Mike Callahan here. Had a questions submitted via Facebook, I wanted to answer it. I know it is in the hot heat of the summer in most areas, but it was actually a snow plowing question. Gentleman’s ramping up for next season, and he wants to know– quick question, when doing residential, how long from the time that snow has ended until the phone calls start coming in, when are you coming? So he wants to know– he keeps his route in around six hours, but the complaints start rolling in at around three hours. Well, a two-pronged approach or two-pronged answer to this question. First thing, let’s deal with the time of the actual route itself. In my business, we are averaging anywhere between five to six hours for a routing, and we are in the third-largest snow area in the United States, in Upstate New York, in Rochester. So probably the worst right there, so it’s probably a good benchmark for just about any market.

So we’re looking between five and six hours per route. On residentials, we are routing a route so crew one starts here, a crew starts here, and they meet in the middle. So each crew through our mobile app and hard-copy, in case something happens, has copies of everybody’s route with maps and contact information live on the cloud as well as hard-copy in a binder because you never know what is actually going to happen. So first thing is routing those routes so they run into each other for efficiency. So if there’s a breakdown or one individual is faster or stronger than the other person plowing, that those routes combine into each other for efficiency and breakdowns.

And one of the articles I wrote for Lawn and Landscape magazine, we also strategically placed equipment in the service area for backup, where they could be grabbed for back up equipment within probably an 8 to 10 area away from the route. And in addition, we also contracted subcontractors in the local area that could cover the areas where those two routes combine if we had a catastrophic breakdown, an accident or a major snow event a foot or more. We would pull those subcontractors and then keep it, that five- to six-hour range. Now, obviously, when the whole city shuts down, that’s a whole different story. So the routing, I’m guessing six hours, depending on your market, is probably not that bad. I would shoot between five to six hours. So if we send the trucks out between midnight, 1:00 AM, they should be done between 6:00 and 7:00 AM, that’s what we suggested.

Now, the second part of that is communication. So going into that, 6:00 to 7:00 AM, it was clearly stated in the contract, and we require to sign contract with payment for residentials via credit card or check, no cash, so it had to be prepaid before November 1st and a written contract signed. If you either one of those were missing, no go. We would not service the property. So we made sure that they understood that we were not guaranteeing an exact time, but we shot for morning runs between 6:00 and 7:00 AM. And after that were new runs between 4:30 and 5:30 when everybody got home from work. So clear communication started from the initial contract. Once the crews were dispatched, now depending on the time of day, in the middle of the night, we did not use text messages, but we can use mass text features and a voice over IP, voice over internet provider, such as RingCentral or, in Service Autopilot, we created automations to do such. So we would go out and let everybody know through either a text blast and email blast or even a Facebook Messenger blast through a product called ManyChat, we can go in and get all of our snow plow customers and Facebook Messenger and blast that out. So we use communication letting the consumer know that the crews have been dispatched at approximately this time, and we are projecting this time completion, barring any catastrophic disasters and we would give them an update of the condition. So we were very transparent upfront the contract what we set as an expectation, but we wouldn’t guarantee it. Every time we went out, we would send out an email, text or Facebook message, depending on the time of the day. Text messaging is great but don’t make the mistake that we did and send out a text message in the middle of the night or a Facebook Messenger blast as well. Email worked really well for the middle of the night.

In addition, about midway through the event, if it was running late or, traditionally, every time we had a chance, myself or a manager would make a video and put it on social media. And that video would just basically give them a quick background of what was going on in the storm event we were at in our projected end time. Now, if we did have a breakdown, maybe we got hit with a late bout of snow right before 5:00 in the morning and everybody’s been sleeping and think we’ve been up plowing all night but we haven’t been. We would put that in a mass communication private list to each client, as well as social media. A lot of times, we find– and this gentleman saying about three hours into the route, he would get the complaints. They start rolling in. Traditionally, they’re really not complaints. They’re just people’s curiosity wanting to know where you’re at and they get anxious. So by through and creating a mass communication via email, text or Facebook Messenger, you can alleviate a lot of those calls.

Now, the key to this is in it please do not reply unless there is an emergency because a lot of people will respond, “Thanks for communicating. This, that, the other.” That will absolutely bury your office or if you’re a one or two-person show in the office or the overnight crew, that will absolutely destroy your communications and you will be backed up. So make it very polite but make it understood that please do not respond to this unless it’s an emergency situation. Explain that we’re trying to keep the phone lines open for any emergencies that we need to address immediately. So those are the main points.

I think we need to go between five and six hours on a residential route. We need to have routes routed so they run into each other for any backups, breakdowns or anything that– if it’s going to happen, when it happens in the snow removal industry, we will need it to go out and have some backup equipment if possible in the area. And that we also need to go and create strategic alliances with other snow plow contractors in the area and get them on as subcontractors and backups for breakdowns, accidents, and, especially, for those massive events that we would get in the Northeast for a foot or more of snow in four or five hours. That’s when those subcontractors and paying them right after the event is going to save your butt and keep you in good sense with your customers.

Second part of that is communication, communication, and communication. When we dispatch them, if it’s the middle of the day, we can use text messages. If not, the middle of the night we want to either use probably email but after, if it’s not during sleeping hours, text message and Facebook messaging blasts work really, really well. But remember to have them not respond to those unless it’s an emergency. That should answer the majority of the question. But a lot of it is just proactive planning, being transparent with people and a lot of it is education before we even make the sale. I used to use a lot of the videos. I still use the videos in a lot of our sales process to educate people what to expect when they’re hiring a snow plow professional, what the things they should be asking when hiring a snow plow professional. And overcoming any of the awful conceptions or misconceptions, really, of our industry of fly-by-night people not showing up, what happens if there is a breakdown, all the things that we really don’t want to answer you should answer those upfront so people are comfortable with you and they’re not going to call you in the middle of the night or if you’re backed up during a major snow event. Be proactive. Be honest. Tell them how you handle the good, the bad, and the ugly. And that should alleviate a lot of the phone calls and create transparency and great customer service. Any comments or questions, drop them below and great question. And hopefully we don’t see the winter months for at least a few months here because I’m starting to at least enjoy upstate New York starting to warm up for once.