Customer-friendly irrigation

Contractors gathered for an open discussion on new technologies Nov. 11 at the Irrigation Show in Long Beach, California.

One attendee from Kansas said he hired someone to create an app that lets his customers schedule their own appointments based on when and where technicians will be. He said it has been successful and has cut down on administration time.

Now, instead of hiring an office worker who knows irrigation or the town, they hire an office worker for his or her phone skills. That person can then just enter the information into the app to schedule a visit. He said customers can now be scheduled for appointments in just 30 seconds.

Calls are sorted by skill level and route, with a service manager sorting appointments. “We never could figure out how to automate that,” he said.

A big problem for many in the room was what to do when a customer is a no-show for a service call. Some have decided to call ahead while others require clients to pre-pay to deal with the problem.

Others offered incentives like a discount for those who opt to pay online and others give a discount for clients who pay on site.

Smart Irrigation. The 2015 Smart Irrigation Month took to social media to promote responsible water use and the numbers are in with a social reach of 103,042 and 111 supporters. The smart selfie hashtag, started by the Irrigation Association to allow anyone to participate in Smart Irrigation Month, got the following statistics:

73 posts

41 users

146,074 impressions

The campaign, started in 2005, is continuing next year and the Irrigation Association is encouraging everyone to get involved and ask their state and city officials to make an official proclamation. Last year, 12 states and five cities made proclamations.

More information is available at smartirrigationmonth.org.