GarageDoorBossPro Blog — Technician App

The Customer's Side of the Tech App: Live Map, Alerts and Paying Online

Every tap a tech makes in the field shows up somewhere for the customer. Start, Complete, the route order, the invoice. The customer app is where garage door customers see that, and it is a big part of why a well-run company feels well run from the outside.

The Other End of the Tech's Phone

Getting techs to use the app every day, covered in Getting Garage Door Techs to Actually Use the App, is what makes the customer side accurate. When techs work the list in order and tap the buttons on time, customers see the truth.

GarageDoorBossPro includes a customer app alongside the tech app. Customers use it to follow today's visit, manage their alerts, request service, sign up for plans, keep a card on file and pay invoices.

The Live Route Map

On service day, customers can see today's route on a live map with their place in line: “You're stop 12 of 20 — the tech is 5 stops away.”

For a garage door customer, that answers the question they care about most: do I have time to run to the store, or should I stay home? A homeowner with a broken spring can watch the tech get closer instead of calling the office every half hour. A tune-up customer can plan their morning around the visit.

The map follows the dispatch board. When the office drops an emergency call into the route, customers further down the list see their place change. That is why route order on the tech's phone matters so much.

Alerts the Customer Chooses

Customers pick their own alert preferences:

• Night before. A reminder that the visit is tomorrow, with time to move the car or plan to be home.
• When they're next. The on-the-way heads-up as the tech heads their way.
• When the tech arrives. The arrived text, useful for homeowners at work or inside the house.

Texts and emails go out automatically. Replies come to the office through two-way texting, so the customer can say “The side door is open” and the office sees it. The texts themselves are covered in Automatic On-the-Way Texts From the Garage Door Tech's Phone.

Requests and Tune-Up Sign-Ups

The customer app is also where new work starts. Customers can:

• Request service. “Opener is making a grinding noise” becomes a request on the Waiting List for the office to book.
• Sign up for services and pricing you offer, such as a yearly tune-up plan. Once signed up, the tune-up comes due on the Waiting List every 365 days without anyone having to remember.
• Rate and refer. Happy customers can rate the service and refer friends.

Those sign-ups and requests feed the same system the tech app runs on. A tune-up plan signed up for in the customer app shows up as a call on a tech's phone when it comes due.

Card on File, Invoices and Paying Online

After the tech taps Complete, the invoice is created. Customers can see their invoices in the customer app and pay online. They can also update the card on file there, which keeps charge-at-completion working when a card expires.

For property managers, HOAs and commercial accounts set to Monthly, the account gets one statement each month covering every address, with each line labeled with the address. The manager sees every door at every property in one place.

Charging at completion is covered in Charging the Card on File When the Garage Door Tech Taps Complete.

The customer app also makes the office's job easier. Fewer customers call to ask when the tech is coming, because the map shows them. Fewer call to update a card, because they can do it themselves. Fewer call to ask what they owe, because the invoice is right there. Every one of those calls that does not happen is time the office can spend booking more work.

Introduce the customer app early. Mention it when a customer books, put it in the first reminder, and have techs point to it at the end of a call. Customers who know it exists use it, and every customer who uses it is one who sees your company at its best.

Why the Customer Side Belongs in a Tech App Guide

It is easy to think of the customer app as an office feature. In practice, it is mostly powered by the tech. The live map runs on the route order the tech works. The alerts run on the tech moving from call to call. The invoice appears when the tech taps Complete. A crew that uses the tech app well gives customers an experience that feels attentive, without anyone in the office lifting a phone.

For the full list of tech app features and every guide in this series, visit the GarageDoorBossPro garage door technician app page.