ElectricalBossPro Blog — Electrical Contractor Software

Night Before, Next Stop, Arrived: Customer Alerts From Electrical Contractor Software

Almost every electrical job needs someone at home. The panel is in the garage, the GFCI is in the bathroom, the generator is behind a locked gate. A tech who pulls up to an empty house loses the stop, and the customer loses a day. Customer alerts are the cheapest way to make sure someone opens the door.

Alerts Live With the Customer

Alerts work alongside the live map described in The Customer App: What Homeowners See After They Hire Your Electrical Company.

In ElectricalBossPro, each customer chooses the alerts they want. Some want every heads-up. Some only want to know when the tech is pulling in. Letting customers choose keeps the alerts welcome instead of annoying, and it means the ones who opted in are paying attention.

The three customer-chosen alerts are the night before, when they are next, and when the tech arrives. On top of those, on-the-way and arrived texts go out automatically from the tech app as the route moves. Here is how each one helps on an electrical job, and what it saves your techs and your office during a busy week.

The Night Before

A reminder the night before tells the customer the visit is tomorrow. For electrical work, that is the moment they remember to clear the shelves in front of the panel, put the dog in the bedroom, or tell you they will not be home after all.

That last one matters. A customer who replies “Can we do Thursday instead?” the night before saves your tech a wasted drive. The reply comes back to the office through two-way texting, and the office moves the job before the route goes out in the morning.

When They Are Next

An alert when the customer is next in line tells them the tech is finishing the stop before theirs. It is the most useful alert for anyone who works from home or is running errands. They have a few minutes to get back, open the garage or the side gate.

Because the tech's route order comes from the dispatch board, this alert is only as good as the route. A sensible order, auto-routed from the shop and adjusted by hand for appointments, means the alert arrives at the right time.

On the Way and Arrived

As the tech works the route, automatic on-the-way and arrived texts go out from the tech app. The tech does not type anything. When they arrive, the customer knows the electrician is at the door, which matters for people in the back of the house or upstairs.

Arrived texts also help with property managers and landlords. A tenant gets a heads-up that the electrician is there, and the property manager does not need to coordinate every visit by phone.

Fewer No-Access Skips

Every skipped job costs drive time and a slot on tomorrow's schedule. In electrical work, the most common reason for a skip is that the tech cannot get in or cannot reach the equipment. When that happens, the tech taps Skip with a note, such as “Nobody home, garage locked,” and the office reschedules.

Alerts do not eliminate skips, but they cut the avoidable ones. A homeowner who got a night-before reminder and a next-stop alert is far more likely to be standing at the door. Yearly inspection and generator customers, who might otherwise forget a visit booked a year ago, get the most out of them.

Text, Email and the Allowance

Alerts and reminders go out by text and email. Texts are counted in segments, and each plan includes a monthly text allowance of segments sent and received: 500 on Start, 1,000 on Pro and 2,000 on Crew. Short, plain messages use fewer segments, and customers who choose fewer alerts use fewer still.

Texting is for customers in the US and Canada. The details of the allowance and two-way texting are in Two-Way Texting and the Monthly Text Allowance in Electrical Contractor Software.

A Small Thing That Feels Professional

Customers notice when a company tells them what is happening. A night-before reminder, a heads-up when they are next and a text when the tech arrives make a small shop feel organized. That feeling carries over to the invoice, the yearly plan offer and the referral.

For your techs, it means fewer locked doors and fewer awkward conversations about why they are early or late. For the office, it means fewer calls asking where the electrician is. To see how alerts connect with dispatch, the tech app and the customer app, visit the electrical contractor software page.