Heating engineers: surviving the first cold snap of the year

For months, the boiler sits on standby or is only used for hot water. Then the temperature drops sharply, many households turn up the thermostat on the same weekend, and faults that had stayed silent suddenly show up: a burner that won’t light, pressure too low, an incomprehensible error code.

For the business, this can mean a phone ringing non-stop just when the engineers are out on jobs. The office, where there is one, spends its days saying “we’ll call you back”; where there isn’t, it is the voicemail that overflows.

The best way to absorb the peak is to reduce it in advance. In France, annual servicing of oil, gas, wood, coal or multi-fuel boilers with an output of between 4 and 400 kW is a legal requirement, to be carried out by a qualified professional in each calendar year. Contacting your contract customers in September, rather than waiting for them to call in November, shifts part of the workload to a quieter period.

This reminder has another effect: faults detected during servicing are repaired before the cold arrives, and those customers will not be part of the wave. Emergencies are replaced by planned appointments, which changes everything when it comes to organising rounds.

A family with a newborn baby and no heating at all, an elderly person alone in a cold house, a shop that cannot open: these situations are not handled like a quote request to replace a boiler next summer. But the difference has to be spotted during the call.

A simple questionnaire is enough: heating completely or partly down, hot water available or not, vulnerable people present, make of appliance, contract customer or not. With these answers, the next day’s schedule can be built in a few minutes, without calling everyone back to ask the same questions.

Some of the calls at the start of the season concern things the customer could sort out alone or that are simply a matter of information: how to read the pressure gauge, where to find the reset button described in the manual, what the current lead times are, whether you service a particular brand. These answers can be prepared in advance, based on your own instructions, sticking to what you are happy for customers to do themselves.

One note of caution: as soon as there is any mention of a smell of gas or smoke, call handling must not suggest touching the appliance in any way. It directs the caller to the emergency services without delay: 18 for the fire brigade, which Service-public.gouv.fr, the French government’s public information site, lists in particular for an “explosion or release of gas or toxic fumes”, or 112. The professional only steps in afterwards.

At peak times, the customer’s frustration can stem as much from uncertainty as from waiting. “An engineer will call you back” reassures no one; “we are currently attending within two to three working days, and your request has been logged as a priority” lets the customer get organised, or even arrange a portable heater.

You set this timeframe yourself and update it every morning in the information given to callers. Announcing an honest timeframe also prevents the same customer from calling again and again to find out how their request is progressing.

Alyas can take the line during these busy weeks: the voice agent introduces itself as an AI, answers based on your instructions and lead times, collects the triage information, transfers the situations you consider priorities and gives you the summary of every call, including those made at night. A ten-day free trial lets you set it up before the first cold snap.