GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Technician App

Before-and-After Photos From the Garage Door Tech's Phone

A broken torsion spring is obvious to a tech. To a homeowner who never looks at the top of the door, it is a mystery. A photo of the gap in the spring makes the call make sense. A photo of the finished job makes the invoice make sense. Before-and-after photos are the cheapest trust-builder a garage door company has.

Photos That Stay With the Job

Photos back up the printed report described in The Garage Door Safety Inspection Report: What the Homeowner Gets in Hand, and they back up every repair on its own.

In the GarageDoorBossPro tech app, the tech takes photos right from the job card. They are saved with that job, under the tech's name, alongside the checklist, notes and invoice. They are not sitting in the camera roll on a personal phone, mixed in with family pictures, where nobody in the office can find them.

What to Photograph on Common Calls

A short house standard keeps photos consistent from tech to tech:

• Broken spring. Before: the break in the spring. After: the new springs in place and the door closed square.
• Frayed or snapped cable. Before: the damaged cable at the drum or bottom bracket. After: the new cable.
• Off-track door. Before: the door out of the track, from far enough back to show the whole problem. After: the door running in the track and closed.
• Opener repair or install. Before: the old opener on the ceiling or wall. After: the new opener, plus the label showing the model if you like.
• New door install. Before: the old door from the driveway. After: the new door from the same spot. This one sells future installs.
• Worn parts you recommend. A cracked roller, a torn seal, a bent hinge. One clear photo per recommendation.

Photos That Help Recommendations

Recommendations are much easier to accept when the homeowner can see the problem. “Rollers are worn” is an opinion. A close-up of a roller with a chunk missing is a fact.

When the office follows up on a Repair recommended or Needs attention rating with an estimate, the photo on the job makes that follow-up stronger. The office can point to exactly what the tech saw. How the rating and recommendations work is covered in Good, Needs Attention or Repair Recommended: Writing Up Condition and Recommendations.

Photos That Protect the Company

Garage door work happens inside people's garages, near their cars, walls and belongings. Photos protect your techs from the claims that come up now and then:

• “The wall was fine before you came.” A wide before photo of the work area answers that.
• “You never fixed it.” An after photo of the door working says otherwise.
• “That dent wasn't there.” A before photo showing the dented section from the tenant's car settles it.

Because each photo is saved with the job, the office can find it in seconds when the phone rings, without waiting for a tech to scroll through their camera roll.

Taking Good Photos Quickly

Nobody wants techs spending ten minutes on photography. A few habits make photos fast and useful:

• Take the before photo first. Before touching anything, before the door is moved. It is easy to forget once the work starts.
• Step back for one, step in for one. A wide shot for context and a close-up of the problem.
• Turn on a light. Garage ceilings are dark. The phone's flashlight or the garage lights make the spring visible.
• Match the angle. Take the after photo from the same spot as the before, especially on new door installs.
• Mind the people. Keep customers, kids and license plates out of the frame when you can.

Photos on Commercial Calls

Commercial accounts appreciate photos even more than homeowners do. A property manager overseeing doors at many addresses is rarely on site when the tech is there. Before-and-after photos of the rolling door at the dock, or the sectional door at a townhome unit, let the manager see the work without driving out. When the account is on monthly billing, those photos back up each address line on the statement. Take a photo of the unit number or dock number too, so nobody wonders which door is which.

A word on volume: more photos are not always better. Two or three clear shots per call, chosen with purpose, are easier for the office to use than twenty blurry ones. The goal is that anyone opening the job months later understands what was wrong and what was done in a few seconds.

Photos and the Rest of the Call

Photos fit between the Start and Complete buttons. The tech taps Start, takes the before photos, does the work, runs the checklist, takes the after photos and taps Complete. Those three buttons are the subject of the next guide.

For everything else on the tech's phone, from navigation to payment at completion, visit the GarageDoorBossPro garage door technician app page.