How to handle after-hours plumbing calls.

Why the evening phone matters.

ServiceTitan's call-trends guide says trades businesses receive 10.7% to 12.1% of calls outside business hours, nearly 1 in 8, measured over five fiscal quarters. The page does not print the dates, so do not treat it as a figure for a specific year. It is a reason to have a plan.

Booking drops after dinner. ServiceTitan's October 25, 2022 article covers more than 3,000 ServiceTitan businesses in the United States and Canada. Only the average and the trade rates are dated June 2022: a typical shop booked 42% of calls, plumbing 43%, electrical 41%, HVAC 38%. Shops with 25 or more technicians booked 59%. Shops with fewer than five booked 24% overall. After 6 p.m., small shops booked 9% of calls, down from a 26% peak, and large shops went from a 61% peak to 21%. That 9% is for small shops, not the 24% overall rate. Mornings were the peak, and plumbing showed little variation across the year. Do not price the night with your morning booking rate.

A separate cut on the call-trends page uses different size buckets. Shops with more than 50 technicians booked 58% of calls. Shops with 10 or fewer booked 30%. Do not mix those size cuts with the booking-article groups above. A two-truck shop should not copy the 50-truck answer.

Four ways shops handle after-hours calls.

Pick one, write it down, and stop mixing them by accident.

The voicemail row rests on a 2016 Moneypenny study: 69% of callers who reached voicemail hung up without leaving a message. The longer comparison, including when to keep the mailbox, is in voicemail vs. missed-call text back.

Sort every call into three buckets.

Write these in your own words and keep them where the on-call person will see them.

• Leave and call for help. Gas smell, or a suspected gas leak. The caller leaves the home and calls the gas utility or 911. That is not a visit the text schedules.
• Call back tonight, if you choose. Water they cannot shut off, or sewage that is spreading. The text is set up not to promise a visit or a time. You see the alert and decide whether to call back.
• Can wait until you open. A next-week question, or water that is already off, when they did not call it a leak. Any mention of a leak is marked urgent on your alert. If the caller asks about timing or coming in while you're closed, the text can say the shop is closed and someone will reach out after it reopens.

Callers use "emergency" for anything wet. Sort by whether the water is still moving, not by the word they picked.

Triage questions for the callback.

Ask these when you or a tech calls back. The text does not run this list. It collects a name, the service, the address, how urgent it is, and a time they prefer.

1. Is water still running, or has it stopped?
2. Can they reach a shutoff, under the fixture or at the main, and turn it without forcing it?
3. Is anyone without water, or without a working toilet, until this is fixed?
4. What is happening, in one sentence? A photo of the spot helps if they can send one.
5. What city is the job in, and what is the service address?
6. What time would work if this can wait? That is a preference, not a booked slot.

Skip the price on the first reply. Get the facts, then have a person say the money.

Safety lines that come before anything else.

If the caller reports a gas smell, the first instruction is to leave the home and call the gas utility or 911 from outside. Do not ask them to find a shutoff or to wait inside. This guide does not print a utility number.

On a StreamLeadX text, a gas smell is handled first. The text tells them to leave and call the shop's gas utility or 911. The lead is flagged urgent. The service does not monitor emergencies and does not dispatch. The HVAC page is the short version of that line.

Any mention of a leak is marked urgent on your alert, and so is flooding. Shutoff advice belongs in your greeting or in the callback a person makes.

Setting expectations, including the after-hours fee.

The fee is yours. Some shops charge one, some roll it into the job, and some waive a simple shutoff. None of that is in the software. Write one sentence and use it every time. Do not put a dollar amount in a recording unless you will honor it.

Clearbrook Plumbing is closed. If we come out tonight, there is an after-hours fee, and the person who calls you back will tell you what it is before anyone drives over. If this can wait until morning, say so. We don't give an arrival time on this line.

The automated text does not quote that fee. The line it uses when someone asks the price is: "I can't give a price by text. The team will give you a quote." A person on your team gives the quote. A preferred time the caller types is a note for you, not a slot you have confirmed.

