Appliance repair is a two visit business, and the gap between visits is where money leaks. House Fly Pro keeps the diagnostic, part, second visit and payment in one thread from $19 a month.
Picture next Tuesday. You diagnose a bad igniter at 9 am, a leaking dishwasher at 11, a warm fridge at 1 and a dead ice maker at 3. Four parts to order, four customers who will text you tomorrow asking “any update?”, four second visits to schedule, and four balances to collect when the work is done. Multiply by three weeks of pre Thanksgiving panic and you have the real reason appliance pros burn out in November. It is not the repairs. It is the follow up. You are not a technician anymore, you are a switchboard. Here is how to get the switchboard out of your head and into one app.
Where the Two Visit Job Actually Breaks
Walk through a normal repair and count the touchpoints. First call. Diagnostic visit. Part order. Customer asks for an update. Part arrives. You call to schedule, get voicemail. Customer calls back while you are under a dishwasher. You text a time. They counter. Second visit. Invoice. “I will send a check.” Reminder text. Payment. That is eleven contacts for one repair, and seven of them happen while you are trying to work on another customer's machine. The fix is not a better memory. It is a system where each step triggers the next without you dialing anyone.
Step One: Charge the Diagnostic Before You Leave the Driveway
The diagnostic fee is the easiest money in the trade to lose. You find the problem, the customer says “let me think about it,” and the $95 you earned becomes a $95 argument. In House Fly Pro the diagnostic is a quote from your price book, starred for speed, with payment choice set to full up front. The customer pays it by card, Apple Pay or PayPal through a link before you ring the bell. If they go ahead with the repair, you apply it to the job. If they do not, you were still paid for the hour. We covered the deposit habit for other trades in stop chasing money, and the diagnostic fee is the appliance version of it. The SBA guide to managing your finances calls unbilled time the quietest cash flow killer in a service business, and the diagnostic is exactly that time.
Step Two: The Parts Follow Up Without the Phone
Here is the workflow that ends “any update?” texts.
- At the diagnostic, quote the repair from the price book and set it to half up front. The deposit covers the part. No deposit, no order, no part sitting on your shelf.
- The job stays open in House Fly Pro with its own customer chat thread. When the part ships, you drop one line in the thread: “Part arrives Thursday, I have Friday at 10 or Monday at 2.” No separate text app, no searching for the number.
- The customer taps a time. It lands on your calendar as the second visit, and automatic appointment reminders go out without you touching anything.
- On the way over, the on my way text with live ETA fires automatically, so nobody is calling to ask if you are still coming.
- After the install, photo proof of work goes on the job, the digital checklist is complete, and the balance is charged on completion through the same invoice the deposit came from.
Five steps, one thread, zero voicemails. The customer can see the job timeline on their own phone the whole time: diagnosed, deposit paid, part ordered, visit scheduled, complete. That visibility is what makes the “any update?” text disappear, because the update is already sitting in their pocket.
The Two Visit Job, Old Way vs House Fly Pro
| Moment in the repair | Phone and notebook | House Fly Pro |
| Diagnostic fee | Collected sometimes, argued often | Paid up front through a link before the visit |
| Parts deposit | You float the part | Half up front, paid by card, Apple Pay or PayPal |
| Customer asking for an update | Three texts and a voicemail | A job timeline they can see, plus one line in the chat thread |
| Scheduling the second visit | Phone tag for two days | Customer taps a time, calendar and reminders update |
| Arrival | “Are you still coming?” | On my way text with live ETA |
| Final balance | A check next week, maybe | Charged on completion, free withdrawals to your bank |
| The next call from that customer | Whenever the next thing breaks | A maintenance plan that auto rebooks and auto charges |
Step Three: Turn November Repairs Into January Plans
Every house you enter in November has a dryer vent that has not been cleaned, fridge coils under a blanket of dust and a dishwasher filter that would make you wince. That is a maintenance plan, and the best time to sell it is standing in the kitchen with the fridge pulled out. In House Fly Pro a recurring service auto rebooks and auto charges on the schedule you set: a twice yearly appliance tune up, a yearly dryer vent cleaning, a quarterly visit for a landlord with six units. The card on file from the repair deposit is the card that pays for the plan, and your January calendar, normally the quietest month of the year, starts filling before the turkey is carved. Our earlier post on the appliance repair holiday rush covers how to price the plan. One more thing for the first plan visit: the CPSC recalls page turns up ranges and dishwashers with a free manufacturer fix, and being the tech who caught it earns the referral.
Keep the Crew Straight When the Calls Triple
If you run more than one van, the rush is also a dispatch problem. On Silver, crew availability and time off are approved in one tap and everyone works from one calendar, so the tech who booked the second visit is the tech who shows up with the part. On Gold you add dispatch with live GPS tracking, so when a fridge emergency comes in at 2 pm you can see who is finishing a job six minutes away. Gold also sends an automatic review request after each job and syncs to QuickBooks so your parts receipts and payouts land in the books without a Sunday night data entry session.
What It Costs
House Fly Pro is software only. It does not send you service calls or customers. You bring the jobs, and it runs the follow up. Silver is $19 a month for solo techs and small crews with 3 team members included. Gold is $49 a month for growing companies with 20 team members, one shared calendar, GPS dispatch, review requests and QuickBooks sync. Platinum is $99 a month for large and commercial operations with 50 team members, company accounts with multiple service locations and site contacts, purchase orders and proposals. Each extra team member is under $5 a month, yearly plans give you two months free, everything is month to month with no contract, and the app and web portal work in Spanish.
For comparison, Jobber publishes $49 to $499 a month with extra team members at about $29 each, and Housecall Pro publishes $79 to $329 a month with extra members at about $35 each. Card processing is the standard rate everywhere, so the difference is the subscription itself. More than 1,500 pros have signed up, and the first 14 days are free, enough time to run a week of real jobs through it. Start at housefly.com/account/pro.
Diagnose it, order it, install it, get paid, without dialing anyone. Diagnostic fees paid up front, parts deposits by link, second visits booked from a chat thread, maintenance plans that charge themselves. Start your 14 day free trial before the week of Thanksgiving turns you back into a switchboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do appliance repair pros handle parts follow ups without phone tag?
Keep the job open in one app with its own customer chat thread. When the part ships, post one line with two time options, the customer taps one, and the second visit lands on your calendar with automatic reminders. In House Fly Pro the customer also sees a job timeline on their phone, so the update texts stop.
Should appliance technicians charge the diagnostic fee up front?
Yes. Quote the diagnostic from your price book with payment set to full up front so the customer pays by card, Apple Pay or PayPal through a link before you arrive. If they approve the repair, apply the fee to the job. If they decline, you were still paid for the visit instead of arguing about it in the kitchen.
How do payment links work for a two visit appliance repair?
Set the repair to half up front when you quote it at the diagnostic. The deposit pays for the part, and the balance is charged on completion through the same invoice after the second visit. Customers pay by card, Apple Pay or PayPal, money goes to your bank with free withdrawals, and you never chase a check.
What does House Fly Pro cost for an appliance repair business?
Silver is $19 a month with 3 team members, Gold is $49 with 20 members, GPS dispatch, review requests and QuickBooks sync, and Platinum is $99 with 50 members for large operations. Extra members are under $5 each, plans are month to month with no contract, yearly plans give two months free, and the first 14 days are free.
