Compical (415) 489-0762

For multi-crew HVAC and plumbing companies

Before you replace your dispatch system, call me.

The call comes in without the gate code, the model number, or what is actually broken. Your dispatcher calls back, types it in again, and your tech still shows up half blind. Somebody will sell you a new dispatch system to fix that. Call me before you buy it and I will tell you whether it does what he says, and whether the software you already run does most of it.

Book the free first call See what a call costs

Where I would start

The job I would look at first.

This is a guess based on businesses like yours, not a diagnosis of yours. On the call we find out whether it is actually your problem.

The job

Getting a call turned into a job your tech can actually run

Where it usually goes wrong

Calls, texts, emails and web forms all land in the same place and half of them are missing something. No gate code. No model number. No real description of what broke. Somebody in your office has to call back and get it, then type it in again, before a tech can use it.

What I would ask on the phone

On the phone I ask how work comes in, what happens to the odd ones, and what your dispatch and customer software already do that nobody turned on. Most of the time part of the quote is a setting you are already paying for. If a fix really needs building, I will say so and tell you roughly what that means.

What stays with your people

Your dispatcher checks the job and decides how urgent it is. Diagnosing the equipment, reading the code book, calling anything a safety issue, setting the scope, quoting the job and setting the price all stay with your qualified people. Nothing goes to a customer or a truck until one of your people has read it and put their name on it.

When a call is worth it

You get the most out of thirty minutes when a few things are true.

  • The same job runs dozens of times a week across more than one crew, so even a small fix is worth real money to you.
  • You can tell me roughly what the mess costs: calls back, jobs typed in twice, work-order corrections, overtime, work you had to turn away. Rough is fine, I am not auditing you.
  • You can get your dispatcher on the phone at some point, because they know things you do not.
  • You are open to the answer being that you already own the fix and somebody needs to turn it on. That is the answer more often than not.

What to call about

Four things worth picking up the phone for.

A question you need answered

Should I be using AI for this. My competitor says he automated his intake, is that real. My office manager wants a new system, do we actually need one. Or nobody is selling you anything at all and you read something about AI and want to know what it comes to for a business like yours. You ask, I answer. Some of these take five minutes.

A contract you are about to sign

Send me the proposal, the contract, the statement of work. I read it and tell you on the phone what it actually commits you to, what is missing from it, and which parts you are already paying for somewhere else.

Getting your people using the AI tools

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, whichever one. I sit with the people who do the work and show them what it is genuinely good at for their job and what it will get wrong. Often that is the cheaper answer than buying anything, because you are probably already paying for one of these and nobody is using it.

A vendor call you want me on

I join the demo with you and ask the things you do not know to ask. Booked in advance rather than on the spot, because I need to read up first.

Who should be on the call

Have whoever runs dispatch on the call if you can.

Owner, president, or whoever runs the place

Own the decision, agree where the job starts and stops, and decide whether what I find is worth acting on.

Your dispatcher, your service manager, and a tech who has seen everything

They say what a job needs on it before a truck rolls, what happens to the odd ones, where the safety line sits, and where a person has to take over. They know things you do not.

Whoever handles the money and the software

In a shop this size that is usually one person, often your office manager, and sometimes it is you. Check my cost numbers, what you are already paying for, who can get at what, what your vendors will allow, and what a fix would depend on.

Limits

Dispatch and technical authority stay with people.

I tell you what the software will and will not do. Every professional, legal and safety call stays with you and your own advisers.

People set urgency and dispatch

It does not decide whether something is an emergency, who gets sent, or what order the day runs in. Your dispatcher does that, the same as now, and your emergency procedure does not change.

Technical work stays with qualified staff

It does not tell you what is wrong with a unit, read the code book for you, call something a safety issue, decide what a job includes, or set a price. Your licensed people do all of that.

Customer commitments require review

Nothing reaches a customer until one of your people has read it and put their name on it: the facts, the timing, the technical wording, any price it mentions, and what you have just promised to do next.

Live records require approval

Anything I try gets tried on made-up records, not your customers. If we ever need your real ones, it happens somewhere you control, and you decide up front who can see them and how long they are kept.

Not a fit

When a phone call is not what you need.

  • You want a written report, a tool comparison, or a list of vendors to go and evaluate. Ask me anything you like on the phone, including what this AI business actually amounts to for a company like yours. What comes back is an answer and a few lines in writing, not a document.
  • You want the machine deciding what is an emergency, who gets sent, what is wrong with the unit, what the job costs, or what gets said to a customer, with nobody checking. That is not something I will help you build.
  • You want everything moved to a new dispatch system, your call center replaced, all your data cleaned up, or a customer app built.
  • Nobody can make the call, nobody owns the job day to day, or I cannot get at your numbers and the people who run it.
  • You want somebody to run the project and deal with the vendor for you. I will do a specific job you point me at, quoted in hours with a number it will not go past before I start. I will not run the project or manage your vendor.

Reference material

Where the limits above come from

These are the industry and government rules the limits above follow. I will walk you through any of it on the phone. What you actually have to do depends on your work, your state, your customers, your contracts, and your own advisers.

What I put at risk

Three things I will put in writing.

Compical is new and I am taking my first clients now. I would rather say that than have you work it out. I cannot point you at one company like yours that I have already done this for, never mind ten. What I can do instead is put something of mine at risk on every single call, which is what the three commitments below are.

Nobody pays me except you

No referral fees, no reseller margin, no commission from a vendor. Nobody pays me to point you at their product. If the answer is that you already own the fix and somebody needs to turn it on, that is the answer you get, and the call ends there.

If it was not worth it, I will not bill you

You hang up, you decide the call was not worth what I charge, you tell me. I do not send the invoice, and you do not have to argue about it. That is on every call, not once at the start. It is about calls. Work you have asked me to build is quoted and paid for before I start it, and that is a different arrangement.

If I read your contract wrong, I fix it on my time

If I tell you a contract is clean and you find out later that it commits you to something I missed, call me. I get on the phone with you and with the vendor as many times as it takes to sort it out, and none of that time is billed. That is not a refund of the call. That is me working the problem I caused.

Start here

Who do you call about this stuff?

The first call is free and takes thirty minutes. I use it to learn what you run and who does what, so the paid calls are short. I am not selling you anything on it, because there is nothing to sell you yet.

Already bought one and it is not doing what he said it would? That is a call too.

Book the free first call