The decision to make first
Agree which after-hours heating and cooling calls go to the on-call technician and which wait for the morning queue.
Plan for the surge
Set a realistic limit for how many urgent requests the on-call technician can take, and what Ava tells callers once that limit is reached.
Suggested wording to approve
Example wording: “Our on-call technician has your details. If they can’t reach you tonight, the office will call first thing in the morning.”
Test the difficult case
Simulate several urgent calls in a row and check that the backup destination is used when the technician is already on a call.
Worked example
Fictional example: on a cold evening, four no-heat calls arrive within an hour. The first two reach the on-call technician; the next two go to the backup, and the callers are told a person will call back. No caller is promised an arrival time.
Review it in operation
After the first surge, review which calls were truly urgent and adjust the routing list for the rest of the season.
Check before you launch
- Agree the after-hours routing.
- Set an on-call capacity limit.
- Test back-to-back urgent calls.
- Review after the first surge.
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