How to Shorten an Install Backlog Before Hiring Another Crew

Install backlog and close rate: the 6-week hesitation point

Stuart's review of the reps' September numbers found close rates of 16% to 21% on available leads, well below the level near 30% that the company usually reaches. He expected the reps to blame the calendar. Because the schedule was booked out too far, the reps had a point, and only Bennett could change that.

One of the 2 reps said hesitation starts once the wait passes about 6 weeks, and the actual wait that month was 7 to 8. Side by side, the reps' and Bennett's observations line up in the table below.

Still, some buyers prefer a long wait. Stuart noted that a few like 6 or 8 weeks because it gives them more paychecks to save from, although a rep said new financing options had reduced that group. The reps also disagreed on the deposit. One thought buyers objected to the 40% deposit at every wait length, so it alone doesn't explain the hesitation. What worried the reps most was losing the big full encapsulations to companies that could start sooner (small jobs could still be done on Saturdays).

Backlog weeks and schedule padding: a plain-language definition

Backlog weeks are the number of weeks between the day a buyer says yes and the day the job starts. Schedule padding is the extra days a job holds on the calendar beyond the days the work needs. Padding feeds the backlog: on a company with 5 crews, every padded day pushes the next job's start date later, so padding lengthens the backlog even when sales and hiring haven't changed. Imagine a 2-day encapsulation booked for 5 days. Even when the crew completes the work early, the other 3 days stay blocked unless someone schedules the next job into them. The next buyer in line hears a start date 3 days later than the crew could have given.

How to compare scheduled days with needed days on a job calendar

Stuart's first answer was capacity. He suggested more crews, a few open days each week so a rep can offer an early start to a buyer ready to sign, and a target wait of 4 to 5 weeks, down from 8.

But Bennett's own answer came the next day, and it was simpler than adding crews. He had already told his schedulers more than once that crews carried too much buffer ("I have covered this multiple times," he said). This time he sat down with his operations manager and worked through a few weeks of the calendar job by job. "Almost every single job had a little too much time on it," he told Stuart, and he tied that straight to the backlog.

"Our 6 weeks that we're at right now could very well be 4 if we just go in and start adjusting these."
— Bennett

Stuart saw why the move was the right one. If 6 weeks became 4, the capacity problem would ease without a new crew, and the freed days would give the reps open dates to offer buyers again. Any owner can run the same comparison on the next month of bookings:

1. List every job on the next 4 weeks of the calendar with the crew days booked.
2. Beside each job, write the days the work needs for a good crew and for an average crew, using square footage, access, prep work, and equipment.
3. Mark every job where the booked days exceed the average-crew number.
4. Add up the extra days, then divide by the total booked days to get the share of the calendar that can come back.
5. Have the scheduler adjust the dates, then review the revised calendar before it reaches the crews (Bennett planned to do his review within days, so the whole team could go through it at the Monday meeting).

Setting crew days by job price: a 5-day slot for a 2-day encapsulation

The example Bennett brought to the call was a 1,300-square-foot encapsulation, priced near $12,000, on flat ground with no ductwork and no prep. That is 2 days of work for a good crew and 3 for an average one, yet it held a slot from Monday through Friday. Bennett told his operations manager what that meant for the whole schedule.

"We're taking our legs out from under ourselves, because we're extending these jobs twice as long as they need to be."
— Bennett

The review found that the padding came from how days were assigned. A sales rep had once told the scheduler (as Bennett remembered it) to base a job's days on its price. But a high price doesn't always mean more labor on site, so higher-priced jobs got more days than the work needed.

And results from the crews pointed the same way. The top crew had been finishing 5-day jobs in 2 days, and a newer crew completed an encapsulation in 1 day that had been allotted 4 (that job was new construction, which tends to be easier). Bennett's team had tried giving the top crew extra jobs to bring start dates closer, but the arrangement ended when one of its members left the company.

To see what trimming does to the wait, the next table uses 5 invented jobs (made up for the arithmetic). Each row compares the days booked with the days an average crew needs.

Those 7 reopened days out of 20 booked make up about a third of the calendar. A third of a 6-week wait is 2 weeks, which is the move from 6 weeks to 4 that Bennett described.

Separating schedule padding from a slow sales quarter

About 3 weeks later Bennett reported that, with the calendar condensed, production was only half booked for the third week of December, roughly 5 weeks out. Inspection slots (the sales visits that happen before a job is signed) were still filling a week and a half to 2 weeks ahead. Two things helped: the trimmed calendar, and a softer September and October for sales (Bennett said November felt like it had turned a corner).

Still, padding was the cause he controlled. He also kept pushing the team to add crews, and the office was still offering crews bonus work on weekends to squeeze in extra production. A sales recovery would put the shorter calendar to the test, since a half-booked week can fill quickly, and that is why Bennett wanted more crews alongside the audit.

Price increases for a backlog past 6 weeks

However, an audit removes padded days but can't remove the weeks that real demand creates. For those weeks Stuart gave Bennett a pricing rule: when the backlog reaches 6 weeks or more and sales are outpacing production, raise prices. A company with more demand than crews should earn more on the jobs it does take. Bennett understood the trade right away: "We'll close fewer deals, but we'll make more money." The same trade is covered in how to raise prices without losing close rate.

For a backlog beyond 6 weeks, the 3 levers work best in sequence:

• Trim padded days first, since that frees capacity without touching price or headcount.
• Hold a few days open each week for early starts, a tactic Stuart has seen lift both close rate and average job price at other companies.
• Raise prices on whatever wait remains, and add crews as the volume justifies them. Some companies find extra capacity inside their existing crews before hiring, and the production bonus system shows how.

The same padded schedule in other trades

Any trade that books crew days from contract value can pad its calendar the way Bennett's did:

• Roofing crews booked by contract size can hold a simple tear-off for a full day or two longer than the square footage needs, and every roof behind it slides back.
• HVAC installs scheduled by equipment size can book a 2-person crew for a day when a straightforward swap-out takes half a day.
• Painting companies that quote by the room can book a week for an interior whose prep and coats take 3 days.
• A landscape install scheduled from the project budget will hold an open, flat yard for as many days as a sloped yard with tight access.

Next steps for a padded install schedule

Run the 5-step comparison from the earlier section on every job in the next 4 weeks of bookings. Wherever booked days outrun the scope, change the dates and check the new calendar yourself before it goes out. If the wait is still past 6 weeks after that, keep a few days open for early starts and raise prices on the weeks that remain. Once the wait falls into Stuart's target of 4 to 5 weeks, track close rate against available leads for a quarter, because that is the measure that shows whether the shorter wait wins jobs back.