ElectricalBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Dispatch

Storm Days and Power Outages: Scheduling an Electrical Company Through the Rush

Every electrical company knows the feeling. A storm rolls through overnight, and by 7am the phone is ringing nonstop. Generators that did not start. Houses where the power came back on but half the circuits did not. Damage where a tree limb took down the line to the house. Homeowners who suddenly want a generator quote. The normal schedule is still sitting there, and it is not going to fit.

The Day Crew GPS Was Made For

The previous guide, Crew GPS on the Office Map: Which Electrical Van Is Closest to the New Call, ended with a nod to storm days. This guide is about running the schedule through one.

Whether the work is safe and what needs doing at each house is the electrician's call, and calls involving the utility's side of the service belong with the utility. What follows is only about the scheduling side: getting the right vans to the right houses with the fewest wasted trips.

First, Clear Room on the Board

Before the new calls go anywhere, look at what is already scheduled. On a storm day, most planned work can move:

• Recurring visits like yearly safety inspections and generator maintenance can move to next week. They stay due until completed, so they will not drop off.
• Small service work like a ceiling fan install or a fixture swap can usually wait a day or two.
• Installs are a judgment call. A panel upgrade crew already committed to a house may need to finish. A generator install booked for today might be better pushed so the crew can help with outage calls.

Move the flexible jobs on the board and send each customer a two-way text explaining why. People are understanding on a storm day if they hear from you early. For the mechanics, see Rescheduling Electrical Jobs: Moving a Call to Another Day or Another Van.

Sort the Incoming Calls

On a storm day, the office is triaging, not just booking. Your company should decide ahead of time, in writing, which kinds of calls go first. The person answering the phone writes down what the customer describes, in their words, and follows your company's rules for priority. They do not diagnose.

Each call becomes a job for the client and address. Customers already on file come with their equipment saved on the house: the main panel, any generator and transfer switch, and the access notes. For generator customers, the tech knows the generator's brand, rating and fuel type before arriving.

Spread the Work by Map

Storms rarely hit evenly. One neighborhood gets the worst of it. With crew GPS on the office map, the office can:

• Send the closest van with room to each new call
• Group calls in the same area onto one van
• Re-route vans as the day fills up, by hand or with auto-route
• Pull the install crew onto service work if their install moved

Keep Customers Informed

On a storm day, every customer wants to know when. Being honest about the wait helps more than anything. The automatic texts still do their part: on-the-way and arrived texts go out as the tech works through the route, so customers do not have to call to ask. Customers in the customer app can see their place in line on the live map.

Texts count against the monthly allowance on each plan, and a storm day can use a lot of it. Short messages go further.

Expect Long Days, Plan the Next One

Storm work often runs into the next day and beyond. At the end of each day, look at tomorrow on the board. Anything that did not get done today goes there, along with whatever new calls came in late. Night-before reminders go out based on that schedule, so getting tomorrow right before evening matters.

After the Rush

When things calm down, the Waiting List will have a backlog of recurring visits that were pushed. They show as due now or overdue, so nothing was lost. Group them by area and work through them over the next week or two.

Storm days are also when homeowners start thinking about generators. Calls asking for a generator quote can become estimates, then approved estimates, then scheduled install days. A yearly maintenance plan follows each install. See Booking Whole-House Generator Install Days on the Dispatch Board.

Ready Before the Next Storm

The shops that handle storm days best have the basics in place before the weather turns: equipment saved on every house, customers with working contact info, a clear office script and one board everyone can see. To see how storm-day scheduling fits with the dispatch board and crew GPS, visit the ElectricalBossPro electrician scheduling software page.