Playbook, electrical contractor
The survey is short if the things it needs to see are reachable
Nobody rings to ask what a first visit is like and almost everybody wonders. It is a short appointment with a small number of physical requirements, and every one of them is something a household could sort out in ten minutes if anybody had told them. The reason to write it down is the alternative, which is an electrician standing in a bedroom in front of a fitted wardrobe with a consumer unit somewhere behind it.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for first visit questions holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- A first visit here is mostly looking rather than working, which surprises people who took a day off expecting something to be installed, so the expectation has to be set in advance rather than defended on the doorstep.
- Nearly everything the visit needs to see is behind something else: the board behind a coat rack, the meter in a cupboard whose key sits with a managing agent, the loft hatch under a stack of boxes, the outside wall behind a shed nobody has moved since it arrived.
- Whether the power goes off during a survey is the thing customers most want to know and least like to ask, and the honest answer is usually briefly, while circuits are tested, which is a completely different proposition from the day of the installation.
- A good half of it is household rather than technical: whether an adult has to be in, whether the dog needs to be elsewhere, whether there will be dust, whether anybody has to move a car. Those are the questions people are too embarrassed to ring about, which is exactly why they arrive in a chat box.
How it arrives
- what happens on the first visit
- do you need to see the fuse box
- will you turn the power off when you come
- how long does the survey take
- do i need to clear the loft first
- can my mum let you in instead
What has to be indexed for this to work
| What the first visit is for, and how long it takes | Described as looking and testing rather than as work, with a realistic length. Say plainly that nothing is installed on the day, because a customer who booked leave expecting an installation is annoyed before anybody has spoken. |
|---|---|
| The list of things that have to be reachable | The consumer unit, the meter, the loft hatch where the work goes through it, and the parking space or the outside wall for a charge point. Written as something somebody can act on the night before rather than as a request for cooperation. |
| Whether the power goes off, and for how long | For a survey, for an inspection and for an installation, as three separate answers. Collapsing them into one is how somebody ends up with a defrosted freezer they had no reason to expect. |
| The household questions nobody rings to ask | Who has to be present and their age, pets, dust and floor protection, shoes, and whether a relative or a neighbour letting somebody in is acceptable. Small, slightly awkward, and the reason a fair number of people never book. |
The reply
The first visit is a look rather than a job, so nothing gets installed on the day and it is usually under an hour [1]. What keeps it short is being able to reach things: the consumer unit, the meter, and the loft hatch if the work runs through the loft, so it is worth moving whatever is stacked in front of them the night before [2]. The power goes off briefly while circuits are tested rather than for the visit. Somebody over eighteen needs to be in, and a relative or a neighbour is fine as long as they can let us in and stay throughout. I cannot book the visit, but leave me your name and an email and the office will.
It corrects the expectation about installation in the first clause, since that misunderstanding costs somebody a day of leave. The access list is given as an action with a deadline attached, the night before, rather than as a condition. The brief power off is stated because it is the question underneath several of the others and nobody wants to be the one asking it.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor wants the visit arranged, describes a particular access arrangement at their property, or asks whether their own situation counts as somebody being present.
I can tell you what the visit involves but I cannot arrange it or agree an access arrangement. Leave me your name, an email and the address, say who will be in, and the office will confirm it back to you.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say the power will stay on throughout, because circuits get tested and somebody told otherwise has an open freezer door and a grievance by lunchtime.
- Never agree that a key left with a neighbour or a message pushed through a door is acceptable, since who may let an electrician in is the firm's rule and not a chat window's to make.
- Never say a survey is free unless the published terms say so, because on some jobs it is free only where the work goes ahead.
- Never say a survey will produce a price on the day, as it often does not and a customer expecting one treats the whole visit as having failed.
Questions
- Are these questions really worth writing down?
- They are the ones nobody rings about. Somebody wondering whether their mother can let you in does not phone to check, they hesitate, and the hesitation gets recorded as a price objection when the price was never the problem.
- Can it confirm what will happen at our particular property?
- No. It has no idea what the house looks like and cannot see the job. It answers from the general description of a first visit, which is right for nearly everybody, and hands over the moment somebody starts describing their own situation.
- How specific should the access list be?
- Specific enough to act on the night before. Clear a metre in front of the consumer unit is an instruction somebody can follow. Please ensure access is available is a phrase, and nobody in the history of the trade has moved a coat rack because of it.
Keep reading
- Everything for a electrical contractorCall out charges, EV charger enquiries and landlord certificates are answerable. A described electrical fault is an escalation, not a question.
- Handling first visit questions in generalWhat to wear, where to park, how long it takes, whether they can bring somebody. Cheap to answer and disproportionately valuable.
- Two kinds of electrical quote, and telling a caller which they wantSome electrical work is a fixed price product and some cannot be priced until a floor comes up. The reply has to say which one it is.
- New load on an old installation, answered without giving a verdictChargers, showers and hot tubs all raise one question about the supply. The honest answer is the short list the survey checks.
- Why an electrical fault cannot be worked out from a descriptionFault finding means isolating circuits and testing them. A guess from a description is worse than nothing, because somebody acts on it.
Try it on your own material
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