Type of report

[Anthony DiPonio]

It is my intention to provide a checklist style report upon completion of the inspection and follow up with a detailed written report within two days as well as provide the client with a comprehensive home maintenance manual. Is this the correct method?

Thanks,

Tony

[E. Burns]

Hi Tony

Any inspection report that follows which ever, if any, standards you are obligated to follow is correct.

The way we do it (personal choice) is the client does not get any form of report until the following day. The clients are surprised in most cases that the report was emailed so soon.

If you do give a checklist some clients will have made their negotiations based on the checklist prior to getting the report and regret it.

Ellen

[a46geo]

Anthony,

You do have a lot of questions. You must have given this a lot of thought and be semi-serious here.

The problem with your approach is timing. Many of the people that you deal with won't have that much time to wait. They will have to sign off on the inspection before even getting your report, much less "digesting" it.

The timing may cost you more business than you can afford just starting out.

George

[kurt]

I agree w/ Ellen & George; there are some fundamental problems in the approach.

This is such a profoundly deep subject, it is hard to address it without writing an encyclopedia. Have you ever been to one of the conventions where there are approx. 20 different reporting software packages available? What packages are you familiar with? Were any attractive to you?

I'm just trying to get an idea of how you want to write reports; any additional background is helpful.

[Erol Kartal]

I've been using field notes to gather my information and prepare report at home using PalmTech for Windows. My turn around time is within 24 hours. I lose some business from time to time because I don't do on site reporting, nor will I for some time to come. Do any of you follow a similar procedure?

Thanks

Erol K.

Staying out of Kurt's turf '

[Brian G]

I have a set of sheets I made for myself in Word, based on all of the books, etc. recieved at basic training, and the software I bought. Room by room, system by system, it walks me through each part and ask the questions I need to have the answers to. I fill those out in the field, then come back to the computer to run it up on the software.

I think it's smart to not do an on-site report when you're green, even if it costs a few jobs. Take your time, forget about how long it takes or what that works out to per hour, it's irrelevant. One bad screw-up could cost a lot more. When you're new each inspection is an opportunity to practice the craft and notch a happy client on your gun, but it's also a potential disaster. Dot the "i's" and cross the "t's", make yourself comfortable with a report before you hand it over.

Personally I'm looking around at a lot of options to try to increase my productivity, but I know what I really want and don't want now, much moreso than in the beginning.

Brian G.