What should I check in a plumbing company’s emergency after-hours call arrangement?
Find out who answers the phone, who decides to dispatch, who goes out and how that person is paid. Then check whether the arrangement works without the current owner. An on-call system that depends on the seller’s own phone and goodwill is not something you can simply buy.
Emergency calls can bring strong customers, but they can also wear out a small team. Ask for the on-call schedule and see how it rotates. Is it a fair sharing among technicians, or does one person or the owner carry most of it? Talk to those people about how they feel.
Look at the pay. Technicians usually receive extra pay for standby and call-outs. Find out how it is calculated, how it appears in payroll and whether it is built into the figures you are shown. If the owner does the work personally and unpaid, your costs will be higher after the sale.
Check the call handling. Who owns the phone number, the answering service and the dispatch tools? Ask for logs showing how quickly calls were answered, how many led to jobs and how many were turned away. Finally, ask about the vehicles, stock and tools needed for night work and about any insurance or safety rules the company follows. Compare the revenue from emergency jobs with the cost of staffing them. Ask the technicians too how often they are called out, how long they wait for payment, and whether fatigue has ever led to a mistake or a customer complaint.
Key takeaways
- Ask who actually carries the on-call work, and how they are paid.
- Confirm who owns the phone number and call-handling tools.
- Compare emergency revenue with the full cost of staffing it.
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Sources
This answer is checked against primary sources. Links were last confirmed on the dates shown.
- 01Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentHow to conduct due diligence when buying a business
- 02Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentHow to reduce employee turnover
- 03Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentWhat are the steps to buying a business?
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