OFFICE WORKFLOW PLAYBOOKS // RESOURCE 12
Customer Not Home
Handle a no-access arrival consistently while protecting technician time and maintaining a clear record.
The operating outcome
Use this playbook to keep customer not home consistent, visible, and owned. The office should finish with a reliable job record, a realistic customer promise, and a clear next action.
Before acting
Confirm the customer, location, requested work, urgency, history, access, commercial terms, and the person authorized to make decisions. Do not turn a customer description into an unverified technical diagnosis.
Key checkpoints
- Attempt the approved contact sequence and wait the defined amount of time.
- Capture arrival evidence without photographing private areas unnecessarily.
- Apply trip or cancellation terms only as published and authorized.
- Set the next owner for rebooking, payment, or account review.
Office workflow
- Review the information already available before contacting the customer again.
- Resolve missing facts that affect safety, qualification, access, timing, material, or price disclosure.
- Set the job status, priority, assigned owner, customer communication promise, and escalation path.
- Update every downstream appointment or team member affected by the decision.
- Close the loop in the job record instead of relying on chat or memory.
Record and handoff
- Keep the original customer wording, confirmed facts, warnings, commitments, and accepted timing.
- Make the next owner, due time, and unresolved exception easy to see.
- Review repeated exceptions for training, staffing, routing, or policy improvement.
Use boundaryThis resource is a practical operating reference. Follow company policy, customer contracts, licensing requirements, manufacturer instructions, employment requirements, codes, accounting rules, and qualified professional guidance that apply.