Seeing too many installers skip the final walkthrough with the customer

I did a service call in Spokane where a new system kept having false alarms. The homeowner showed me the keypad, and they had no idea how to arm it in 'stay' mode for nights. The original installer just handed them the code and left. That's a 15 minute fix that costs us way more in callbacks. How do you make sure your handoff covers everything?

3 comments

3 Comments

rubywebb2mo ago

My old boss in Tacoma used to make us do a full system demo with the customer, even the test call to monitoring. It felt like overkill at the time, but we never got those basic how-to calls back. What's your walkthrough checklist look like?

sandra_black2mo agoTop Commenter

You think that was overkill? That's just basic due diligence. Skipping the test call is how you end up with a panicked customer at 2 a.m. My checklist starts with verifying the monitoring path works before we even say hello.

hayden7201mo ago

See this all the time outside of security stuff too. My buddy runs a food truck and he spends the first 15 minutes of every morning testing the propane lines and the fryer temp before he even opens the window. People tell him it's overkill but he's never had a grease fire or a gas leak. It's the same thing with car maintenance. Check your oil and tire pressure before a road trip or wait for the breakdown on the interstate. The people who skip the boring prep work are the ones who end up making the frantic 2 a.m. calls.