Winter Call Volumes: Planning the Phones Before the First Cold Snap

For plumbing and heating firms, the first cold week of the year brings more calls than any other. Boilers that sat idle all summer fail on the same few days, and every customer wants someone today. Firms that plan for it keep their regulars. Firms that do not spend the week apologising.

Look at last year

Go through last winter's diary or call log and count the enquiries in the busiest fortnight. Compare it with a normal fortnight. That gap is what you are planning for.

Decide who answers

One person cannot fit boilers and answer forty calls a day. Agree in advance who takes calls in working hours, who covers evenings, and what happens when both are busy. There is a useful piece on how plumbers lose emergency jobs to the next number on the list, which sets out the options for covering the phone.

Set priorities before the rush

Write a short list: no heating with a vulnerable person in the house comes first, then no hot water, then noisy or inefficient systems. Share it with whoever answers. A clear order stops the loudest caller jumping the queue.

Stock and suppliers

Order common parts early: pumps, diverter valves, thermostats, expansion vessels. Check your merchant's opening hours over Christmas and keep a second supplier's number to hand.

Tell customers what to expect

Update your voicemail, website and messages with realistic response times. People accept a wait when they are told about it honestly. They do not accept silence.

Review in spring

Note what ran out, which days were worst and how many calls you missed. Next winter's plan starts from those notes.