GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Commercial Doors

Commercial Door Maintenance Every 90 Days: Recurring Visits That Come Due on Their Own

Repair calls keep a door company busy. Maintenance plans keep it steady. A commercial client on a regular maintenance cycle is work you can see coming months ahead, a reason to be on site before something breaks, and a relationship that is harder for anyone else to step into. The catch is remembering to go. A maintenance plan that lives on a whiteboard or in someone's head is a plan that slips.

Plans Built on Days Between Visits

The door records each visit relies on are covered in Door Records Per Building: Brand, Model, Serial, Size and Bay for Every Commercial Door. Maintenance is what puts those records to work on a schedule.

In GarageDoorBossPro, recurring work is set by minimum days between visits. A residential yearly tune-up plan is 365 days. A commercial door maintenance plan is often every 90 days. Some clients want monthly checks on doors that run all day, some want twice a year. Whatever the agreement, the number of days goes on the plan at that address, and the system counts from the last visit.

Counting from the last visit matters. If a visit runs a week late, the next one is set from when the work was actually done, so the spacing between visits stays the same.

Visits Show Up on the Waiting List

When a visit comes due, it shows up on the Waiting List, a live map and list of every visit that came due plus new requests. Pins are colored by status:

• Not due yet. Coming up, but the days between visits haven't passed.
• Due now. Ready to be scheduled.
• Overdue. Past a 7-day grace after coming due.

Nobody has to remember that the warehouse on the east side is due this month. It appears on its own. The office sees it next to every other due visit and can put nearby ones on the same van. The map is covered in detail in The Waiting List for Commercial Accounts: Seeing Every Door Visit That Is Due.

One Plan, Many Doors

A maintenance plan sits on the address, and the visit covers whatever doors the client agreed to. At a warehouse with eight dock doors, one visit might cover all eight. At a storage facility, it might cover the gate opener and the large doors. Write what the visit covers in the plan's notes so the tech knows the scope: “All dock doors plus the two drive-in doors. Gate opener every other visit.”

When a client has several buildings, each address gets its own plan. Two warehouses under the same client can be on different cycles if one works its doors harder than the other.

What Happens on the Visit

The tech sees the maintenance visit in route order on their phone, with the door records, access notes and past notes on the card. On site, the door safety inspection checklist covers springs, cables & drums, rollers, hinges & brackets, tracks aligned & secured, door balance, the auto-reverse safety test, photo-eye sensors, opener force & limits, lubrication, the bottom seal & weatherstripping, the emergency release, and keypads & remotes.

The tech records readings and issues found, picks a condition — Good, Needs attention or Repair recommended — and writes recommendations. Before-and-after photos go on the job. When the tech taps Complete, the office sees all of it and can print a Garage Door Safety Inspection report for the facility manager. The next visit is set to come due from that completion.

From Recommendation to Repair

Maintenance visits turn up work. A door marked Repair recommended is a natural lead for an estimate. The office builds it from the service list, with the door details already filled in, and sends it to the manager to approve online. Once approved, it becomes a scheduled job. Estimate follow-up emails go out if the manager hasn't answered.

This is often where the plan pays for itself, for you and the client. Small problems get fixed on a planned day instead of becoming emergency calls at closing time.

Billing a Maintenance Plan

Set up the maintenance visit as a service on your service list at whatever price you charge. When the tech completes a visit, the invoice is created with that line item. A card on file can be charged on completion, or the account can be set to Monthly so every visit and repair at every address lands on one statement, with each line labeled with its address.

Clients can also sign up for services and pricing from the customer app, so a plan you offer there can be chosen directly.

Making Maintenance a Habit

Offer a maintenance plan on every commercial job you finish. A client who just paid for an emergency repair is often ready to hear about visits that might catch the next problem early. Once the plan is set, the system brings the visits around and the techs do the rest.

For how maintenance fits with the rest of your commercial accounts, go back to the commercial garage door software overview.