Water doesn't wait. Sewer doesn't wait. Solo plumbers and small shops handle 4-6 after-hours calls per week, and only half of them are real emergencies. Here's how to route the urgent ones to the right tech and let the routine ones wait.
Three urgency tiers (active flooding, no water/no hot water, drip-or-clog) routed to three pools: on-call tech, senior tech for fixture failures, and 'next morning' for routine. Pair the routing with a clear after-hours pricing line so customers self-select.
2-tech shop: alternate weeks. 3-tech shop: rotate, with the senior tech as backup.
Solo plumber: yourself + a partner shop you have a reciprocal arrangement with. Cover each other's vacations and one weekend per month each.
Standard plumbing after-hours rate: $125-$250 dispatch + $30-60/hr premium. Display this in the routing form before the customer commits — keeps disputes minimal.
If customer balks at the surcharge, the issue probably isn't a true emergency. Route to morning.
Customer name + phone + address + issue type + start of damage timeline. Tech gets enough info to bring the right tools.
If the customer added photos via the routing form, those are attached. Saves a wasted truck roll.
Three urgency tiers, three vendor pools, fallback to owner. 14 days free.
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