Running a small plumbing business? You know how the daily grind — juggling calls, dispatching technicians, tracking inventory — can wear you down and take you away from serving customers.
That’s why it’s high time you streamlined operations with plumbing scheduling software. Managing customer information, generating estimates, dispatching work orders, processing payments – it handles it all. This business management software solution lets you focus on growing your plumbing business, not running it.
Read on to learn more about the benefits of implementing this must-have technology.
The challenges of running a small plumbing business
Having your own plumbing business may seem ideal, but it comes with many headaches. Between handling customer service, scheduling jobs, managing technicians, and keeping the books, running operations can feel like a full-time job in itself.
Juggling customer demands
Providing great customer service is key to happy and loyal customers. But fielding calls, scheduling estimates and service appointments, and handling complaints can take up hours of your day.
Keeping track of a mobile workforce
Dispatching your technicians to jobs in a timely manner and ensuring they have the right tools and information for each work order requires close coordination. Without an automated system, managing your mobile workforce can feel like herding cats.
Overwhelming paperwork
From invoices and estimates to work orders and payroll, plumbing businesses generate a ton of paperwork. Administrative tasks like accounting, billing, and expense reports often fall to the wayside, creating messy backlogs.
How plumbing scheduling software can streamline operations
As a small plumbing business owner, you know that effectively managing your operations is key to success. Here are the main ways that plumbing scheduling software streamlines your business.
Simplify scheduling and dispatching
Plumbing scheduling software makes it easy to schedule jobs, dispatch technicians, and monitor them in real time. You’ll have a live map view of all your technicians and jobs so you can make adjustments on the fly.
Improve customer service
With a centralized customer database, you’ll have each client’s information, job history, and notes in one place. This allows you to provide top-notch customer service and quickly access details for return clients. You can also enable online booking so customers can schedule at their convenience.
Automate work orders and invoicing
Plumbing scheduling software generates professional work orders and invoices for you. Technicians can access work orders on their mobile devices, update job details in real time, and upload photos. Once a job is done, the software uses the details to automatically generate an invoice for you to send to the customer.
Gain valuable insights
Plumbing scheduling software gives you insights into business operations so you can make better decisions. See which technicians and services are most productive and profitable, and track expenses versus revenue to ensure you’re charging properly for services. Identify areas that could use improvement to boost efficiency.
Integrate with other systems
The best plumbing scheduling software solutions integrate with other programs you already use like accounting, payment processing, and marketing software. This eliminates the need to enter data in multiple places and ensures all your systems are always up to date with the latest customer and job information.
Key features to look for in plumbing service scheduling software
As a small plumbing business owner, you need software that can handle both the operational and administrative aspects of your company. Look for plumbing service software with robust features like scheduling, dispatching, estimating, and customer relationship management.
Scheduling and dispatching
Effective scheduling and dispatching tools allow you to optimize your technicians’ time, route them efficiently between jobs, and provide accurate arrival windows to customers. With an automated system, you’ll save hours of time building complex schedules manually. Look for software that provides real-time job status updates, drag-and-drop schedule editing, and automatic route optimization.
Estimating and invoicing
Professional plumbing estimating software makes it easy to provide fast, accurate estimates to customers. It should calculate costs for parts and labor based on your business’ rates and pricing tables. Once a job is complete, it should generate professional invoices that you can email or print to send to your customers. Software with payment processing allows customers to pay right from the invoice, for a streamlined experience.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A good CRM system helps you keep track of your customers and provide excellent customer service. It should store details like contact info, job history, notes, and more for each customer. Look for a solution that makes it easy to review past jobs, see what was done, and access any important notes before heading out for a new call. A CRM with scheduling features lets you match returning customers with their preferred technicians when possible.
Mobile app
For plumbing businesses, mobility is essential. Look for plumbing software that offers an iOS and Android app so your field technicians can access schedules, customer information, maps, and more right from their mobile devices. A mobile-friendly solution means your techs can update job statuses, capture customer signatures, and enter notes right at the job site, keeping all your data up-to-date in real time.
Integrations that boost efficiency: accounting, payment processing, and more
As a small plumbing business owner, using software that integrates seamlessly with other small business tools is key to running an efficient operation. Look for a plumbing scheduling software that connects to these useful programs.
Accounting
Linking your plumbing software to accounting software like Quickbooks eliminates double entry and ensures your books are always up to date. When you enter payments, invoices, and expenses in your plumbing software, the data automatically syncs to your accounting system. No more wasting time on manual data entry and reconciliation.
Payment processing
For fast, convenient payments, choose plumbing software that integrates with payment processors like Stripe or PayPal. Your customers can pay right away using credit cards or eChecks, and the payments post directly to your accounting system. Some plumbing software solutions even offer their own payment processing services, allowing you to save on processing fees.
Other integrations
- Estimating and bidding software to quickly generate estimates and convert them to jobs.
- Field service management software to optimize scheduling, dispatching, and managing your field technicians.
- Project management tools to keep large or complex jobs on schedule.
- Marketing software to run email campaigns, social media, and more.
With a robust set of integrations, your plumbing software becomes the hub of your business. All your data flows through one centralized system, giving you unmatched visibility and control in real time. The benefits to your small plumbing business in time savings, improved organization and efficiency can be huge. Choosing software with a wide range of integrations will help you scale and reach your full potential.
Choosing the right plumbing business software solution for you
As a plumber, you already have enough on your plate without having to juggle multiple software solutions. Using an all-in-one plumbing business software solution helps simplify your operations, reduce paperwork, minimize errors, and provide better customer service.
Streamlined scheduling and dispatching
Field service software with plumbing dispatch and scheduling features lets you plan jobs, route your technicians efficiently, and ensure they have the right tools and parts. The software should provide real-time job updates and GPS tracking to give you full visibility into your team’s schedules and locations.
With an all-in-one solution, scheduling and dispatching is integrated with your customer database, work orders, and billing, saving you time and hassle.
Managing customers and work orders
Good customer service is essential for any small business. Look for plumbing software that provides a customer database to store details like service history, billing info, and communication logs in one place. It should let you create digital work orders, schedule jobs, and email customers updates and invoices.
A customer portal where clients can view upcoming appointments, approve estimates, and pay bills online further streamlines the process.
Handling accounting needs
As a small plumbing business owner, accounting and payment processing are crucial to your operations. Software with integrated accounting handles areas like estimates, invoicing, payment processing, and financial reporting. It automatically logs hours worked, parts used, and expenses for each job to save you time.
Some solutions offer payment processing so you can accept credit card payments onsite and online.
The right plumbing scheduling solution improves your plumbing business
If you’re still managing your operations manually, it’s time to streamline your business with an all-in-one software solution. Plumbing scheduling software can help you manage customer information and work orders in real time. With the right software solution, you can grow your plumbing company and improve customer satisfaction.
