Technician preferences¶
Technician preferences let you flag specific technicians as preferred or blocked for individual customers. Those flags feed directly into the auto-assignment engine — preferred technicians are strongly favored, blocked technicians are skipped by default. The result is more consistent service for customers who have built a relationship with a particular technician, and fewer awkward repeat visits for customers who haven't.
Requires Job Continuity feature
Technician preferences require the Job Continuity feature, available on the Pro plan or higher. If the feature is not enabled for your account, the tab will show an upgrade prompt instead of the management UI. Compare plans to see what's included.
How preferences work¶
Each customer can have two types of technician preferences:
| Preference type | Effect on auto-assignment |
|---|---|
| Preferred | Strongly favored when matching this customer, making this technician much more likely to be selected for the customer's jobs. |
| Blocked | Skipped by default during matching, preventing unwanted assignments for this customer. |
Preferences apply per customer — they affect every location belonging to that customer. A customer can have multiple preferred technicians and multiple blocked technicians at the same time.
Manual assignment is unaffected
Preferences only influence the auto-assignment engine. A dispatcher can still manually assign any technician to any job, including a blocked one, when circumstances require it.
Open the technician preferences tab¶
- Go to Customers in the sidebar.
- Click a customer name to open their detail page.
- Select the Technician Preferences tab.
You will see two sections — Preferred technicians (green-highlighted) and Blocked technicians (red-highlighted) — each rendered as a table with the columns described below.
What each row shows¶
Both the preferred and blocked tables use the same columns:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Technician | Name of the technician |
| Source | How the preference was created — Manual or System (see Source tracking below) |
| Jobs Together | Number of previous jobs this technician completed for this customer |
| Last Job | Date of the most recent job between this technician and customer |
| Reason | Optional note explaining why the preference was set |
| Actions | Edit or remove the preference |
The Jobs Together count is useful for spotting strong working relationships and validating system-generated preferences.
Add a preference¶
- Click Add Preference.
- Select one or more technicians from the dropdown — multi-select is supported, so you can add several technicians at once with the same type and reason.
- Choose the type: Preferred or Blocked.
- Optionally add a reason or note. This is visible to your team only — technicians never see it.
- Click Save.
The selected technicians appear in the corresponding section immediately.
When to mark a technician as preferred¶
- The customer has asked for a specific technician by name.
- A technician has specialized knowledge of the customer's equipment or site.
- You want to build consistency and trust with a long-term customer.
- The site has unusual access requirements that one technician already knows.
When to block a technician¶
- The customer reported a negative experience with that technician.
- There is a personality conflict that affects service quality.
- The technician lacks the right context for that customer's work and you'd rather route those jobs elsewhere.
Blocking is silent to the technician
Blocked technicians are not notified that they have been excluded. The block is visible only to Owners and Dispatchers in the customer's preference settings.
Edit a preference¶
- Find the technician in the preference list.
- Click the edit icon on their row.
- Change the type, reason, or technician as needed.
- Click Save.
To switch a technician from preferred to blocked (or the other way around), edit the existing row rather than creating a duplicate.
Remove a preference¶
- Click the delete icon on the preference row.
- Confirm the removal.
The technician returns to a standard match for this customer — they are neither favored nor skipped.
Source tracking¶
The Source column tells you where each preference came from:
| Source | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Manual | Set directly by an Owner or Dispatcher through this tab. |
| System | Inferred automatically from job history patterns — for example, when a technician has completed several successful jobs for the same customer over time. System-generated preferences flag technicians worth confirming as official preferred technicians. |
System-generated entries are suggestions based on observed patterns. Review them and either keep them, convert them to a Manual entry, or remove them if they don't reflect the relationship you want to encode.
How preferences affect auto-assignment¶
Preferences integrate directly into the auto-assignment engine alongside skills, proximity, and workload.
How preferences affect matching¶
| Situation | Effect |
|---|---|
| Preferred technician is under consideration | Strongly favored when matching this customer |
| Blocked technician is under consideration | Skipped by default; only assigned if no one else is available |
| No preference set | Standard match — all available technicians evaluated equally on skills, proximity, workload |
Priority order¶
When the engine evaluates available technicians for a customer's job:
- Blocked technicians are removed first — they normally do not appear as available technicians.
- Preferred technicians are strongly favored on top of the standard match.
- The next best-matched technician wins the assignment, whether or not they are preferred.
A nearby, available technician can still be assigned over a preferred technician who is far away or overloaded. Preferences influence the decision but do not override practical constraints like distance, availability, or required skills.
Preferences complement other factors
A preferred technician without the right skills, or one already at capacity, may still be passed over for a more practical option. That's by design — preferences shape the choice without forcing a bad scheduling outcome.
Best practices¶
- Use preferred sparingly. Marking everyone as preferred defeats the purpose. Reserve it for genuine customer relationships or specialized site knowledge.
- Document block reasons. The Reason field is the easiest way for your team to understand the context months later. Future-you will be glad it's there.
- Review periodically. Especially when technicians join or leave the team — outdated preferences lead to suboptimal assignments and stale System entries.
- Combine with skill requirements. A preferred technician still needs the right skills to win the assignment. Preferences are one factor in a multi-factor auto-assignment engine.
- Avoid over-blocking. Blocking too many technicians for a single customer reduces the pool and can delay scheduling. Keep blocks reserved for genuine issues.
- Act after complaints. When a customer reports a negative experience, add a block before the next job is auto-assigned rather than hoping the rotation works out.
Frequently asked questions¶
How much do preferences affect matching?
Preferences are a strong signal in the auto-assignment engine. A preferred technician is strongly favored when matching this customer, and a blocked technician is skipped by default. Both effects are weighty enough to dominate most other matching factors, but they don't override hard constraints like missing skills or unavailability.
Can a technician be both preferred and blocked for the same customer?
No. A technician is either preferred or blocked, not both. Edit the existing row to flip the type rather than creating a duplicate.
How many preferred or blocked technicians can a customer have?
There is no hard limit. A customer can have as many of each as needed. Just keep in mind that blocking a large share of your roster will limit the auto-assignment engine's options and can delay scheduling.
Do preferences apply to manually created or assigned jobs?
No. Preferences only affect the auto-assignment engine. When a dispatcher manually assigns a technician, preferences are not checked or enforced — any active technician can be assigned to any job.
What happens if every available technician is blocked?
To avoid leaving jobs unassigned, the system can fall back to the best remaining technician as a last resort. In practice, blocking your entire roster for one customer is a sign the rules need to be revisited.
Can I set preferences for multiple customers at once?
Preferences are managed per customer. Open each customer's detail page to manage their individual preferences. Within a single customer, the Add Preference dialog supports multi-select so you can add several technicians at once.
What's next¶
- Auto-Assignment — How the assignment engine balances preferences against skills, proximity, and workload.
- Managing Customers — Keep customer records complete and up to date.
- Customer Locations — Make sure every customer has accurate service addresses for intelligent dispatch.
- Team Management — Manage your technician roster and roles.
- Subscription Plans — See which plans include the Job Continuity feature.