The service history per installation: why the file starts with the unit, not with the technician
A customer calls: when was your technician last here, and what did they replace? If the answer is in one technician’s head, and that technician is on leave or has left, their colleague starts from scratch. The solution is simple: the history belongs with the unit.
Published by Abdelhay Rahou (opens in a new window)5 November 20265 min read
Why the history belongs with the installation
An installation often lasts longer than a technician stays with the same company. A boiler, a heat pump or a water softener is maintained for ten or fifteen years, by different people. If you want to know at each visit what was found and replaced last time, that information has to be kept with the unit, not in a notebook, a mailbox or one person’s memory.
What is more, a customer sometimes has several similar units. If you keep the history per customer instead of per installation, after two years you no longer know which unit had which repair.
What goes into an installation’s file?
- Identification: make, type, serial number, and the site where the unit is.
- Warranty: until when, and what it covers.
- Maintenance: the next maintenance and the history of the previous ones.
- Interventions and breakdowns: what went wrong, when, what was done, with the report.
- Downtime: how long the unit was out of service.
- Materials: the parts that were replaced.
- Documents: manuals, certificates, photos.
- The contract, if the unit is covered by a maintenance contract.
When a colleague takes over
If the regular technician is absent, a colleague goes. That colleague does not need to read everything that ever happened, but does need to know what matters today: what was found last time, which part is new, where the shut-off valve is, who to call. The office has the installation’s full history; it puts what matters in the intervention’s instructions, and the colleague reads them in their app before leaving.
The QR code on the unit
A QR code on the installation does two things. The customer, or a caretaker or a resident, scans it when there is a breakdown and reports it without an account, with a photo; the report arrives at the right unit, without anyone having to work out which installation it is about. And the technician opens the unit by scanning the code, instead of searching for it.
Short video · 0:30
Een klant belt: wanneer was de technieker er laatst?
Het klantdossier toont contactpersonen en locaties, de installatie en haar historiek, de laatste interventies met hun rapport, offertes en facturen.
Video in Dutch, with Dutch captions
All short videos (in Dutch)How it works in Digitalnatie Service Suite
The installation file brings together the model, the serial number, the warranty, the maintenance, the interventions, the downtime, the documents and a health score, in tabs such as interventions, maintenance history, breakdowns, materials and documents. For each document, you choose whether the customer can see it in their portal.
The [customer file](/en/customer-360/) shows everything about a customer on one page: contacts, sites, installations, interventions, quotes, invoices and documents, with a timeline of what is planned and what has happened.
Handing over: the office fills in the instructions for the technician on the intervention, and the technician reads them in their app with the assignment. For a maintenance contract, the contract’s conditions and instructions become a task at every visit. In the app, a technician does not see their colleagues’ interventions, and for an installation only their own previous interventions: the full history is at the office, and the instructions bring the technician what they need.
The [QR code](/en/qr-assets-asset-intelligence/): an installation can get its own QR code, with a label to print. Whoever scans it reports a problem without an account or password, with photos; the page only shows the installation’s name, reference and site, nothing else about the installation or the customer. In principle, the report immediately becomes an intervention linked to the installation. With their app, a technician opens the installations on which they have or had an intervention; this needs a connection.
The health score summarises what has happened to a unit: breakdowns, downtime, overdue maintenance, costs. It is not a forecast: the score only says what has happened.
How the maintenance of those installations continues is covered in tracking maintenance contracts.
Frequently asked questions
What should be in an installation’s file?
The make, type and serial number, the site, the warranty, the maintenance, the interventions and breakdowns with their report, the parts replaced and the documents, such as manuals and certificates.
Does a colleague see what was done to an installation before?
The office has the installation’s full history. In the app, a technician sees their own previous interventions on an installation. That is why the office puts what a colleague needs to know in the intervention’s instructions.
What does a QR code on an installation do?
Whoever scans it reports a breakdown without an account, with photos, and the report arrives at that installation. The technician can also open the unit by scanning the code.
Can a customer report a breakdown without an account?
Yes, through the QR code on the unit. They describe the problem, say how urgent it is and can add photos. The page only shows the installation’s name, reference and site, and no other data about the installation or the customer.
Does the health score predict when a unit will break down?
No. The score describes the unit’s past, such as breakdowns, downtime and overdue maintenance. No breakdown prediction is calculated.