Furnace season is about to send heating repair calls up, and you are staring at an ad draft that says "There in 20 minutes or less." It looks like the line that makes a cold house dial your number first, and you want it running tonight.
In our view, you can advertise an arrival time, but only in a form your own records can back. An absolute promise needs proof for every single call. An average or a typical time needs only your dispatch logs.
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The ad line
Absolute promise
There in 20 minutes or less
Qualified average
Average arrival is about 20 minutes
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The record it needs
Absolute promise
A log showing each call met 20 minutes
Qualified average
Call and arrival times for a run of past jobs
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One slow night
Absolute promise
Makes the line false
Qualified average
Moves the average a little
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Keeping it true
Absolute promise
Hard through storms, traffic or a second job
Qualified average
Easy to check against your own dispatch log
What an absolute time promise really says
A line like "20 minutes or less" tells the customer that no call will take longer. That covers the night with a closed road, a second emergency and a technician stuck on a long job. Our view: an absolute time promise is a claim, and you should be able to prove a claim before it runs.
The words you put into Google Ads are a statement about your service. A stranger reads them at midnight and decides who to call. If the truck shows up late, the line was wrong for that person, and a promise with no qualifier has no room for a bad night.
Example: who reads the same line
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Customer, midnight
Reads 20 minutes or less as a promise for this call
The one who holds you to it
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You, drafting the ad
Reads it as a goal on a good night
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Your technician
Reads it as a clock already running
When we looked at live competitor sites, we saw three phrasings: an average 20 minute response time, usually arriving within 20 to 30 minutes depending on traffic, and can usually respond within 20 minutes. Every one carries a qualifier. The qualifier is the load-bearing word, and the table shows what each phrasing asks of your records.
| Phrasing | Qualifier | Record behind it |
|---|---|---|
| Average 20 minute response | Average | Call and arrival times, job by job |
| Usually 20 to 30 minutes, depending on traffic | Usually, plus a range | The spread of recent arrival times |
| Can usually respond within 20 minutes | Can usually | Share of jobs that met 20 minutes |
| 20 minutes or less | None | Proof for each call, each night |
The records that would back a time promise
Three timestamps do most of the work: when the call came in, when a technician was dispatched, and when that technician arrived. With those three, you can measure a real arrival time for each job instead of remembering the good ones. The method is the same for a furnace repair crew and a lockout team.
- Call comes in
Log the ring
Write down when the phone rang, not when someone called back.
- Tech dispatched
Log the send
Record the moment a technician is assigned and leaves.
- Tech arrives
Log the arrival
Record the arrival at the door, not the estimate given by phone.
- Job closes
Keep the row
Store all three times on the same job so they can be compared later.
Pick the clock before you pick the number. Call to arrival and dispatch to arrival are different measurements, and the ad has to say which one it means. A customer counts from the moment the phone rang, so we lean toward that clock.
Then take a run of recent jobs, work out the average and the spread, and write the line from what the logs say. Anything you cannot pull from a log is a guess, and a guess does not belong in an ad. That is how we Optymize a time promise: records first, wording second.
Records first, wording second
- Pull call and arrival times
- Pick one clock
- Work out the average and spread
- Write the line from the logs New
- Run the ad
A run of recent jobs beats your best memory. If the logs show nights that are slower than days, you have two honest choices. Quote the slower case, or split the line by time of day and give each part its own wording. Either way, the line should describe what a customer will meet on a bad night, not only on a good one.
No number runs until the records exist.
Rewriting the line without losing the pull
A qualified line can still persuade. The trick is swapping the word that makes it absolute for a word your records can carry: average, typical, usually, or a range with a reason. The customer still hears fast. You still get to defend it.
Once the logs agree, word the line in three steps. First, name the clock, so the customer knows what is being counted. Second, add the qualifier, such as average, typical or usually. Third, keep the range honest: if your records show a spread, show the spread instead of the best end of it. A range that hides the slow end is an absolute promise in disguise, and it breaks the same way on the same bad night.
Example: as drafted
- There in 20 minutes or less
- Applies to any call, any hour, any weather
- Nothing to check it against
Example: once the logs agree
- Typical arrival is 20 to 30 minutes, depending on traffic
- Names the range and the reason
- Checked against recent dispatch records
The right side is only an example. Run that wording only if your own logs show it. If they show something slower, the honest line says so, or says nothing about time at all.
What if you cannot name the record yet? Then say nothing about time until you can. A line with no stopwatch in it can still sell on skilled work and a real person answering the phone. Or offer a callback promise you can keep without a number, such as calling the customer back and telling them when the technician expects to arrive.
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Absolute The line as written There in 20 minutes or less
Absolute The record that would back it A log showing each call met it, with no gaps -
Average The line as written Average arrival about 20 minutes
Average The record that would back it Call and arrival times for a run of past jobs -
Range The line as written Usually 20 to 30 minutes, depending on traffic
Range The record that would back it The spread of recent arrivals, plus a note on traffic -
Window The line as written Arrival between two agreed times
Window The record that would back it The booking record showing the customer agreed
Example lines only. Tap a card to see what each one asks you to keep.
Notice what the back of each card asks for. Each one is a record, not an opinion. If you cannot name the record, you cannot name the promise.
A window you can promise
If you want a firm promise, build it around an appointment window instead of an emergency clock. The customer agrees to the window in advance, which is structurally different from an open-ended race against a stopwatch. You promise to be there between two times that both sides accepted, and a booking record can show it.
That fits scheduled work well, such as a maintenance visit or a quoted repair. It fits an emergency less well. For locksmiths and other emergency trades, we would pair a qualified average on the urgent line with a booked appointment window on follow-up work.
Keep the claim the same everywhere it appears. If the ad says one thing and the description on your Google Business Profile says another, a customer can quote whichever one is stricter.
A window both sides agreed to is a promise a booking record can prove.
A fast arrival also depends on someone answering the phone, which we covered in our post on unanswered calls and local ranking. Once the wording is settled, check that the campaign is serving at all. Our post on a relaunched campaign that was not serving covers that. For another part of running an emergency trade, see locksmith insurance in 2026.
The checklist below is a starting point for your own records, not a finished policy. This is general information, not legal advice; for rules that apply to your trade and market, ask a qualified advisor.
If you want a second set of eyes on the time lines in your ads, look at how we handle paid search for service businesses and tell us what you plan to run.
Before a time line goes live
Talk to Offer before you decide anything.
You'll talk with Offer, not a sales rep. A short call, no pitch deck.
Talk to OfferThis post was drafted with AI tools from our own project records, anonymized, and checked by us before it published. Read our editorial standards.
