How to handle emergency plumbing calls without interrupting every job
If every call might be an emergency, you answer every call. A written definition and a simple escalation path fixes that. Here's how to build one.
By JobsAnswered team · Published · 2 min read
The short answer
Write down what counts as an emergency for your business, decide who should be disturbed for each type and at what times, and make sure everyone who answers your phone uses the same rules. Then routine calls can wait without the worry that one of them was a disaster.
Step 1: Define your emergencies
There's no universal list. Many plumbing businesses treat these as urgent:
- Water that can't be stopped: burst pipes, uncontrolled leaks
- Water coming through a ceiling or onto electrics
- No water at all
- No heating or hot water where someone vulnerable is in the house
And these as routine, however annoyed the caller is:
- Dripping taps and slow drains
- Toilets that run on
- Quotes, services and installations
Decide whether the definition changes out of hours. "No hot water" might be routine on a weekday morning and urgent at 9pm on a Friday with a newborn in the house, or not urgent at all if you don't do emergency call-outs.
Step 2: Separate safety from urgency
Some calls aren't plumbing emergencies at all, they're safety emergencies:
- Smell of gas or suspected gas leak: the caller should call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.
- Suspected carbon monoxide: fresh air, the same emergency number, and 999 if anyone feels unwell.
- Danger to life: 999.
Whoever answers your phone should give that direction clearly and not try to diagnose anything. Then let you know.
Step 3: Decide who gets disturbed
| Situation | Working hours | Out of hours |
|---|---|---|
| Safety call | Caller directed to emergency services; you're told | Same |
| Urgent under your rules | Put through, or urgent text | On-call person, or urgent text |
| Routine | Text, call back at next slot | Text, call back next working day |
If you have several engineers, decide whether urgent boiler jobs go to your gas engineer and urgent leaks to whoever's nearest.
Step 4: Plan for when nobody answers
The most important rule: an urgent call that can't be put through still reaches someone. That means an immediate text with the details, and the caller being told honestly that their details have been passed on urgently, not that someone is on the way.
Step 5: Write it down and test it
Put the rules on one page. Then ring your own number pretending to have a burst pipe, a gas smell and a dripping tap, and check each one goes where it should.
JobsAnswered is built around exactly this kind of rule set: see emergency call triage and call transfer.