HomeBlog › Running the business

What to Check Before Joining a Dispatch Network

Nine questions worth asking before your first appointment — including four that most networks would rather you did not ask.

Dispatch networks vary enormously, and the differences that matter are rarely on the marketing page. These are the questions worth asking before you take the first job, including about us.

About the work

  1. Is this a lead or a booked appointment? A lead is a phone number. An appointment is a time the customer has agreed to. They are not the same product and should not cost the same.
  2. How many plumbers get sent the same job? If the answer is more than one, you are back in the race.
  3. Do I see the address and distance before I accept? If not, you will be driving ninety minutes for a $180 call.
  4. What happens if I decline? If declining affects your standing, you do not really have the right to decline.

About the money

  1. When do I pay, and what for? Up front per lead, monthly, or out of the completed job.
  2. What happens if the customer never pays me? This is the question that separates models. If you still owe, the risk is entirely yours.
  3. Are materials deducted before the split? A percentage of the gross and a percentage of the net are very different numbers on a job with a $900 unit in it.
  4. Who collects from the homeowner? If the network collects, your cash flow is now their cash flow.

About getting out

  1. What is the notice period? If you cannot leave inside a month, be much more careful about joining.

Our answers, since it would be strange not to give them

QuestionPipe Well
Lead or appointment?Booked appointment, with a time the customer agreed to
How many plumbers per job?One. It goes to the next plumber only if you pass
Address before accepting?Town and mileage in the text; full address on YES
Cost to decline?Nothing, and it does not affect your rating
When do I pay?After the customer has paid you. Never before
If the customer never pays?You owe nothing. We absorb the marketing cost
Materials deducted first?Yes — documented materials come off before the 50% split
Who collects?You do, directly from the homeowner
Notice to leave?Seven days, in writing. No minimum term

The one to be sceptical about

Ours is the 50%. It is a large share, and on a big job it is a large number of dollars. Any network telling you their commission is painless is selling. Ask instead whether the hour it fills would otherwise have been empty — that is the only comparison that means anything.

Booked appointments, not leads

Free to join. No monthly fee, no charge per lead. Pipe Well is paid 50% of the job after your documented materials — and only once the customer has paid you.

See how it works →

Or call (562) 800-5506 — one line, answered nationwide.

Related reading

All 8 articles →