How-To

Dispatch Software for Small Business: How to Send Your Next Call

By Travis Evans, Founder of TradeGOAT · 20+ years in the trades

In a small shop, dispatch is usually a phone call and a text. The customer calls the office, the office calls a tech, and everybody hopes the address and the problem made it across. Dispatch software for small business should make that faster without turning it into a project.

In TradeGOAT, sending a call takes one screen. Here's how to send your next one.

Step 1: Start the call

1. Click Dispatch in the left menu.
2. Click New dispatch.
3. Answer What do they want?: Something's wrong, They want a price, or They have a question.

Step 2: Fill in the call

The form asks what a dispatcher would ask on the phone.

1. Who's calling? Pick the customer.
2. Which unit? Pick the equipment, if the call is about one.
3. What's wrong? Type it the way the customer said it.
4. How fast do they need to answer? Set how quickly the tech needs to pick it up.

Step 3: Pick who's going

1. Under Who's going?, choose Pick your tech.
2. If you're not sure who's closest, open Where my crew is from the dispatch board first. It shows your crew on the map.
3. Click Send dispatch.

Step 4: The tech takes it

The tech's phone buzzes with the call. He taps On it, and the office sees he has it. From there you watch the call move along: on his way, on site, done, all the way to the ticket being closed out when the customer's work is finished.

The ticket he fills out on site is your own ticket, in your wording. When he finishes it, the customer gets the signed copy by email and the office has it on the job.

Who it's for

Dispatch comes with the Pro plan, and it's built for a shop with a handful of trucks and one person running the office. You don't need a dispatcher on staff. Whoever answers the phone can send the call from the same screen.

What you end up with

Every call is written down once, in one place, with the customer, the unit and the problem attached. Your tech gets the same information the office has. When the customer calls back to ask where things stand, you can see it without making another phone call.

You can drive the rest of the tool in the demo at thetradegoat.com/demo.html, with nothing to sign up for.