It is 9:40 on a Tuesday night in Spokane. Someone has a burst pipe or a water heater that quits. They search for plumbers in Spokane, open the first three sites, and book whoever writes back first. By 7:30 the next morning the job is gone.
What the Spokane plumbers actually offer after hours
We read the public websites of 20 plumbers listed in and around Spokane, Washington (October 2026):
- 15% let a customer pick an appointment time online (3 of 20 sites read)
- 30% have a request form with no times to choose, so the request sits until someone sees it
- 55% are phone-only: no form, no booking
- 50% post no business hours on the site
- 0 of the 20 have no website on their listing at all
In plain terms: in Spokane, the plumber who answers a 9:40 PM request in writing within a minute is competing with almost nobody.
The arithmetic
Requests per week x share after hours x share lost x average ticket. A shop taking 25 requests a week, 35% after hours, losing 60% of those at a $420 ticket, loses about $2,200 a week, roughly $9,500 a month and $115,000 a year. Put your own numbers in the missed-calls calculator.
Three ways to close the gap
- Read your own site the way a 9 PM customer does. The Website Gap Report ($49, credited against the service) checks the after-hours path, Google PageSpeed and every fix in order.
- Do it yourself with the templates. The After-Hours Reply Pack ($39): 12 emails, 9 texts including the missed-call text-back, phone scripts, the policy page and a 20-minute setup guide.
- Have it done, pay only for results. APEX Revenue Recovery answers every written request in your name within 60 seconds, day and night. Nothing to set up and nothing up front: $49 per job it books, invoiced at month end, cancel any time.
Questions plumbers ask
How many after-hours requests does a small plumber get?
Most report 30-40% of first contacts arrive evenings, nights and weekends. On 25 requests a week that is 8-10 a week nobody answers until morning.
What share of those book elsewhere?
Industry surveys and our own log put it at 50-70% when the first reply comes the next morning; the customer called the next listing.
What does one missed job cost a plumber in Spokane?
Your own average ticket. At $420 and 60% lost, 9 after-hours requests a week is about $2,300 a week walking to a competitor.
What fixes it without hiring a night dispatcher?
A written reply within 60 seconds that confirms the request, asks the two questions your tech would ask and offers three real arrival windows. The customer books; a person confirms in the morning.
Counts come from reading each business's public website on October 17, 2026; no business is named. Agencies and reps: the full ranked list is the Spokane, Boise and Salt Lake City Contractor List. Workshop Media Co., Washington State.