Client Stories
Specific outcomes from scheduling and office systems work — not star ratings from anonymous accounts.
"Before the review we had three different diaries and nobody trusted any of them. Helen sat through our Tuesday dispatch and did not flinch when Dave and Tom both turned up at the same Modbury job. Now the office prints one daily run sheet and the boys mostly stick to it. We still miss the odd callback — old habits — but it is nothing like last winter when we had customers waiting three days for a sparkie who was already on site."Mark Trewin, owner — Trewin & Sons Electrical, Salisbury Scheduling & Dispatch Review · March 2025
"Honest about what we could fix ourselves versus what needed a part-time admin hire. The quoting checklist alone saved us arguing in the van about whether we had measured the hot water unit clearance. Sandra in the office says follow-ups are faster too, though we have not tracked exact conversion numbers — that would be lying."Sandra Pike, office manager — Coastal Plumbing Group, Glenelg Quoting Workflow Audit · January 2025
"David's capacity spreadsheet looked simple and I was sceptical. Turns out we were booking six jobs a week we physically could not finish before Easter. We cut back, annoyed two customers, but the crew stopped doing overtime we were not charging for. Wish we had done this years ago."James Voight, director — Voight Building Services, Mount Barker Crew Capacity Planning · November 2024
Extended story: Northern plumbing firm
Client: Family plumbing business, Elizabeth North — 8 staff, 3 vans, mix of maintenance and small renovations.
Problem: The owner's wife handled phones part-time. Emergency jobs jumped the queue without anyone updating the whiteboard. Invoices lagged by up to twelve days because completed job sheets sat in glove boxes.
What we did: Two site visits, mapped enquiry sources (phone, SMS, Facebook), created a colour-coded board legend, and introduced a end-of-day SMS from each tech with job number and status. No new apps — they used existing mobile plans.
Outcome after 60 days: Average invoice lag dropped to four days (self-reported). One double-booking incident in eight weeks versus roughly two per week previously. Owner noted the SMS habit took a month to stick and two techs resisted at first.
Extended story: HVAC maintenance contractor
Client: Commercial refrigeration and split-system maintenance, Hindmarsh — 14 field staff, service agreements with restaurants and aged care.
Problem: Preventative maintenance visits were scheduled in a shared calendar but reactive call-outs were logged on a separate notepad. Contractual SLAs were missed twice in one quarter.
What we did: Combined reactive and planned work into a single weekly planning sheet. Defined who could authorise overtime on weekends. Wrote a one-page SLA reference for the office.
Outcome: No missed SLA in the following two quarters (client monitoring). Office manager said the weekly sheet added fifteen minutes to her Friday but saved hours of phone tag on Mondays.