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Case Study · Plumbing Dispatch Benchmark

A week in plumbing — every job matched to the right tech.

Gas-line work needs a certified installer. Commercial drain cleaning needs heavy equipment. After-hours emergencies need whoever's closest. We ran a week of plumbing dispatch through FSM Navigator and tracked every match.

Methodology transparent · Simulation-based benchmark · Updated June 2026

About This Benchmark

How we ran the numbers

This benchmark runs a week-long workload through FSM Navigator's dispatch engine using representative plumbing service patterns: 15 technicians across three U.S. regions, 30 customer locations, a realistic mix of scheduled installs, PM work, drain cleaning, and emergency calls, plus mid-week technician absences and weekend on-call rotation. 51 urgent calls with tight service-level windows were included. The results below reflect what the engine does automatically — no manual adjustments, no cherry-picked days.

What happened over five days

A snapshot of how the dispatch engine handled a realistic plumbing week — from scheduled installs to late-night water-leak emergencies.

100%

Every job matched, zero dropped

Across 186 jobs from water heater installs to gas-line work to 2 a.m. leak calls, every single one was assigned to a qualified technician. Nothing fell through the cracks.

< 0.5s

Per dispatch decision

Real-time technician matching across certifications, schedules, service windows, proximity, and workload — typically in under half a second per decision.

51

Emergencies routed the same week

Burst pipes don't wait for business hours. Urgent calls are flagged, matched to the on-call technician closest with the right skills, and dispatched instantly.

Auto

Coverage when techs are out

Sick day, vacation, truck breakdown — the engine reshuffles affected jobs to the next-best qualified tech automatically. Three reassignments happened mid-week without dispatcher intervention.

How the week actually played out

Picture a mid-size plumbing company with three regional offices and fifteen techs. Some are gas-line certified. Some run the big commercial drain machines. Two are the weekend on-call rotation. Monday morning the dispatch board has 27 scheduled jobs — water heater swaps, faucet repairs, a couple of PM contracts for restaurant grease traps — plus the usual buffer for whatever the day throws at you. On a manual dispatch board, that's a dispatcher glued to the phone from 7 a.m. onward. With FSM Navigator, the work flows in and the matches happen in the background.

Monday was steady: 27 jobs scheduled, 6 emergency calls absorbed throughout the day. Tuesday brought a burst — a commercial client with a broken sewer main got routed to the nearest tech who had both the camera rig and the jetter on his truck. Wednesday morning, one of the gas-line certified techs called in sick; the engine pulled his 4 scheduled jobs back into the pool and found coverage from the other two gas-certified techs before the dispatcher had her second coffee. Thursday was steady; a tech started a planned vacation. Friday brought the week's biggest push — 42 jobs including 15 emergency and urgent calls as commercial properties tried to button up before the weekend. The engine matched all of them.

What changed isn't just speed — it's predictability. When a water heater install runs long and the tech misses his next stop, the customer call waiting on a noon leak repair doesn't get pushed to the dispatcher's problem pile. The engine sees the capacity change, re-evaluates the queue, and keeps moving. Your office staff spend their time talking to customers, not shuffling jobs.

What the dispatch engine considered

Every assignment weighed dozens of criteria. Here's a plain-language view of what went into each match.

Factor Evaluated What It Means
Certifications & skills Gas-line certified, backflow prevention, commercial drain cleaning, residential service
Service-level urgency Emergency, same-day, scheduled — and the promised response window
Equipment & truck loadout Camera rig, jetter, press tools — the right tools already on the truck
Technician proximity Based on the tech's current location and the job address
On-call rotation After-hours and weekend calls route only to the on-call techs
Current workload Jobs already scheduled today and remaining capacity

Dozens of criteria are weighed on every match — these are the ones that make the biggest difference to plumbing teams.

Frequently Asked Questions

Straight answers about the benchmark, the engine, and what it costs.

What does this benchmark actually measure?
A full week of realistic plumbing dispatch activity: 186 jobs across 15 technicians and 3 U.S. regions, including 51 after-hours and same-day emergency calls plus mid-week technician absences. We measure how FSM Navigator's dispatch engine assigns jobs — how fast it decides, how consistently it matches skills like gas-line certification, and how it recovers when plans change.
Are these real customer results?
No. These are simulation results from a representative operational scenario. Real customer outcomes will vary based on your team size, service mix, and geographic spread. We published the methodology openly so you can see how the engine behaves under a realistic plumbing workload before you sign up.
How does the engine handle gas-line and other certified-only work?
Each technician's certifications are part of their profile. When a gas-line job comes in, the engine only considers technicians who hold the required credential. Non-certified techs are filtered out automatically — you can't accidentally dispatch the wrong person to a regulated job.
What about after-hours and weekend emergency calls?
Emergency calls are flagged with tight service windows and sent through the same dispatch pipeline. The engine respects on-call rotations — only techs currently on-call for after-hours work get considered. The benchmark included 51 urgent calls across the week, all matched and routed automatically.
How much does this cost?
Intelligent dispatch is included in our Pro plan at $34.99/user/month (or $27.99/user/month billed annually). Teams up to 5 users can start free. See our pricing page for the full breakdown.

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