PlumbingBossPro Blog — Dispatch & Scheduling

Dispatching Plumbing Calls for Property Managers and Landlords With Many Addresses

Property managers and landlords can be some of the best accounts a plumbing company has. They have many units, they call often, and they pay reliably when you make their lives easy. They can also be the most frustrating to dispatch, because the person who calls is not the person at the door, and the address changes every time.

Multi-Address Accounts on the Board

Restaurant groups, covered in Routing Restaurant Grease-Line Jetting Every 14 or 30 Days, are one kind of multi-location account. Property managers and landlords are another, with less recurring work and more service calls.

In PlumbingBossPro, one client can have many addresses. Each address keeps its own equipment, access notes and job history. The property manager is the client. The rentals are the addresses.

The Tenant Problem

The biggest challenge in rental plumbing is access. The manager calls in the job, but the tenant is the one who has to be home, let the tech in and put the dog away. When the office only talks to the manager, the tech often shows up to a locked door.

A few habits fix most of it:

• Get the tenant contact on every call. Name and phone, written on the job.
• Ask about notice. Some leases or managers require advance notice to the tenant before entry.
• Note lockbox or key details in the access notes on the address, if the manager uses them.
• Note pets, parking and where the water heater and shut-off are on the address so the next visit is easier.

Grouping Calls by Area

Property managers often have several units in the same neighborhood or complex. When calls come in from the same manager over a few days, look at where they are on the map. Two calls in the same complex should go on the same van on the same day if the urgency allows. Auto-route will put them back to back.

For true emergencies, like a burst pipe flooding a unit below, skip the grouping and send the closest van.

Equipment Records Pay Off Here

Rentals see a lot of different techs over the years. Equipment records on each address mean the tech knows what is there before arriving: the water heater's type, size, fuel and year installed, where the main shut-off and sewer cleanout are, and any access notes. When something changes on a job, such as a new water heater, the change flows back to the address.

Managers also value having that history. When they ask how old the water heater in Unit 4 is, your office can answer. More on that in Dispatching With the Equipment Already on the Card: Sending the Right Plumbing Van the First Time.

Approvals and Estimates

Many managers want to approve anything above a certain amount before work starts. That is a policy between you and the manager, but the workflow is simple: the tech diagnoses, the office builds an estimate, and the manager approves it online. The approved estimate becomes the scheduled job, ready to put on a van.

Write each manager's approval rule in the client's notes so the office and techs know when to stop and ask.

Keeping Everyone Informed

Automatic alerts go to the contacts on the account based on the alerts they chose: night before, when they're next and when the tech arrives. Make sure the right person gets them. For many rentals, the tenant needs the “on the way” text more than the manager does.

Two-way texting from the office covers the back and forth: confirming access with the tenant, sending the manager a quick update, or asking for approval on extra work.

One Monthly Statement

Managers do not want a separate invoice for every faucet. A client set to Monthly billing gets one statement each month covering every address, with each line labeled with the address. The manager can see exactly which unit each charge belongs to, and your office sends one bill instead of a dozen.

Recurring Work Across a Portfolio

Some managers also want maintenance across their units, such as a yearly water heater flush at every rental. Each address can carry its own recurring schedule, and the visits come due on the Waiting List map one by one. Grouping due units by area onto the maintenance van keeps the drive time down, and every visit still lands on the same monthly statement for that manager.

Making Managers Easy to Serve

Property manager accounts reward the plumbing shops that make them low-effort: clear access notes, grouped calls, equipment history, quick approvals and one clean bill each month. Set those up once and every new call from that manager gets easier. To see how dispatch supports multi-address accounts, visit the PlumbingBossPro plumbing dispatch software page.