Phil breaks down why field-service businesses have empty schedules: wishes without a plan. He outlines three low-cost moves to fill the week: call customers who haven't booked in 12 months with a location-specific offer, revisit old estimates with a limited-time deal, and text your entire database a $20-off promo tied to when your technician is in their city.
A goal without a plan is just a wish, and that's why your schedule is empty next week. A lot of people wish that shoulder season was different. They wish that they had a full schedule. I had 28 technicians that I had to make sure their 14 routes were booked. You need a plan, and here's the plan. If you need stuff on the calendar next week, do this one. Go into your database and find everyone that didn't work with you for the past 12 months and call them and say, hey, it's been 12 months since we came out and did whatever service it is. We're going to be in your neighborhood next week and want to see if we can stop by 2, go through all of the estimates that you sent out last year that ghosted you. They didn't get back to you. They said no. And reach out to them and say, hey, are you still having this problem with your home? Were you able to solve this problem? It agitates the pain. And then you can say, I have a promo going on right now, and I wanted to see if it might be something that you're interested in. Those people are already at the bottom of your funnel ready to convert. They might just need a quick promo to get over the edge. And then the third thing is do a text message campaign to your entire database. Even if they worked with you for five years ago, send them a text that says, hey, this is Phil. I'm going to be in a specific city. Let's say it's Dallas. I'm going to be in Dallas next week doing whatever service that you offer, since I don't have to pay for gas, since I'm already going to be there, I'm giving a $20 off promo. Do you have any projects you need to get taken care of? Those three things will fill your schedule next week and it will give you a plan so that way you're not wishing for jobs on the books.
