GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Dispatch

Booking Install Days: Scheduling New Doors and Openers Without Wrecking the Repair Route

An install is the biggest ticket most garage door companies write. A new 16x7 insulated steel door with a belt-drive opener is a job the customer has thought about for weeks. It is also the job most likely to go sideways in scheduling: the door has to be on hand, the homeowner has to be available, and the installer needs a block of the day that nothing else will eat into.

Installs Belong on Their Own Van

The case for keeping repairs and installs apart is made in Repair Van, Install Van: Splitting a Garage Door Fleet on the Dispatch Board. Install days are where that split pays off. When the install van is not also the van that drops everything for a broken spring, an install time promised on Monday is still good on Thursday.

One-van shops can get a similar result by blocking install mornings and leaving afternoons open for repairs. Either way, the install gets a protected slot.

From Approved Estimate to Scheduled Job

Most installs start as an estimate. In GarageDoorBossPro, estimates are built from your own service list: new door install, opener install, panel or section replacement, plus anything else you sell. Equipment details can be filled in on the estimate, such as the door size, material, the opener's HP and drive type, and the bay it is going in.

The customer approves the estimate online, and the approved estimate becomes the scheduled job. The equipment details carry onto it. The installer opens the job card and sees exactly what the customer agreed to, not a note that says “new door, see Mike.”

Website request forms and service requests from the customer app feed the same pipeline. A request becomes an estimate, the estimate gets approved, and the job lands on the install van.

Picking the Day

Choosing an install day means looking ahead on the dispatch board. Filter by the install van and step through the coming days to see what is booked. A good install day has:

• A clear morning or a clear afternoon on the install van, long enough for the job and cleanup.
• The door on hand. The office knows when ordered doors arrive. Booking before the door is in the shop is how install days get rescheduled.
• A homeowner who can be there, at least at the start and the end, to walk through the new door and opener.

It also helps to think about the install van's week, not just the day. Two installs on back-to-back days on opposite sides of town is fine. Two installs on the same day with a long drive between them is usually a mistake, because the second one starts late and the homeowner waits. Spreading installs out and filling the gaps with nearby tune-ups keeps the installer's days predictable.

Once the day is set, put a note in the job about anything unusual: an old opener to haul away, a detached garage, a tight bay with shelving to clear.

Filling Around the Install

A half-day install leaves the other half of the van's day open. That is the perfect spot for yearly tune-ups or commercial maintenance visits near the install address. Open the Waiting List map, look for due pins near the install, and add two or three to the same day on the install van. Order them by hand so the install comes first and the tune-ups follow, or the reverse if the homeowner wants the afternoon.

For more on building days from the map, see Filling a Garage Door Route by Area: Building Days From the Map.

Telling the Homeowner

An install customer usually wants more notice than a repair customer. The night-before reminder confirms tomorrow's install, the on-the-way text tells them when the installer is heading over, and the arrived text tells them the van is in the driveway. Two-way texting handles the “can you come at 9 instead of 8” replies without tying up the installer's phone.

If the customer has to push the install, moving it on the board is the whole change. The job leaves that day's route and lands on the new day, and the reminders follow it.

After the Install

When the installer taps Complete, the invoice is created from the approved estimate's line items and the card on file can be charged. The new door and opener, with brand, model number, serial number, size, material and the year installed, are on the house now. The next repair or tune-up at that address starts with the right information already on the card.

It is also a natural moment to offer the yearly tune-up plan. A brand-new door is a good reason to keep it adjusted. Once the customer signs up, the first tune-up comes due on its own a year out.

For how install days fit with the rest of the schedule, from the dispatch board to routing and customer texts, go back to the garage door scheduling software page.