The way in
Nights and weekends.
A call at 02:14 either becomes your job or becomes somebody else's job. There is no third outcome, and that is why this is the part that matters most.
01 Why this first
It is the smallest change and the easiest one to check.
- Your main number does not change. Out-of-hours calls are pointed at Atum. Everything in office hours carries on exactly as it does today.
- Nobody in your company has to learn anything. The technician on call gets a message on the phone they already carry.
- You can check every single call. There are not many of them, they are all recorded, and they are all written up. You will know within a week whether it is any good.
- If it is wrong, it is wrong small. One part of the week, one number, and it can be pointed back at your voicemail in an afternoon.
02 One night, minute by minute
Pick the one that looks like your week.
Three nights, so you are not reading somebody else's trade and translating it into your own. Each is written from the rules the system is built to run on, not from anybody's file. Different business, same seven steps.
You fit and service cooling. It is 02:14 on a Saturday.
02:14
The phone rings.
A café owner has come back to lock up and found the walk-in fridge sitting at eleven degrees with the whole weekend's stock in it. She has your number because you put the unit in two years ago. It is Saturday night. Your office closed at five on Friday.
Today, on most trades numbers, this reaches a voicemail. She will not leave one.
02:14
It is answered on the second ring.
Your company's name, and a question: what has happened? No menu, no "press one for emergencies", no hold music. She starts talking immediately, which is what people do at two in the morning.
02:16
It finds out what is actually going on.
This is the part that decides whether the rest of the night goes well. It asks the same things your best dispatcher would ask, in the same order, and it does not move on until it has an answer.
02:17
It decides: tonight, or the morning.
Against your rules, written down once and changeable whenever you like. Which postcodes you will drive to at night. Which customers have a contract that says somebody comes. Which kinds of problem are worth waking a technician for, and which genuinely can wait eight hours.
When it is not sure, it wakes somebody. That way round, always. A technician who drives out for nothing is annoyed; a customer who was told to wait and lost a freezer full of stock is gone.
02:18
Your technician's phone goes.
The address. What is wrong, in one line. What has already been turned off. How to get in and who has the key. The customer's mobile number so he can ring on the way. Not "call the office". There is nobody in the office.
If he does not acknowledge it within a few minutes, the next person on the rota is called. Then you.
02:19
She is told what happens next.
A name, roughly when he will be there, and a number that reaches a person. She is also told the one useful thing she can do in the meantime, which tonight is keeping the door shut and moving nothing.
This is the moment the job stops being at risk. She has an answer, so she stops working down the list of the other four companies in the area.
07:30
You read it over coffee.
One page. What came in overnight, what was decided and why, who went, what is still open, and what each of it is worth. Nothing to type up afterwards, because it was written down while it was happening.
You let and look after villas. It is 23:50 on a Friday.
23:50
The phone rings.
A guest who landed this evening has let himself in with the code you sent and the air conditioning in two of the four bedrooms is blowing warm. Four people, a lot of luggage, and nobody at the property. Your office closed at six.
Today this reaches a mailbox nobody opens until morning. He will not wait for it. He will start writing the review instead.
23:50
It is answered on the second ring.
Your company's name, and a question: which property, and what is wrong? No menu, no hold music. He is tired and he starts talking, which is what people do at midnight after a flight.
23:52
It finds out what is actually going on.
Which villa, which rooms, whether the units are dead or only blowing warm, whether a breaker has gone, and whether the water and the pool are fine as well. The same things your manager would ask before deciding whether to send anybody out at midnight.
23:54
It decides: tonight, or the morning.
Against your rules, written down once and changeable whenever you like. Which properties have somebody who can attend at night. Which faults are worth waking a technician for and which are a fan and an apology until nine. Whether the guest has just arrived or is halfway through the stay, because those are not the same problem.
When it is not sure, it wakes somebody. That way round, always. A guest who was told to wait until morning puts that sentence in the review, and the review outlives the repair.
23:55
Your maintenance man's phone goes.
The property and the gate code. Which rooms. What the guest has already tried. The guest's own number so he can ring on the way, and the language the guest is speaking. Not "call the office". There is nobody in the office.
If he does not acknowledge it within a few minutes, the next person on the rota is called. Then you.
23:56
The guest is told what happens next.
A name, roughly when he will be there, and a number that reaches a person. He is also told the one useful thing he can do in the meantime, which tonight is putting everybody in the two rooms that are cold.
This is the moment the stay stops being at risk. He has an answer, so the night becomes a story about somebody turning up rather than about nobody picking up.
08:10
You read it over coffee.
One page. What came in overnight, which property, what was decided and why, who went, what is still open, and which owner needs telling before he hears it from somebody else. Nothing to type up afterwards, because it was written down while it was happening.
