A plumbing day is two businesses running at once. One is planned: installations, replacements, the bathroom that was booked three weeks ago. The other arrives by telephone and cannot wait. Scheduling software for plumbing is judged on how gracefully the second interrupts the first, because the interruption is not the exception, it is Tuesday.
Hold a gap, and defend it
The businesses that cope with emergency work leave capacity for it rather than promising it away by nine in the morning. On the worked example this site publishes, 6 technicians at 5.2 jobs is 31.2 a day; booking 31 of those before the phone rings is the decision that makes every emergency somebody rescheduling. Leaving two slots open is a scheduling policy, not a gap in the diary.
The window is the promise, and it is the reputation
Nobody remembers a four hour window that was met. Everybody remembers a one hour window that was missed. Windows are also where the driving hides: travel inside the working day is paid time under the Department of Labor rules on travel that is all in the day work, so a board that treats the drive between two jobs as free is overbooking every plumber on it.
What the interruption actually costs
On the same worked example, 14% of 655 calls a month get moved at about eleven minutes of dispatcher time each, which is 16.5 hours and $528 at $32 an hour. The bigger number is what never happens at all: 6% is 39.3 jobs and $11,200 of invoicing. Emergency work is worth taking; it is worth knowing what taking it displaces.
Parts, and the second visit
A large share of plumbing jobs that need a return visit need one because of a part. Whether or not your software holds stock, the schedule has to hold the fact: a job marked needs a return visit, with what it is waiting for, is the difference between a customer who is told and a customer who rings you.
Questions people ask about plumbing scheduling software
How much capacity should be left for emergencies?
Enough that a normal day absorbs them without moving anybody. Look at how many arrived each day last month rather than guessing, then hold that many slots.
Should emergency calls be priced differently?
That is your commercial decision and this site will not make it. What the schedule can tell you is how much planned work each emergency displaced.
Does this handle plumbing dispatch as well as scheduling?
Yes, and they are different acts. Scheduling is tomorrow. Dispatch is redealing today when a call comes in at half past ten.