Why a text-back receptionist suits oil heating engineers

What's different about an oil engineer's patch?

Oil boilers are rarely round the corner from each other. The work is rural, the drives are long, and the signal comes and goes. A call you miss because you were in a plant room with one bar is the same lost call as one you missed with your hands full, except you don't find out about it until you're back on the main road.

And the customer at the other end is often a long way from the next engineer too, so when they ring round they're ringing round a short list. Being the one who gets back to them first, even by text, counts for more out here than it does in town.

How does Mabel handle a call when you've no signal?

The divert you set up for Mabel covers calls you don't answer, calls while you're on another call, and calls when your phone is off or out of signal. The caller hears a 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 Byrne Oil Heating. Declan 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 can book on the form or by replying while you're still under the boiler. The booking comes to you as a text when you're back in signal, and you confirm it with a tap.

How far will Mabel book you from home?

As far as you say, and anything further comes to you to decide. At set-up you draw a circle round your base, from 3 to 60 miles, and a new account starts at 15. You can change it later under Settings, where it says this:

Customers outside this circle round your base can still book. Their job comes to you marked outside your area, and you decide whether to confirm it.

A customer whose job postcode falls outside the circle can still pick a time, and is told you'll confirm it, as every customer is. The job reaches you marked as outside your area, so you see how far it is before you say yes. If it's a job you want, you confirm it. If it isn't, you don't. The circle is there so a booking fifty miles the wrong way never lands in your calendar unnoticed, not to turn work down for you.

Does it leave time for the drive?

When it can place both addresses, Mabel works out the drive between jobs from the distance and keeps that time clear, so a customer at one edge of your patch isn't offered the slot straight after a job at the other. When it can't place them, it uses the default travel time you set. Either way it only offers what's free in your Mabel calendar, inside your working hours.

Which oil jobs can it book?

The oil list at set-up starts like this, with the rough times a new account suggests:

• Oil boiler service: 1h 30m
• Oil boiler repair: 2h
• Boiler not firing: 2h
• No heating: 2h
• No hot water: 2h
• Oil boiler replaced: All day
• New oil boiler quote: 1h
• Oil tank replaced: All day

An annual service gets an hour and a half, a boiler that won't fire two hours, a tank replacement the day. You pick the five you get most at set-up and change them whenever you like.

When do the service and tank calls come in?

You know the rhythm better than I do: services in late summer and early autumn before the heating goes on, tank checks and top-up worries as the weather turns, and breakdowns when it bites. The service calls are the ones that go missing, because they come in while you're on the breakdowns and nobody with a working boiler leaves a voicemail about a service. Mabel books that service into a free slot in three weeks' time and you find out about it at the end of the day, done.

Which words are urgent for an oil engineer?

A new oil account starts with these: gas smell, smell gas, carbon monoxide, oil smell, oil leak, no heating, no hot water and smoke. A text with any of them reaches you straight away with the customer's own words, and they're told you'll call back as soon as possible. Carbon monoxide isn't only a gas boiler problem, so when a text mentions it or a CO alarm, Mabel's reply includes this, every time:

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.

In Northern Ireland it gives the Northern Ireland Gas Emergency number, 0800 002 001, instead.

What about OFTEC?

If you're OFTEC registered, add it when you get approved. We check it by hand, with your photo ID and your insurance, before your Mabel number goes live. Mabel doesn't claim registration on your behalf and doesn't quote or promise anything you haven't set up.

What doesn't it do?

It doesn't answer in a voice. It can't text a landline, so that caller hears you'll see they rang and will call back. And it won't make a customer read a text who was always going to ring the next number. For everyone else, there's a time in your calendar waiting when you're back in signal.

• Mabel for oil heating engineers