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How do you prevent dispatchers from becoming a bottleneck?

Brandon Okafor
We've got 14 techs in the field and one full-time dispatcher who's starting to burn out. Every scheduling decision flows through her. Every reschedule, every emergency call, every 'can I leave early' request.

This isn't sustainable. My team can't move forward until we solve this.

What are you doing to distribute dispatch decisions? Self-scheduling for senior techs? Regional dispatchers? Automation rules?

Need something that scales without adding headcount 1:1.
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  • Thanks so much for asking this! We're at 9 techs and I can see this coming.

    One thing I'm curious about — how do you handle the customer communication side? Right now our dispatcher also manages all the 'your tech is running late' calls and rescheduling with customers directly. If we distribute scheduling, do we also need to distribute customer contact? Or does that stay centralized?

    Also has anyone tried using the customer portal for self-service rescheduling? We're wondering if that would take some load off or just create more confusion. Really appreciate any insights!
  • in reply to Deja Washington
    Deja, we piloted customer portal rescheduling last quarter. The team was split on results.

    What worked: Customers who used it loved the control. Reduced 'where's my tech' calls by about 30%.

    What didn't: Same-day requests still needed a human — system couldn't assess urgency or tech availability in real time. Also had some customers abuse it, rescheduling 3+ times.

    We ended up limiting portal rescheduling to 24+ hours out. Everything same-day flows to dispatch. Reduced volume enough to matter without eliminating the role.

    Re: customer comms — we kept that with dispatch. Techs update status, dispatch handles the conversation. Techs just want to work, not negotiate arrival times.
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  • in reply to Deja Washington
    Deja, we piloted customer portal rescheduling last quarter. The team was split on results.

    What worked: Customers who used it loved the control. Reduced 'where's my tech' calls by about 30%.

    What didn't: Same-day requests still needed a human — system couldn't assess urgency or tech availability in real time. Also had some customers abuse it, rescheduling 3+ times.

    We ended up limiting portal rescheduling to 24+ hours out. Everything same-day flows to dispatch. Reduced volume enough to matter without eliminating the role.

    Re: customer comms — we kept that with dispatch. Techs update status, dispatch handles the conversation. Techs just want to work, not negotiate arrival times.
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