How a missed-call text back fits after hours.

You still try to answer. No-answer forwarding sends only the calls you miss. The codes are in how to forward unanswered calls. If the mailbox answers before the forward, the text never starts.

1. The caller hears a short message that the shop will text them. The call then ends. They do not leave a voicemail on that leg.
2. Only a new caller gets the permission text, from the dedicated StreamLeadX number: "Hi, it's the Clearbrook Plumbing text line. Sorry we missed your call! We'd love to help by text. Reply YES to continue, or STOP to opt out." A caller who already replied YES skips that ask.
3. After a new caller replies YES, the confirmation is: "Thank you! What can we help you with today? Reply STOP to opt out anytime." The thread then collects a name, the service, the address, how urgent it is, and a time they prefer.
4. If the caller asks about timing or coming in while you're closed, the text can say the shop is closed and someone will reach out after it reopens. The text is set up not to promise a visit or a time.

Any mention of a leak is marked urgent on your alert, and so are flooding, no heat, no AC, and a gas smell. Those alerts name what they reported. If the shop is paused, or a new caller is over the plan limit, they hear a short message asking them to try again later, and no text goes out. Callers can reply STOP to opt out at any time, and HELP for help. After STOP, nothing else is sent. See the SMS policy. The texting number has to be carrier-registered (A2P 10DLC) where that applies.

The product page for this trade is plumbing. The shared overview is missed-call text back. Heating calls that show up on the same line are covered on the HVAC page.

Writing your on-call rules.

One page is enough. The software will not rotate a schedule for you. You decide who holds the phone, and you change the alert number when that person changes.

• Who gets the alert. One number, plus a backup if the first person does not see it. Pick a wait you will actually follow.
• What a callback tonight means. Use the three buckets for your own call. A gas smell is leave-and-call. The text is set up not to promise a visit or a time.
• The fee sentence. The words above, or your own. A person says them. The text does not.
• When you stop. After a clock time you write down, only the callback-tonight bucket gets a drive. Do not renegotiate it on each call.

A finished lead still alerts the number you set, including a Tuesday request that comes in late. The service does not hold shop alerts overnight. If that ping should not ring a pillow, send it to a phone you can silence. Urgent words, including any mention of a leak, are marked on the alert.

Tracking it for a month.

For one month, count missed calls after your close time. Use the phone bill or the call log, not your memory of the bad nights. Split them from calls you answered. Then use your own math:

Missed after-hours calls × the share of calls you actually book × your average job.

Do not drop a national dollar figure into that formula, and do not use your morning booking rate for the night. In the October 25, 2022 ServiceTitan article, small shops booked 9% after 6 p.m. against a 26% peak. That is not the 24% overall rate for shops with fewer than five technicians. The June 2022 average for a typical shop was 42%. That is their book of business, not yours. If the month is mostly "come next week," you do not need a night truck. If it is mostly water that was still running, the on-call sheet matters more than a new greeting.

Shops in Los Angeles County.

A shop in Los Angeles County, including Glendale, Pasadena, Burbank and the Foothills, gets the same after-dinner calls as a shop anywhere else. This guide does not claim a special volume for those cities, and it does not name a water utility or print a utility number. Write the three buckets, the fee sentence, and the backup. Point unanswered calls at the mailbox or a text back, and test once from another phone. The plumbing page, pricing, and a demo are there when the text is the destination you want.

Want the 9:47 p.m. call to land as a text?

StreamLeadX texts the calls you miss after you close. If the caller asks about timing or coming in while you're closed, the text can say the shop is closed and someone will reach out after it reopens.

Plumbing · HVAC · Pricing · Get a demo · Missed call text back

How to forward unanswered calls · Voicemail vs. missed-call text back

Sources: ServiceTitan, "Data Report: Average Call Booking Rates," October 25, 2022 (June 2022 figures are the 42% average and the trade rates; the evening and shop-size cuts are reported separately). ServiceTitan, "Call Trends in the Trades" (five fiscal quarters; the page does not state the dates). Moneypenny Small Business Call Report, November 21, 2016.