GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Garage Door Software

The Printed Garage Door Safety Inspection Report: What the Homeowner Takes Away

The inspection your tech runs is valuable to your company. The report the homeowner holds is valuable to the homeowner. A garage door safety inspection that never leaves the tech app is a record. A printed report in the homeowner's hand is proof of the work and a clear reason to call you back.

From Checklist to Report

The checklist itself, with its items, readings and conditions, is covered in The Door Safety Inspection Checklist in Garage Door Software. The report is what that checklist becomes once the job is done.

When the tech completes the job, the inspection is attached to it in the office. From the job, the office can print a Garage Door Safety Inspection report. There is nothing extra for the tech to fill in. The report is built from what the tech already recorded on site.

What Is on the Report

The report gathers the inspection into one page the homeowner can read:

• The checklist results for springs, cables & drums, rollers, hinges & brackets, tracks, balance, the auto-reverse safety test, photo-eye sensors, opener force & limits, lubrication, bottom seal & weatherstripping, the emergency release, and keypads & remotes.
• The readings, such as door size, spring turns, balance, door age, opener age, estimated spring cycles used and issues found.
• The overall condition: Good, Needs attention or Repair recommended.
• The tech's written recommendations.

A homeowner who has never thought about their garage door can look at it and understand where it stands.

Why Homeowners Value It

Homeowners rarely see the parts of a garage door that matter. The springs are overhead, the cables run behind the track, and the opener is up by the ceiling. When a tech spends half an hour on a tune-up and leaves, the homeowner sees a door that works the same as before. The report fills that gap.

It also helps when there is more than one person in the house making decisions. The person who was home can hand the report to the person who was not, and the recommendations are in writing instead of passed along from memory.

Using the Report to Quote Repairs

A report with “Repair recommended” and a note about worn rollers is the start of an estimate. The office builds the estimate from your service list, such as roller replacement or a $295 spring replacement if that is how you price it, and sends it to the homeowner to approve online. The approved estimate becomes the scheduled job. For more, see Garage Door Estimates in the Software: From Service List to Approved Job.

The report does the explaining, so the estimate does not have to. A homeowner who has read “bottom seal torn at the left corner” understands why weatherstripping is on the quote.

Using the Report to Renew Tune-Up Plans

The report is the best renewal tool a tune-up plan has. A homeowner who received a written inspection last year knows what the next visit includes. When the yearly visit comes due on the Waiting List and the office reaches out, the conversation is short.

If the homeowner is not on a plan yet, the report is a natural opening. “Would you like us to come back and do this every year?” They can sign up for a tune-up plan from the customer app, with the pricing you set.

What the Report Is Not

The report is your tech's observations and recommendations, written down. It is not a certificate, and it is not a list of repairs for the homeowner to try. Keep recommendations aimed at work your company will do. A good line reads “Recommend replacing both springs,” not anything that sounds like instructions. Springs and cables are for trained techs, and the report should make that plain.

Making It a Habit

A few small habits make the report worth printing every time:

• Ask techs to write recommendations in full sentences the homeowner can understand.
• Have the office print or send the report the same day the job is completed.
• Keep the report with the job, so it is there when the homeowner calls with a question months later.

For property managers and HOAs, the report is just as useful. A manager responsible for a row of townhomes can keep each unit's report on file and see which doors were marked Needs attention, which makes it easier to approve the repair estimates that follow.

Over a season, the reports add up to a written history of every door you service. To see how the inspection report fits with tune-up plans, estimates and billing, visit the GarageDoorBossPro garage door software page.