GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Running a Garage Door Business

Hiring Your First Garage Door Tech: What to Have Ready Before Day One

The first tech you hire is a big step. Until now, every call in the company has been run by the person who answers the phone, quotes the job and owns the van. From day one, somebody else is standing in your customers' garages under your name. How well that goes depends less on the hire than on what you hand them.

The Hire Is the Start of the Second Van

Hiring a tech usually goes hand in hand with the step covered in From One Van to a Few: Growing a Garage Door Business Without Losing Track of the Work. This article stays on the person: what they need to do the job well, the way you would do it.

Start with a plain truth. Springs and cables are under serious tension, and that work belongs with trained techs. Hire someone with real garage door experience, or plan real ride-along training with someone who has it before they run repair calls alone. Software helps a trained tech work well. It does not replace training.

Write Down How You Price

A new tech who quotes from memory will quote differently from you. Before they start, write a service list: service call, torsion spring replacement, extension spring replacement, cables, rollers, off-track repair, opener repair, opener install, new door install, panel replacement, sensors, keypads and remotes, weatherstripping, tune-up, after-hours emergency. Put your own price on each.

In GarageDoorBossPro that list is what estimates and invoices are built from, so the tech picks “Torsion spring replacement” and your price comes with it. Two techs quoting the same repair get the same number. Pricing gets its own guide in Setting Service Prices for a Garage Door Business Without Guessing.

Put the House on the Card

You remember the Hendersons' double door and the opener you put in three years ago. The new tech does not. Every house you have worked on should have its equipment saved: the door with size and material, the opener with drive type and horsepower, the springs, cables and drums, keypad, remotes and sensors, with bay and access notes.

The tech app shows it on the job card before they knock. Access notes cover the gate code, the dog, and “customer works days, side door is open.” Past notes from earlier visits sit on the same card. That record turns a stranger at the door into someone who looks like they have been there before.

Give Them the Day on Their Phone

A printed sheet is out of date the moment the first emergency call comes in. The tech needs their calls on their phone, in route order, with navigation to each address. In GarageDoorBossPro they log in with the company login and their own PIN, see their own calls in the order set on the dispatch board, and tap Start, Skip or Complete as they go.

It runs in the browser on iPhone and Android, so the new hire does not need a company phone or an app store download. Show them the app on the first ride-along and they will have it by lunch.

Set the Habits on Day One

The habits a tech forms in the first week tend to stick. Decide what you expect and say it plainly:

• Before and after photos on every call. They protect the tech and the company when someone says a panel was dented before or after.
• The door safety inspection checklist on tune-ups and wherever you want it: springs, cables and drums, rollers, hinges, tracks, balance, auto-reverse test, photo-eye sensors, opener force and limits, emergency release and more, with a condition and written recommendations.
• Notes the next tech can use. “Recommended new rollers, customer will think about it” is a future job. “Fixed” is nothing.
• Update the house when hardware changes, so the record stays true.
• Clock in and out on the same phone.

Let the Job Finish Itself

New techs are often uncomfortable asking for money. Take that off their plate. When they tap Complete, the invoice is created and a card on file can be charged, and the customer receives the invoice either way. Automatic on-the-way and arrived texts go out from the app too, so the tech is not texting customers from a personal number.

The office sees what happened: job done, photos attached, checklist filled in, invoice created. If the tech found something extra, like worn cables, the note is there for the office to turn into an estimate.

Check In Without Hovering

For the first few weeks, look at the tech's completed jobs at the end of each day. Are the photos there? Are notes useful? Did checklists get filled in? Crew GPS on the office map tells you where the van is without a phone call. A short conversation about one or two jobs a day does more than a long talk once a month.

The software side of running techs, office staff and vans is laid out on the GarageDoorBossPro garage door business software page.