Easter backlog clean-up: prioritise jobs without annoying customers
Clear a backlog by sorting it, not by working faster. Urgent and promised jobs first, longest waits next, low-value jobs moved to a later date with a firm day attached. Then tell every customer where they stand.
Easter takes two bank holidays out of the diary, and the school break slows everything around them. Jobs slip, and by late April there is a pile.
The pile is not the problem. Silence is. A customer who has been told "the week of the 11th" will wait. A customer who has heard nothing rings someone else.
Quick version
- List every job you owe, with the date the customer first asked.
- Sort them into red, amber and green.
- Ring the longest waits first, before they ring you.
- Give each one a real date, even if it is three weeks away.
- Stop taking new work into this week until the reds are done.
Red, amber, green
Red: anything unsafe or getting worse, and anything where you promised a date that has now passed. A leak, a door that will not lock, exposed wiring, a half-finished job.
Amber: booked and confirmed jobs that are still on time, and people who have waited more than two weeks for a visit.
Green: jobs with no deadline and no damage if they wait. Small, low-value jobs sit here unless they are on your route anyway.
Do the reds this week. Put the ambers into fixed slots. Give the greens a date further out and tell the customer now.
Who to ring first
Start with whoever has waited longest, not whoever shouted loudest.
A call beats a text for anyone you have already let down once. It takes two minutes and it usually ends with "thanks for letting me know".
Offer two dates, not an open question. "I can do Thursday morning or the following Tuesday" gets an answer. "When suits you?" starts another week of messages.
Moving the small jobs
Small jobs are where a backlog hides. Six half-hour jobs in six directions is a whole day gone.
Group them by area and give them a set day: all the north-side jobs on one Friday, for example.
Be straight about it: "I am grouping smaller jobs so I can get to everyone. Yours is booked for Friday the 8th, between 10 and 12." Most customers are fine with a later date if it is a firm one.
Worked £ example
Say the backlog is 12 jobs: 3 red, 5 amber and 4 green.
Worked in the order they came in, the reds might wait a week. One of the three goes elsewhere, and a £300 job is gone.
Worked red first, you lose nothing urgent. The greens wait an extra ten days, with a date, and all four stay.
Do this this week
- Write the full list tonight. Nothing stays in your head.
- Mark each job red, amber or green.
- Ring the longest waits before 6pm tomorrow.
- Block one day for grouped small jobs.
- Close this week's diary to new non-urgent work.
Copy/paste script
Hi [name], it is [your name]. I am behind after the Easter break and I did not want to leave you guessing. I can do [day and time] or [day and time]. Which is better? If neither works, tell me what does and I will fit it in.
FAQ
Should I tell customers I am behind?
Yes. Say it once, plainly, with a date attached. People forgive a delay they were told about far more easily than one they had to chase.
What if a customer will not wait?
Let them go politely and offer to keep their details for next time. One lost green job costs less than a red job done late.
Should I work evenings and weekends to clear it?
For a week, if you choose to. As a habit it hides the real problem, which is taking on more than the diary holds. Close the diary first.
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