GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Dispatch

From Service Request to Scheduled Garage Door Job

Garage door work arrives from everywhere. A phone call at 7am. A website form filled out at midnight. A request tapped into the customer app by a homeowner whose keypad stopped working. An email from a property manager. Each one is a job waiting to happen, and each one is a job that can be lost if it lives in a different inbox from the schedule.

One Pipeline Into the Schedule

The customer app's live map, covered in You're Stop 4 of 9: The Customer's Live Route Map for Garage Door Visits, is what customers see once their visit is on a route. This article is about how the request gets there in the first place.

In GarageDoorBossPro, requests from the different places a customer can reach you end up where the office schedules from. The goal is simple: no matter how the customer asked, the office sees it in the same system as every other job.

Where Requests Come From

• Website request form. A homeowner fills out the request form on your website. It flows into Form Responses in GarageDoorBossPro.
• Website sign-up form. For customers signing up for a service, like a yearly tune-up plan, the sign-up form captures their card. One click converts a sign-up into a client.
• Customer app. Existing customers can request service from the customer app.
• Phone and text. The office adds the job directly, often while the customer is still talking. Two-way texting keeps the conversation in the system.

Requests on the Waiting List Map

New requests show up on the Waiting List, the same live map and list that holds every recurring visit that has come due. That matters for routing. A request from a homeowner on the north side appears as a pin right next to the three yearly tune-ups due on the same street. When the office builds the north-side day, the request goes on the same route.

For the full picture of the map, see The Waiting List Map: Every Garage Door Visit That Came Due, on One Screen.

It also helps with requests that are not urgent but are close to work already planned. A homeowner who asks for someone to look at a noisy door next week is a perfect add-on to a tune-up day on their street. The request sits on the map until a route passes by, and the customer gets a visit sooner than if it had waited for its own trip.

Urgent Requests Skip the Line

Not every request should wait for the next route through that area. A website request at 6am that says “spring broke, car stuck inside” is a same-day call, and it goes straight onto today's board for the repair van. That is why someone should check new requests first thing in the morning and again through the day, especially on cold mornings when overnight requests pile up.

A quick reply by text, like “Got your request, we can be there late morning,” tells the customer someone is on it, and keeps them from calling three other companies.

Requests That Need an Estimate First

Some requests are not ready to schedule as jobs. “We'd like a quote on a new door” or “Our opener is old, what would a replacement cost?” need an estimate. The office builds the estimate from the service list, with equipment details like door size, material and opener type filled in, and sends it. The customer approves it online, and the approved estimate becomes the scheduled job, with the details carried over. Estimate follow-up emails nudge the customers who have not answered yet.

For installs, the approved job usually goes to the install van on a booked day. For repairs, it may go on the next route through the area.

New Customers Become Clients

When a request comes from someone new, the office creates the client with their address, and the address is placed on the map. If the tech finds and records the door and opener at the first visit, those are saved on the house. The next request from that customer, whether it is next week or in three years, comes in with the equipment already known.

New customers can also be offered the customer app right away, so the next request comes through there, and so they can see the live map on visit day.

Nothing Waits in an Inbox

The test of a request pipeline is simple: does every request end up either scheduled, estimated or answered? With requests on the Waiting List and sign-ups in Form Responses, the office can see what has not been handled yet in one place, instead of searching email, voicemail and a website dashboard.

For how requests fit with the dispatch board, routing and customer texts, go back to the garage door scheduling software page.