When Latchel is in the process of assigning your preferred service providers to a non-emergency job, Latchel will open the job to more than 1 service provider until the first available one responds. We give each service provider a window (1 hour by default) to accept the job before opening it up to another service provider.
The job is then open to whoever accepts the job first, and as time passes it becomes open to more and more service providers. Once we run out of preferred service providers to contact or 24 hours elapse (whichever comes last), Latchel will make a call to each one of your preferred providers to see if they can accept the job and confirm an appointment.
If none of them answer or accept, then we either begin assigning Latchel Service Providers (if you are opted in) or, give them another 24 hours to accept before asking your team for help contacting your unresponsive service providers.
See the steps below to learn how you can customize how long Latchel waits before contacting your next service provider.
This feature is named, “Response Buffer” in Latchel.
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- Step-by-Step Guide
How Long Latchel Waits Before Contacting Your Next Service Provider Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1. Click on People from the top navigation menu.
Step 2. Click on Vendors.
Step 3. From the Categories & Prioritization page, you will see a list of your prioritized service providers. Click on the ellipsis next to the service provider.
Step 4. Click on Edit Settings.
Step 5. From here, you can modify the service provider’s “
Lastly, the Response Buffer is in business hours (8 AM – 5 PM) and your service providers will only be texted during these hours. The Response Buffer timer starts when the job SMS is sent to your service provider.
Scenario Example 1: If a non-emergency work order comes in after-hours, Latchel will wait until 8 AM to send the first service provider the job SMS and that is when the Response Buffer timer will begin.
Scenario Example 2: If a non-emergency work order is received at 4:30 PM, we will send the job SMS to the first preferred service provider at that time. The second preferred service will receive the job SMS at 8 AM.