File 03 — CRM pipeline & intake
The pipeline is a promise about what happens next.
A CRM pipeline fails in most small shops for one reason: the stages describe feelings (“interested”, “hot lead”) instead of events. A stage should be a promise — when a job sits in it, everyone in the business knows what has already happened and what happens next, without asking. This file is the pipeline, intake form, and triage rules from the pack, opened up.
The six stages
A job moves through six stages. Not sixteen.
The pack's pipeline, stage by stage — each defined by the event that puts a job there:
Triaged at first contact
The customer calls with a leak, a clog, or a failed fixture. The call is classified by severity on that first contact (see triage below). Emergency callers get immediate mitigation guidance — for a plumbing job, how to shut off the main water valve — before anyone is dispatched.
Scheduled, fee stated up front
Standard work books into a 2–4 hour arrival window. The visit/diagnostic fee, and how it applies toward the repair, is disclosed before dispatch — not discovered on the doorstep.
Confirmed, then en route
The customer receives a booking confirmation with prep instructions, a reconfirmation 24 hours out, and a day-of notice with the tech's name and ETA. Three touches, each one removing a no-show.
Diagnosed, quoted, signed
The tech diagnoses on site, presents the quote with photo documentation, and gets a digital sign-off before any work begins. No signature, no stage change — and no work.
Tested in front of the customer
The repair is tested with the customer watching — water back on, fixture run, leaks checked. Only then does the signed work order convert to an invoice, with warranty terms and a maintenance recommendation attached.
Reviewed, and offered the plan
A review request follows 24–48 hours after completion and payment. Satisfied customers are offered the recurring maintenance plan, with priority scheduling. The pipeline ends by feeding the next job.
Intake
Intake fields that earn their place.
Every field on an intake form is a tax on the customer. A field earns its place only if a later stage spends it. The pack's intake asks for: business legal name and DBA; the trade; the service lines needed; contact name, phone, and email; service address and ZIP; a description of the issue; water-shutoff status (“can you stop the water now?”); a callback number; emergency or standard; access and parking notes; and how they found you. Read the list backwards and each field has a job: shutoff status drives triage, access notes drive dispatch, “how they found you” drives where the next lead comes from. A field with no downstream job is decoration — delete it.
Triage
Three severity classes, decided in the first minute.
| Class | Plumbing example | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | Burst pipe, sewer backup, no water | Routed to the nearest on-call tech first; customer walked through mitigation (main shutoff, electrical hazard check, move valuables, photograph damage) before dispatch |
| High | Active leak, no hot water | Priority scheduling ahead of standard work |
| Standard | Drip, slow drain, planned project | Booked into a 2–4 hour arrival window |
The classes differ by trade — a cleaning route and a roofing tear-off triage on different signals — which is why the pack builds the triage table per trade instead of shipping one generic urgency dropdown. The structure never changes: classify on first contact, state what each class gets, and keep the promise each class was given.
The boundary
Arrival windows are targets, not guarantees.
The pack states this in writing, and your pipeline should too: arrival windows are communicated as targets to aim for and disclose — never as guaranteed times. A missed target gets disclosed, not covered up. This is not legal caution; it is operations. A window you guarantee becomes a lie the first time a job runs long. A window you treat as a target, and report honestly when it slips, becomes the reason customers believe the next window you give them.
From the pack
File 03 ships this pipeline, the intake field set, and the triage table pre-built for your trade. Watch the stages run on the Plumbing trade page, or continue to File 04 — no firm price before diagnosis.
Straight answers
Asked about pipelines and intake.
How many stages should a service business CRM pipeline have?
Six is enough for most home-service work: triaged, scheduled, confirmed, diagnosed and signed, tested and invoiced, reviewed. A stage should mark an event that happened, not a feeling about the lead — if two stages cannot be told apart by an event, merge them.
What should a plumbing intake form ask?
Contact name, phone and email; service address and ZIP; a description of the issue; whether the water can be shut off now; a callback number; whether it is an emergency; access and parking notes; and how the customer found you. Each field is spent by a later stage — triage, dispatch, or follow-up.
Should I guarantee an arrival window?
No. Communicate the window as a target, staff it honestly, and disclose a slip when it happens. A guaranteed window becomes a broken promise the first time a job runs long; a disclosed slip keeps the customer's trust for the next booking.
End of shift
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