ElectricalBossPro Blog — Generator & Maintenance Plans

Filling the Schedule Before Storm Season With Generator Service Visits

Generator customers think about their generators at two times: right after they buy one, and right before the weather turns. The weeks before storm season in your area, whether that means hurricanes, ice storms or summer thunderstorms, are when homeowners want to know their backup power is ready. For an electrical contractor, that is the best window of the year to get plan visits done and to sign up new generator service customers.

The Second Big Selling Moment

The install is the first and best moment to sell a plan, as covered in Offering the Maintenance Plan at the Generator Install. The weeks before storm season are the second. Homeowners are paying attention, the news is talking about the weather, and a yearly generator visit sounds like a sensible thing to have.

The goal for those weeks is simple: every plan customer gets their visit before the season starts, and every generator owner who is not on a plan hears from you.

Start With the Waiting List Map

A few weeks before the season, open the Waiting List in ElectricalBossPro and look at the generator plan visits. The map shows pins colored by status:

• Overdue — past a 7-day grace. These customers should be first on the schedule.
• Due now — ready to go on a van this week.
• Not due yet — visits that would otherwise come due in the middle of the season.

That last group is the one to think about. A customer whose yearly visit would come due during peak season might rather have it a few weeks early. Pulling those visits forward before the weather turns spreads the work out and keeps the vans free for calls when the season arrives.

Build Generator Days

With the visits picked, build dedicated generator days. On the dispatch board, put the visits on a van by area, and use auto-route to order them Closest First or Furthest First from the shop. Print route sheets for the techs, or let them work the list in route order on the tech app.

Many shops have one van on service calls and another on installs, inspections and generators. Before storm season, that second van can run a stretch of generator-only days. Routing a full generator day is covered in detail in Routing a Generator Service Day: One Van, Auto-Route and a Printed Route Sheet.

Text Your Plan Customers

A short text from the office gets a lot of visits on the board quickly. Two-way texting lets the office send a message like “Storm season is coming up. We'd like to get your yearly generator visit done in the next two weeks. Does Tuesday or Thursday work?” Replies come back into the office, where someone can confirm a day.

Once the visit is on the board, automated reminders take over. Customers who chose them get a night-before reminder, an “on the way” text and an “arrived” text on the day.

Reach the Generator Owners Who Are Not on a Plan

Your client list probably includes generator owners who are not on a plan: customers who bought a generator from you years ago and declined, customers who called for one repair, or customers whose plan lapsed. A generator saved on the house tells you who they are, and a tag such as “Generator, no plan” keeps them easy to pull up as a group.

Tag those clients, then send a short email or text offering a one-time generator service visit or a yearly plan before the season. Point them to the customer app, where they can sign up for the plan with their card on file, or to your website sign-up form. Every new sign-up lands on the Waiting List with everyone else.

Use the Visit to Look Around

A pre-season generator visit is also a good time for a broader look. If the plan includes a safety inspection, the tech works the checklist and records the generator and transfer switch test along with the rest. If the house has no whole-house surge protector, that is worth a recommendation. Recommendations become estimates the customer approves online.

The software just records what the tech finds. Your tech decides what the generator needs and does the work. ElectricalBossPro makes sure it is all written down and on the job when the office looks.

Go Into the Season Ready

By the time the weather turns, the Waiting List map should be mostly not-due-yet pins. Every plan customer has had their visit, every generator on the books is on record, and the vans are free for whatever the season brings.

That is a much better place to be than scrambling to find out which customers have generators while the phones are ringing. For how storm season prep fits with records, reminders and billing, visit the ElectricalBossPro generator maintenance software page.