The Mabel blog
Why a text-back receptionist suits heating engineers
Peter Nicholl, founder of Mabel5 min read
The first cold week, a diary full of breakdowns and a phone you can't answer. How Mabel books the routine work, and the gas smell and carbon monoxide lines it sends word for word.
Why is the first cold week the worst week for the phone?
Every boiler that sat quiet all summer gets switched on in the same week, and the ones that won't fire each get a phone call. That's the week you're booked solid from seven till dark and least able to answer. The people ringing aren't browsing. Someone with no heating wants a time, not the promise of a call back tonight, and if they don't get one from you they'll get one from the next name on the list.
Meanwhile the ordinary work keeps ringing too: a service, a landlord's certificate, a radiator that won't heat. None of it is urgent and all of it is money, and it's exactly the work that falls through the gap when you're on breakdowns.
What does Mabel do with a call you can't take?
The caller hears one short spoken message, that you're on a job and a text is on its way, and then this arrives:
Sorry we missed your call to Jones Heating. Adam is on a job. Book in a minute here: mabelhq.co.uk/b/Ab3dE5gH7j Or just reply to this text and we'll take your details here.
They book on the one-page form or by replying. Mabel asks which job, a few words about the fault, the postcode and the house number, and offers only times that are free in your Mabel calendar, inside your working hours, with time to drive between jobs. Connect your Google calendar, or your iPhone calendar in the app, with blocking on and anything in there stays clear too, as do your time off and UK bank holidays. A service enquiry gets booked into a free slot next week while you're on the breakdowns, and you confirm it with a tap.
What does it say when someone can smell gas?
This is the part I care most about, and it isn't left to anyone's judgement. When a customer's text mentions a gas smell, Mabel's reply includes this line, word for word, every time:
If you can smell gas, call the National Gas Emergency number on 0800 111 999 now.
And when the text mentions carbon monoxide or a CO alarm:
If a carbon monoxide alarm is sounding, get everyone into fresh air and call the National Gas Emergency number on 0800 111 999 now. If anyone feels unwell, call 999.
When the job, the text or your business is in Northern Ireland, the number is the Northern Ireland Gas Emergency number, 0800 002 001, instead. You're alerted as well, whatever else is on your urgent words. Mabel is a booking line, not an emergency service, and it says so by giving the right number first.
Which words are urgent for a heating engineer?
A new heating account starts with these: gas smell, smell gas, carbon monoxide, no heating, no hot water, boiler leaking, leak, co alarm and pressure dropping. A text with one of them reaches you straight away with the customer's own words, and they read:
This sounds urgent, so we've let Adam know straight away, and you'll get a call back as soon as possible.
If you've set an emergency number in Settings, that's added to the line. Your own mobile never is.
Which heating jobs can it book?
The heating list at set-up starts like this, with the rough times a new account suggests:
- Boiler service: 1h
- Boiler repair: 2h
- No heating: 2h
- No hot water: 2h
- Boiler losing pressure: 1h
- New boiler quote: 1h
- Boiler replaced: All day
- Gas safety certificate: 1h
A service is an hour, a repair two, a replacement the day. Those times are how Mabel decides what fits where, so a service never lands in the hour you'd need for a breakdown. Change any of them in Settings.
Does Mabel know I'm Gas Safe registered?
Only because we check. If you do gas work, we look at your Gas Safe ID card by hand, with your photo ID and your insurance, before your Mabel number goes live. An account with no certifying body can't put gas work on its menu at all, and a customer who asks for it is told:
That needs a registered engineer, so we can't book it for this business.
You're told too, and no job is made. Mabel doesn't decide who's registered. It just refuses to book gas work for an account that hasn't shown us it is.
Will it diagnose the fault or quote a new boiler?
No. It takes the job they pick, a few words about the problem, the address and a time. It doesn't guess at what's wrong, doesn't quote, and doesn't promise anything you haven't set up. A new boiler quote is a job on the list like any other: the visit gets booked and the quote stays yours.
What are the limits?
A landline caller can't get a text, so they hear that you'll see they rang and will call back. Some people with a cold house will ring the next engineer rather than read a text, and nothing Mabel sends changes that. What it does change is the service, the certificate and the radiator that would otherwise have waited for a call back you never got round to.