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How do you handle technician scheduling during peak seasons?

Mike Dolan

HVAC peak season is here and my dispatch board looks like a accident scene. We're already running 60 hour weeks and I'm still turning away jobs.

Currently have 12 techs, normally handle 8-10 calls per day per tech. Right now we're at 14-16 and quality is starting to slip. Callbacks are up.

What actually works? I don't need theory, I need something I can implement Monday morning.

Specifically:

  • Are you using temporary/contract techs? Worth the training overhead?
  • Overtime vs hiring — where's your break-even?
  • How do you prioritize when everything's "urgent"?

Also — anyone using the new bulk assignment feature that shipped last month? Saw the announcement but haven't had time to test.

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  • Pro tip from the field: if you're running overtime, feed your techs.

    Seriously. We started providing dinner for anyone working past 6pm. Cost us maybe $15/head. Callback rate dropped because techs weren't rushing to get home. Morale improved. Small thing, big impact.

    Re: bulk assignment — feature works well but watch out for the timezone bug documented here. If your techs cross zones, appointments can shift by an hour in the dispatch view. Sync issue, not display issue. Workaround is setting everything to company time in Settings > Regional.

  • in reply to Josh Mercer

    omg yes the dinner thing, my old company did this and basically we would stay until 9pm sometimes because the food was good and we didn't want to lose the habit lol

    but also yeah the timezone bug is real, happened to me last week where I showed up an hour early to a job and the customer was like why are you here, awkward, had to sit in the truck for 45 minutes

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  • in reply to Josh Mercer

    omg yes the dinner thing, my old company did this and basically we would stay until 9pm sometimes because the food was good and we didn't want to lose the habit lol

    but also yeah the timezone bug is real, happened to me last week where I showed up an hour early to a job and the customer was like why are you here, awkward, had to sit in the truck for 45 minutes

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