You manage buildings for the people who live in them. It is 01:40 on a Sunday.
01:40
The phone rings.
A resident on the fourth floor has water running down the wall of her hallway and it is not coming from her own flat. She has your number because it is the one on the notice board downstairs. It is Sunday. Your office closed at five on Friday.
Today this reaches a voicemail. Then she rings the chairman of the association at home, and by Monday the problem is you.
01:40
It is answered on the second ring.
Your company's name, and a question: which building, and what is happening? No menu, no "press one for emergencies", no hold music. She starts talking immediately, which is what people do at two in the morning.
01:42
It works out whose problem this is.
The address, the block, the floor and the unit. Then the question that decides the whole night: is the water inside a flat or in the common parts? That is what settles who pays, who has to authorise it, and which contractor is allowed to be called.
01:44
It decides: tonight, or the morning.
Against your rules, written down once per building and changeable whenever you like. Which buildings have a contract that says somebody comes. Which faults are always an emergency, whatever else is true: water, no light in a stairwell, somebody shut in a lift. And how far you may commit at night without asking the committee.
When it is not sure, it wakes somebody. That way round, always. A contractor called out for nothing is an invoice you can argue about; a leak left until Monday is a ceiling, and it is your contract at the next meeting.
01:45
The right contractor's phone goes.
Not any plumber. The one on that building's own list. The address, the block, the unit, which riser it is, what has already been shut off, who will be at the door, and the caretaker's number if the building has one.
If he does not acknowledge it within a few minutes, the next firm on that building's list is called. Then you.
01:47
She is told what happens next.
Which company is coming, roughly when, and a number that reaches a person. She is also told the one useful thing she can do in the meantime, which tonight is finding out whether anybody is home in the flat above her.
This is the moment it stops being a complaint. She has an answer, so on Monday it is a repair to report rather than a committee asking why nobody picked up.
07:00
You read it over coffee.
One page. What came in overnight, which buildings, what was decided and why, which contractor went, what is still open, and what has to go in the minutes. Nothing to type up afterwards, because it was written down while it was happening.
03 What it asks
The seven questions.
Triage is the whole job. Who goes, how fast, and what is on the van all depend on getting these right at two in the morning, from somebody who is upset.
- Where
- Street, town, and how to get in after hours. Whether there is a key, a code, or a person who has to be woken up.
- What kind of place
- A house, a shop, a restaurant kitchen, a plant room, a data room. It changes who should go and what it is worth.
- What is happening
- Water, no heat, no cooling, a smell, a noise, a shutdown, a tripped breaker. In their words first, then narrowed down.
- How bad
- Is it spreading. Is anything electrical near it. Is anybody at risk. Is anything about to be lost. Stock, a floor below, a batch, a server.
- What is off
- The stopcock, the isolator, the boiler, the main. Often the single most useful minute of the whole call.
- Is it yours
- Did you install it, do you maintain it, is there a contract. That decides both the priority and who pays.
- Who and what number
- Who will be there when the van arrives, and a mobile that reaches them in the next ten minutes.
04 Who decides
You do. Once, in writing.
Nothing about the night is decided by us or invented on the call. In week one we sit down and write your rules out, in plain sentences, and you correct them until they are right. Then they run every night without drifting.
- Which areas you will drive to between midnight and six, and which you will not.
- Which customers have a contract that says somebody comes, and what it promises.
- Which problems are always an emergency, whatever else is true.
- Which problems are never an emergency, and what the caller is told instead.
- Who is on call, on which nights, and who is called when the first person does not pick up.
- What a night callout costs, and whether the caller is told that number before somebody drives out.
You can change any of it from your phone, on a Sunday, in about a minute. The rota especially. It changes constantly in every company we have ever looked at.
05 Honestly
What it will not do.
Every one of these is a decision, not a limitation we are hoping you do not notice. A system that answers your phone at night in your company's name can do real damage if it is allowed to improvise.
- It will not diagnose your equipment over the phone. It gathers facts and it triages. It does not tell somebody what is wrong with their boiler.
- It will not promise a price it has not been given. If your callout charge is not written down, it says a technician will confirm the cost.
- It will not promise a time your rota cannot keep. It says what it knows and no more.
- It will not pretend to be a person. If somebody asks, it says what it is. Getting caught lying about that at two in the morning costs you the customer and the reputation.
- It will not overrule the caller on urgency. If they say it is an emergency and it is not sure, it escalates. Being woken up unnecessarily is a cheap mistake; the other one is not.
- It will not quietly drop a call it cannot handle. Anything it cannot deal with goes to a human, with everything already said attached.
The night is the way in, not the whole thing.
Once the phone is right, the same system takes on the quoting, the follow-ups, the everyday messages and your website, because it already knows every customer who has called you.