SMS automation for a field service shop is a small set of texts that leave when a job changes state. It is not a marketing platform with a truck logo. The messages worth sending are already listed in the six SMS updates. This page is what to require of the tool before you turn them on. The first text to a brand-new lead is text the lead in the first five minutes, and that one is often still a human.
Where the text actually goes out. The costing log can store an optional phone number on a job. It does not send a text. It has no schedule, so it cannot send a booking confirmation, a day-before reminder, an on-my-way note, or a review ask. Send those from the phone in your pocket, or from the field-service tool that already holds the appointment. When the visit happens, log what they paid, the time, the miles, and the parts. That is the part this product does today.
It has to see the schedule
A reminder that says "tomorrow between 8 and 12" can only be sent by a system that knows tomorrow and the window. A costing log of finished jobs does not know that. If you are shopping for automation, start with the product that already holds the board: Jobber, Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, or a texting add-on those tools connect to. Then ask one question. When the office moves a job from Thursday to Friday, does the reminder follow, or does Thursday's text still go out?
If the answer is a shrug, you will spend the summer apologizing for texts about appointments you moved. The schedule is the source. The text is a copy of it.
Triggers worth having, and triggers to skip
Worth having, in order:
- Booked. Within a few minutes, with the date and the window. This is the confirmation in the confirmation sequence.
- Day before, for jobs that are not same-day. Same morning if they booked today for today.
- On the way, when the tech leaves the previous stop, with a plain ETA. Details are in on-my-way and ETA texts.
- A delay, when the window slips, before the customer calls you.
- Done, the same day, with the one fact they need. The review ask is later, and it is not this text. Timing for that ask is its own page.
Skip, until you have a reason from your own jobs: a text when the job is assigned to a named tech two hours early, a "we are in progress" text while you are in the attic, and a drip of maintenance offers every month. Those are easy to buy and easy to resent. Add them when the five above already go out and customers still ask where you are.
Templates, not composing
The tech should not write the message. A template with the customer name, the window, and your company name is the feature. A blank box in the driveway is how the wording drifts and how someone types while the van is moving. If the product is proud of free-form chat from the driver's seat, ask whether a status button can send the template instead.
You should be able to read, the next day, what was sent and whether it failed. "The tech said they texted" is not a log. A failed text on a no-show day is the difference between a customer who ignored you and a message that never left.
Opt-out, and the first text
A person who just booked a repair expects a reminder. A person who has not asked for a monthly special does not. Put a way to stop on the first message that is really a promotion. Honor stop on the job updates too. Keep old-customer blasts in a separate bucket from "your tech is on the way," so one angry reply does not have to be decoded.
Do not buy a tool whose demo is a coupon sequence. Buy the tool whose demo is a job moving from booked to on the way, with the text changing because the job changed.
Questions to ask before you pay
- Does the text use the appointment in the schedule, including after you drag the job to another day?
- Can a status, or a single tap while parked, send a template without typing?
- Can the office see failures?
- What happens when the customer says stop?
- Is the review request a separate message from "your job is done," with its own delay?
- What does it cost per message once you are past the included bundle? A few texts per job is a small bill. An unlimited promise usually is not the plan you will be on.
None of those questions are answered by a job-costing screen. Profit on the ticket is labor, drive, miles, parts, overhead, and what they paid. That math can live on a phone with no messages at all. If you want both, keep them in the tools that are built for each. Switching the board is covered in how to switch field service software. Do not switch the board just to get a text you could send by hand this week.
What to turn on first
Confirmation, day-before, and on the way. Run them for two weeks. Count the "where are you" calls. Then add the delay text and the done text. Leave the review ask until the done text is reliable, and send it in the window described on the timing page, not in the driveway.
If you are a one-truck shop, hand-sent versions of those three are a fair start. Automation earns its place when the office forgets, not before the wording is something you would say out loud.
Frequently asked questions
What should SMS automation for a trade shop be tied to?
A status you already track: booked, the day before, on the way, delayed, and done. If the tool cannot see the appointment, it cannot send a reminder for a window.
Should techs type the texts?
No. Templates, sent when a status changes, or when someone taps a button while parked. Typing at the wheel is not a feature.
What does opt-out need to look like?
The first marketing-style text needs a way to stop. Job updates should still stop when a customer says stop. You should be able to see what went out without asking the tech.
Is this the same product as job costing?
Not in the current costing log. That app stores an optional phone number and does not send messages. It also has no calendar. Buy texting from the tool that holds the schedule, or send the few texts yourself. Cost the jobs either way.
Keep costing even if texts live elsewhere
Early access is the phone log for profit on each ticket. Texts stay in the tool that has the appointment.