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Handover packs: the last hour of the job, and the next three years

The handover is the least interesting hour of an installation and the one that decides how the next three years go. What the customer walks away holding determines how often they ring you with something they could have looked up, and whether a warranty claim in year three is a five minute job or an archaeological dig.

What belongs in it

• What was installed: make, model, serial number, where it is.
• Commissioning records and test results.
• Manufacturer documentation and the warranty, with dates and what the customer has to do to keep it valid.
• Any registration or certification the work required.
• Photographs, including what is now behind a wall.
• Servicing requirements and when the first one is due.
• Who to ring, and what counts as an emergency.

The photographs of what is hidden

This is the part most packs skip and the part that pays for itself. Pipe runs before the floor went down, cable routes before plastering, the position of a valve now behind a panel. Three years later somebody is drilling and the photograph is worth more than everything else in the pack put together — to the customer, and to whichever of your engineers gets sent back.

Warranty conditions are where the arguments are

Most warranties depend on the thing being serviced, and most customers do not know that until they claim. Saying so plainly at handover, in writing, does two things at once: it protects you from being blamed for a manufacturer's condition, and it sets up the service contract conversation at the only moment the customer is thinking about the equipment.

Assemble it as you go, not at the end

A pack put together on the last afternoon is a scramble for photographs, serial numbers and a certificate somebody has in a van. If each of those attaches to the job at the moment it exists — the serial number when the unit goes in, the commissioning record when it is commissioned — the pack is already assembled when the job ends, and handover is a conversation rather than an admin task.

It is also a sales document

It is the last thing you give a customer, it has your name on it, and it is the thing they hand to the next owner of the house. A tidy pack with the servicing date in it is the cheapest marketing a trade business does, and it is aimed at the person most likely to recommend you — see getting more reviews.