So basically I got into this thing with our dispatch team because I feel like we're sending customers way too much info that they don't actually read or care about, right? Like we send these long automated updates with technician name, estimated arrival, job status, parts ordered, blah blah blah. And I was talking to this homeowner last week who was like "I just want to know when you're showing up" which made me think... what if we're overcomplicating this?
So I guess my question is like, from the field side but also dispatch/ops side — what do your customers actually open? What do they respond to? Because I feel like we're writing novels when maybe a text with "on our way, 20 min out" is all anyone wants. But then I'm not the one who gets the angry calls if we don't tell them enough, so... idk. Curious how other teams balance this.
Connor, this is a **great** question and honestly one we wrestled with for months before landing on something that actually works.
What we found: **customers care about two things** — certainty and control. Everything else is noise.
Here's what we actually send now:
- **Booking confirmation** — date, approximate window, what to expect
- **Day-of "en route"** — technician name + photo, live ETA, direct contact number
- **Job complete** — what was done, next steps if any, invoice link
We **removed** the in-progress updates, the "technician dispatched" messages, the parts delay notifications (unless it's multi-day). Our open rates on the "en route" text went from 34% to 78% when we stripped out the extra stuff.
Pro tip: A/B test your message length. We ran two versions for a month and the shorter one won decisively on both opens and CSAT scores. Let me know if you want our message templates — happy to share what we landed on.
oh wow 78% is way higher than ours, we're probably sitting at like 40% on a good day. the photo thing is interesting too — we don't do that but i can see how it builds trust before you even ring the doorbell. thanks for the offer on templates, that would actually be super helpful if you don't mind sharing?
oh wow 78% is way higher than ours, we're probably sitting at like 40% on a good day. the photo thing is interesting too — we don't do that but i can see how it builds trust before you even ring the doorbell. thanks for the offer on templates, that would actually be super helpful if you don't mind sharing?
