communicate with customers about their satisfaction after previous services. Automated messages make it easy to prioritize customer retention without spending time physically calling or typing out text messages to customers.

Eliminate Scheduling Gaps

Keeping a full schedule every day can be challenging, mainly when customers cancel appointments at the last minute. Plumbing scheduling software can help your team eliminate scheduling gaps and quickly book new appointments in cancellation slots.

Companies that implement scheduling software see a 29% reduction in no-shows and canceled appointments on average.

At Weave, our scheduling software includes a Quick Fill feature that reaches out to customers automatically to fill time slots. You can add specific customers to a Quick Fill list to let them know about new appointment openings. When a slot opens up, the software will text them to inform them of the new opening.

Simplify Employee Scheduling

Because plumbing is such a flexible industry, creating balanced employee schedules each week can be challenging. However, plumbing scheduling software can simplify employee scheduling by allowing your technicians to schedule themselves into open slots.

The software also makes it easy for you to fill in gaps when an employee calls in sick. You can use the software along with the mobile app to send a message to all of your technicians about the open shift. This process allows employees to schedule themselves in available shifts without communicating by phone with you or other technicians.

Enhance On-the-Go Employee Communication

If your technicians ever need to call customers about a last-minute schedule change or to ask a question before a job, they probably do not want to call them from their personal cell phone numbers. Thankfully, scheduling software facilitates on-the-go employee communication by allowing technicians to use their cell phones to call from your business phone number.

You and your technicians can also communicate with each other about scheduling changes between jobs or while you are away from the office. The software makes it easier to stay connected to technicians without needing to meet with them in person.

Why Should Your Plumbing Scheduling Software Have a Mobile App?

Using plumbing scheduling software on your business’s website offers increased convenience and efficiency to those who visit the website, such as your customers. Pairing the website compatibility with a mobile app creates complete flexibility for you, your technicians, and your customers.

The Weave mobile app allows you and your team to view upcoming service appointments, initiate automated texts, and reach out to customers from any mobile device. This app creates more flexibility for your plumbing team and allows your business to take advantage of all of the above benefits whether you are in the office, on a job, or at home.

Scheduling Changes Due to Cancellations & Emergency Calls

Scheduling software also makes it easier to work around last-minute scheduling changes and prioritize emergency appointments. If customers need an emergency plumbing service, they can categorize their service as an emergency in the scheduling form. Doing so will send an automatic message to your team, allowing you to prioritize their appointment in your schedule.

Let Weave Handle Your Plumbing Scheduling

At Weave, we specialize in making scheduling as automated and straightforward as possible for businesses like yours. Our plumbing scheduling software can allow you to spend more time on your essential plumbing services and less time on customer scheduling and communication.

If you’re interested in learning more about Weave, our plumbing scheduling software, or would like to see our software in action, schedule a demo with us.