The Beehive Over the School Gate
The school rings just after the last bell. There is a hive over the main gate and the children arrive at half past seven tomorrow morning. It is not on anybody’s schedule and it cannot wait for one.
What an urgent call needs, in order
Taken and marked urgent
It goes on the same list as everything else, at the top. Not into one person’s phone.
Who can do it tonight
The roster says who is on duty, the staff record says who is cleared for the work. Both answers in the same place.
The nearest man with room
Assigned from the day’s runs, so you are not sending someone across the city when there is a technician two roads away.
The customer told a time
He is told when the man will reach. Half the anger in an emergency is about not knowing.
The record still gets made
On a late call-out it is tempting to do the job and write it up later. The report closes on site as it would at noon, with the chemical, the photographs and a signature. An emergency job is exactly the one somebody asks about afterwards, and the invoice follows from it.
What the office reviews the next morning
- Urgent calls taken yesterday, and how long each waited
- Who attended, and what it did to the rest of his run
- Scheduled visits pushed to make room, and whether those customers were told
- Emergency work billed against emergency work done
It cannot produce a technician out of thin air
At nine on a Sunday evening you have the men you have. What this shows, in half a minute, is who is on duty, who is cleared and who is nearest. The call back to the school then takes two minutes, and the rest is your roster and your reputation.
Frequently asked questions
Does the customer get told who is coming?
Yes. A message with the technician’s name and roughly when he will arrive is prepared, and the desk sends it. For a school or a hotel at night, the name matters as much as the time.
How is emergency work billed?
From the closed job, at whatever rate you charge for a call-out, including for customers already on an AMC where the contract does not cover it. The rate being on the record beforehand saves an argument on the invoice.
What about the visits we had to push?
They stay on the schedule, moved to a new date, and they show as rescheduled rather than quietly disappearing. Someone rings those customers, and an emergency is a reason most people accept if they hear it the same day.
Tell us what you need.
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