Storm-season booking plan: emergency slots vs planned work

The morning after a storm the phone does not stop. Every caller has a problem, and every one of them wants you today.

Say yes to all of them and your booked customers get pushed back, some for weeks. Say no to all of them and you turn away the most urgent work of the year.

The answer is a plan made before the storm: what counts as an emergency, how many you can take, and what happens to everything else.

• Keep reserved slots in the diary from October to March.
• Write down what counts as an emergency.
• The first visit is make-safe only. The repair is a second, booked visit.
• Booked installs keep their dates.
• Do not go up until the wind has dropped.

From autumn onwards, leave a few half-day slots a week unbooked.

In a calm week, release them two days ahead and pull small jobs forward. In a storm week they are already there, and nobody has to be moved.

It feels like wasted space until the first named storm. Then it is the only reason the week holds together.

Write the list now, so you are not deciding on the phone.

• Water coming into the living space.
• Anything loose that could fall: tiles, ridge, a chimney pot, guttering hanging off.
• A hole in the roof, or exposed felt and battens.
• Damage that makes the building unsafe to be in.

Not an emergency: a slipped tile with no leak, a gutter joint dripping, a fence panel. These are real jobs, and they go in the normal queue with a date.

Ask every caller for photos from the ground and from inside. Photos sort out the order faster than any conversation.

The first visit after a storm is to stop the damage getting worse: a temporary cover, loose material removed, the area below made safe.

Price it as its own job, with its own call-out charge, and agree it before you travel.

Then book the full repair as a planned job with a written price. It is better work, and you can fit more make-safe visits into the first two days, when people most need them.

Never go up while the wind is still strong. If the damage cannot be reached safely, make safe from inside and from the ground, and come back.

A customer who booked a new roof six weeks ago has planned around it: scaffolding, time off, deliveries.

Do not move them for storm repairs. Use the reserved slots, early starts and the make-safe approach to fit the urgent work around them.

If the weather itself stops a booked job, that is different. Tell them early and give the next dry date.

Many storm jobs end up as home insurance claims. Customers need evidence, and you can supply it.

Take dated photos before and after the make-safe. Give a short written report of what you found and a written price for the repair.

It takes ten minutes, and it is often the reason you get the full repair and not just the call-out.

• Block your reserved slots through to March.
• Write your emergency list and your make-safe charge.
• Stock up on temporary sheeting, battens and fixings.
• Save the two messages below.

Emergency:

I can get to you [today / tomorrow] to make it safe. That visit is £[amount] and covers a temporary repair. I will then send a price for the full repair and book it in. Please send photos from outside and inside so I bring the right materials.

Not urgent:

Thanks for the photos. That is safe to leave for now and it is not letting water in. I am dealing with emergencies first, and I can do yours on [date]. If anything changes, ring me straight away.