How can I verify a garage door company’s service call booking system?
Test the booking process yourself by placing a call and following it through to the invoice. Then compare the booking records with dispatch notes and payments, and find out who owns the phone line, the data and the accounts behind the system.
Start with the customer’s view. Call the number, use the website form and see how fast the company responds, how the job is recorded and how the technician is assigned. Then follow one call from the first contact to the invoice and the payment. If any step depends on the owner’s memory or a notebook, you have found a gap.
Next, test the records. Compare the booked calls with dispatch notes, technician time and invoices, and look for calls that did not become jobs and jobs that were never recorded. Ask how after-hours and urgent calls are handled and who answers them. This tells you how much revenue starts here and how much could be lost if the process fails.
Then find out what you would own. Who holds the phone numbers, the listings, the domain and the system accounts? Are they in the company’s name or the seller’s? Ask your lawyer to make sure these pass to you at closing. Your accountant can compare booked work with the cash flow and the statements, so the numbers tell one story. If the system is simple, that is fine, but make sure you can run it yourself on day one without the seller.
Key takeaways
- Place a real call and follow it all the way through to the invoice and payment.
- Compare booked calls against dispatch notes and invoices to find gaps.
- Confirm that phone numbers, listings and system accounts are in the company’s name.
Related reading
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Sources
This answer is checked against primary sources. Links were last confirmed on the dates shown.
- 01Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentHow to conduct due diligence when buying a business
- 02Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentWhat are the steps to buying a business?
- 03Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentWhat are financial statements?
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