In a furnace business, the first hard cold week decides more of the season than any campaign. Calls triple, techs run late, and every decision your dispatcher makes in the moment either protects or burns your replacement pipeline. Dispatch and capacity work means making those decisions in September, in writing, so the board holds together in January. We are a consulting and marketing service, not a contractor; we design the system and your team runs it.
What goes into a peak-season dispatch plan
The plan is short enough to tape beside the dispatcher's screen. It answers five questions.
- Triage order. Which call types go first, and what questions the person answering must ask to sort them (heat source, occupants, age of the system, member or not).
- Slot templates. How each tech's day is divided between no-heat calls, member visits and replacement estimates, with a peak version and a normal version.
- Overflow. What happens when every line is busy or every slot is full: second line, hourly call-back list, after-hours rule.
- Wait-time wording. What callers hear when the next opening is two or three days out, said honestly and with a firm time.
- Escalation. When the dispatcher calls the owner or service manager, and who can authorise overtime.
Who it is for
- shops that miss calls or let voicemail fill up between November and February
- shops where estimates get bumped every time it turns cold
- owners who end up dispatching from a truck
- companies adding a second dispatcher or answering service for the first time
A capacity check you can do now
Count your tech hours for the coldest four weeks of last winter. Say 5 techs work 50 hours a week: 1,000 hours over four weeks. If a no-heat call averages 2 hours with travel and you received 420 of them, that is 840 hours, which leaves 160 hours for everything else. At 1.5 hours per estimate visit, protecting even 60 estimates uses 90 of those hours. If your numbers do not leave room, you know before winter that you need overtime, a sub-trade agreement, or a tighter member schedule in fall.
What is included
- a written triage guide and booking-call checklist
- normal and peak slot templates for each role
- an overflow and after-hours plan
- wait-time and rescheduling scripts for phone and text
- a one-page daily capacity snapshot for the owner
- a short training session and a review after the first cold week
Timeline and measurement
Allow three to four weeks, ideally finished by early October. We measure:
- answered-call rate and booked calls per call received
- estimates kept versus rescheduled during peak weeks
- average time to first available slot, by call type
- overtime hours, so capacity decisions are visible
The dispatcher's script for a full board
When the next opening is days away, what the caller hears decides whether they wait or call the next company. A short, honest script works better than vague promises:
- Acknowledge the problem. "No heat in this weather is stressful, and I want to get you looked after."
- Ask the triage questions. Who is in the home, is there any backup heat, how old is the system.
- Give a real window. "The first opening I can confirm is Thursday morning between 8 and 11."
- Offer the cancellation list. "If anything opens sooner, I'll text you right away."
- Confirm by text with the window and the company name.
For replacement estimate callers, protect a few early or evening slots and offer those first, so the replacement pipeline keeps moving even in the coldest week.
Mistakes to avoid
- No written triage. Every dispatcher sorts calls differently, and members notice.
- Letting no-heat calls eat every estimate slot. You get a busy winter and a thin spring order book.
- Promising same-day service you cannot deliver. Give a real window instead.
- Ignoring texts. Many callers text when the line is busy; somebody must own that inbox.
If missed calls are your main leak, CallText.chat covers missed-call text-back in more depth. Dispatch connects directly to membership plans, where member visits are scheduled, and to owner reporting. See pricing for how this work is quoted.
Frequently asked questions
What should come first on a cold morning?
Most shops rank no-heat calls with vulnerable occupants first, then other no-heat calls, then members, then estimates and tune-ups. The exact order is your decision; what matters is that it is written down before the cold arrives, so dispatchers are not improvising.
Should we stop booking replacement estimates during a cold snap?
Usually not entirely. Protect a small number of estimate slots per day, often early morning or evening, because replacement work is where the season's margin comes from. Pushing every estimate out a week often sends the homeowner to a competitor.
How do we handle calls we can't answer?
Set an overflow rule (a second line, a call-back list worked every hour, or a text-back on missed calls) and staff it. Some shops use a missed-call text-back tool so callers get an immediate reply.
Do you supply dispatchers or a call centre?
No. We design the rules, templates and scripts and train your people to run them. Staffing and the technical work stay with your company.