How to set up emergency triage rules for a plumbing shop

A good dispatcher does not treat every call the same. A slab leak at 11 pm gets a truck. A slow bathroom sink gets Tuesday. Contour works the same way, but only if you tell it where the lines are. This guide gives you a complete rule set you can hand to us on the onboarding call, adjust for your shop, and print for your techs.

It fits on one page and takes about twenty minutes.

Start with four tiers

Keep it simple. Four tiers cover almost every plumbing call.

1. Urgent. Property is being damaged right now, or there is a safety risk. Someone goes tonight, or the on-call tech gets a call.
2. Same-day. The home is not usable as normal, but nothing is actively flooding. Book the first window today or tomorrow morning.
3. Next available. Annoying, not dangerous. Book the next open slot.
4. Do not book. Out of area, outside your services, or needs a human to quote first. Contour takes a message and texts you.

Every rule maps a caller's situation to one of these tiers.

The phrases that map to each tier

Callers say "there's water everywhere," not "I have a leak at the main." Contour listens for the plain-English versions, asks what, where, how bad, and how long, and sorts the call. Edit the rows that do not fit your shop.

Caller says something like	Tier	Why
Active leak, water pouring, burst pipe, ceiling dripping, water heater flooding	Urgent	Damage in progress
Sewage backup, sewage in the tub or basement, toilets backing up into each other	Urgent	Health hazard, usually a main line
No water at all, whole house	Urgent	Home not livable, could be a frozen or broken main
Smell gas, hissing near the water heater, gas line	Urgent, with a safety script	Tell caller to leave and call the gas utility and 911 first
Water heater leaking slowly, pan is catching it	Same-day	Will get worse, not flooding yet
No hot water, heater will not light	Same-day (Urgent below your freeze threshold)	Uncomfortable, not dangerous in mild weather
Only toilet in the house will not flush	Same-day	One-bath homes are a real problem
Sump pump not running and rain is coming	Same-day	Likely to become Urgent
Slow drain, gurgling, one sink clogged, running toilet	Next available	Nuisance
Dripping faucet, low pressure in one fixture, garbage disposal	Next available	Nuisance
Wants an estimate for a repipe, remodel, water heater replacement, new fixture	Next available or Do not book	Your call. Many shops book estimates, some want a human to quote
Commercial property, septic, well pump (if you do not do these)	Do not book	Outside services
Address outside your counties or zips	Do not book	Out of area, Contour confirms address before booking
Asks for a price you have not approved	Do not book, take a message	Contour never guesses at pricing

Contour confirms the address is in your service area before it books anything, so the out-of-area row is handled before the tier even matters.

What Contour does at each tier

These are the settings we walk through on the onboarding call.

Urgent

1. Walk the caller to the water shutoff if there is an active leak. Contour knows the common locations (near the meter, where the main enters the house, under the sink or behind the toilet for fixture valves) and talks them through turning it off.
2. For a gas smell, Contour does not troubleshoot. It tells the caller to get everyone out, call the gas company and 911 from outside, and that you will follow up.
3. Attempt a warm transfer to the on-call tech, using the hours and transfer rules you set. If nobody picks up, Contour finishes the call and books the first emergency window.
4. Text you and the on-call tech within about a minute of hang-up. The text starts with URGENT, then the address, the problem, and what the caller was told.
5. If you use ServiceTitan, the job is created with your emergency job type and highest priority. If you use Google Calendar, the event lands on the on-call calendar.

Same-day

1. Book the first available window today or tomorrow morning, reading real capacity so it only offers times you can make.
2. Collect the details a tech needs: fixture, location in the house, how long it has been happening, any shutoffs already turned.
3. Text you a normal (non-urgent) summary.
4. No transfer attempt unless you ask for one.

Next available

1. Offer the next open slots, including your diagnostic fee if you have approved Contour to state it.
2. Book it and text you the summary.

Do not book

1. Explain politely what you do not handle or that the address is outside your area. If you have a referral partner for septic or commercial, Contour can give that name.
2. Take a message with name, number, address, and the question.
3. Text you so you can call back if you want the work.

Weather overrides

Weather changes what counts as an emergency. Set thresholds once and Contour applies them automatically based on the outside temperature at the caller's location.

1. Freeze threshold. Below a temperature you pick (many northern shops use 32°F, some use 40°F), "no heat" and "no hot water" for homes with a boiler or hydronic heat move from Same-day to Urgent. Frozen pipes are a flood waiting to happen.
2. Frozen pipe calls. Below the threshold, "no water in one fixture" or "pipes making noise" gets upgraded to Same-day, because a frozen line can burst when it thaws.
3. Heavy rain. If you want, flag sump pump failures as Urgent when the forecast calls for significant rain. Tell us the trigger you want. Write your thresholds in the table below so there is no debate at 2 am.

Decide what Contour may book versus hand off

Three common setups:

Setup	What Contour books on its own	What it hands to a human
Emergencies only	Urgent calls, into emergency windows	Everything else becomes a message
Diagnostics only	Urgent, Same-day, and Next available, as diagnostic visits	Estimates, anything with a quote
Everything	All tiers that pass the service-area check	Only Do-not-book calls

How to choose:

1. Start with "diagnostics only" if you have a flat diagnostic fee. Contour can state the fee, the customer knows what to expect, and your tech quotes the repair on site. This is the most common setup.
2. Pick "emergencies only" if you have an office manager who likes to control the board and just want the after-hours leaks covered. Pair it with conditional forwarding (see how to forward your line).
3. Pick "everything" once you have seen a few weeks of bookings and trust the job notes. Most shops get there.

Also decide your transfer rules by hour. A typical plumbing shop sets: 7 am to 6 pm, transfer Urgent calls to the office line; 6 pm to 7 am, transfer Urgent calls to the on-call cell; never transfer Same-day or lower. If the transfer is not answered, Contour books anyway and the text still goes out.

Printable rule sheet

Fill this in and keep a copy in the truck and one on the office wall. Hand the same sheet to us on the onboarding call.

Rule	Your setting
Urgent triggers	Active leak, sewage backup, no water (whole house), gas smell
Same-day triggers	Slow water heater leak, no hot water, only toilet down, sump pump out
Next available triggers	Drains, drips, pressure, disposals, running toilets
Do not book	Out of area, septic, well, commercial, unapproved price questions, estimates (if you want to quote)
Freeze threshold	___ °F outside (no heat / no hot water becomes Urgent below this)
Shutoff walkthrough	Yes for all active leaks
Urgent transfer, day hours	Transfer to ___ from ___ to ___
Urgent transfer, night hours	Transfer to ___ from ___ to ___
If transfer fails	Book first emergency window, send URGENT text
Notification contacts	Owner cell, on-call cell, office line
What Contour may book	Emergencies only / Diagnostics only / Everything
Diagnostic fee Contour may state	$___ or "do not state"
Emergency windows available	e.g. same-night until 10 pm, then 7 am next morning

Review it after your first week. Pull up a few summaries and recordings, check whether any call landed in the wrong tier, and adjust. Two or three changes is normal.

Read more about how triage fits into the whole call on how it works, or see the plumbing industry page for other shop examples.