Answer What Time the Technician Is Coming on WhatsApp
This recipe answers “what time is the technician coming” on WhatsApp from the job in your field service software. It checks the person asking is the customer on the booking, gives the time window and any status the technician has set, and when the window has already started without news, tells dispatch so a person can call the technician. Part of the aircon and home service workflows.
What happens today
On a job day, every customer asks the same thing. “What time is the technician coming?” at 8am. “Still coming?” at 10.15am. The dispatcher looks up each booking, calls the technician, who is on a ladder, and replies. By noon the dispatcher has spent an hour on arrival questions and the technicians have taken a dozen calls on site.
Most of these customers only need the window they booked. A few need a person to find out what is happening.
The flow that works
- The customer asks when the technician is coming. AeroChat finds the job in your field service software by the phone number they are messaging from.
- If the window has not started, it gives the date and window, and what to prepare.
- If the job has a status or note from the technician, such as on the way or running 30 minutes late, AeroChat passes it on.
- If the window has started and there is no news, it says the team is checking, and notifies dispatch with the customer’s name, address and window. Dispatch calls the technician and replies in the same conversation.
- If the customer wants to change the time, it offers new windows and moves the job.
AeroChat replies when the customer asks. It does not send arrival alerts on its own. If you want a heads-up message before each job, your field service software can send it when the technician sets off, or your technician or dispatcher sends it.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks when the technician is coming, follow these steps.
- Find their job for today or the next booked date in our field service system by the phone number they are messaging from. If there is no match, ask for the name and address on the booking. If it still does not match, hand the conversation to dispatch.
- If the job’s time window has not started, give the date and time window, and remind them to clear the area under each unit.
- If the job has a status or note from the technician or dispatch, such as on the way or a new arrival time, pass it on.
- If the time window has started and there is no status or note, say: “The team is checking with the technician now and will reply here shortly.” Notify dispatch with the customer’s name, address, service and booked window.
- If the window ended more than 30 minutes ago (example) and the job is not marked as started, apologise, hand the conversation to dispatch, and tag it “late job”.
- If they want to change the time, offer up to three new windows from our field service system for their zone and move the job.
Never give an arrival time that is not in the job, its status or a note. Never share the technician’s personal phone number. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the late-job threshold and the wording to your own before you paste it.
What to connect
- Your field service software. The same connection as the service booking recipe. ServiceM8, Jobber or Housecall Pro connect through their APIs. In ServiceM8, create an API key in its settings. In Housecall Pro, generate an API key from its app store (API keys are on its MAX plan). For Jobber, sign in and approve the access. Technicians update the job status and notes from the software’s own mobile app.
- Running a small team from Google Calendar? Connect your Google account when AeroChat asks, and approve the access. Keep the customer’s phone number in each job, and technicians add a note, such as a new arrival time, from the Google Calendar app.
- Team notifications. Dispatch gets alerts in the AeroChat inbox and mobile app, and replies in the same conversation.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- How wide your time windows are.
- When a job counts as late, and who handles it.
- Whether technicians update the job status when they set off or are running behind.
- Whether the technician or dispatch messages the customer before arriving.
AeroChat gives only the times, status and notes on the job. It does not track where technicians are.
The result to expect
Most arrival questions are answered in seconds from the booking. Dispatch only handles the jobs that are actually running late, and technicians take fewer calls while on a ladder.
Measure it with your own numbers: arrival questions dispatch handles by hand on a job day, before and after you start.
Next: warranty and repeat issues. See also WISMO (where is my order), the same question in online retail.
Take arrival questions off dispatch
Paste the recipe, book a test job for your own number, and ask “what time is the technician coming?”.
Start your 7-day free trial. No credit card needed.
On Shopify? Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store.