Taking a breakdown call: which questions do you ask the customer?

What is a breakdown report?

A breakdown report is a customer telling you that an installation is not working, or not working properly: by phone, by email or through a form. On a boiler or a heat pump, the error code on the display is a report of the fault too. Both belong on the intervention: what the customer tells you, and what the unit reports itself.

Whoever answers the phone decides, with a few questions, whether the technician sets off the first time with the right part, the right key and the right expectations. That conversation takes a few minutes. A forgotten question costs a second trip. What else makes a first visit succeed is explained in first-time fix.

Where taking a breakdown call goes wrong

• Only the symptom, in the customer’s words. “It’s not working” tells the technician very little.
• The unit is unknown. Brand, model, serial number and error code were not asked for, so the part stays in the warehouse.
• Access has not been arranged. The unit is on the roof, and the key is with the caretaker, who goes home at four.
• A dangerous situation became an ordinary breakdown. The customer mentioned a smell of gas in passing, and nobody gave them instructions.

Which questions do you ask when a customer reports a breakdown?

Always ask them in the same order, so that nobody forgets one, even on a busy Monday.

1. Is there any danger? Ask this first: a smell of gas, smoke, water near electricity, vulnerable people without heating? If so, go first to the section on safety below.
2. Who is calling, and who will be on site? Name and mobile phone number of the caller, and of the person who will let the technician in if that is someone else: a tenant, a caretaker, the technical department of a building.
3. Where is the installation? Address, floor, room (basement, roof, plant room), and how the technician gets in: key, code, parking space.
4. Which installation is it? Brand, model and serial number from the rating plate, or the reference on your sticker or QR label. Is there a maintenance contract or a warranty in place?
5. What exactly is happening? Let the customer explain first, then ask follow-up questions. What do they see, hear or smell? Does the unit stop completely, or is it working less well?
6. Is there an error code on the display? Have the customer read it out character by character, or take a photo of it.
7. Since when? Suddenly or gradually, all the time or now and then? After a power cut, building work or a cold spell?
8. What has the customer already tried? A reset, topping up the water, a fuse. Write it down, and do not ask them to try anything you cannot follow up on the phone.
9. Can the customer send a photo? Of the rating plate, the display or the leak. A photo of the rating plate saves you spelling out a serial number.
10. When can the technician get in? On which days and at what times someone is there, and how long the customer can manage without the installation.

A smell of gas or a water leak: safety first

When there is danger, you do not ask about the brand. You tell the customer what to do now, and you stick to what the official sources say:

• Smell of gas. Have the customer follow the safety instructions of their distribution system operator: no flames, do not operate lights or switches, close the gas meter valve, ventilate, leave the building and, from outside, call the free emergency number for a smell of gas. That number is on the website of the system operator for their region.
• Fire, smoke or injuries. The customer calls 112 (site in Dutch), the number for an ambulance and the fire brigade.
• Water leak. Have the customer close the main water valve if they can reach it safely. If there is water near sockets, appliances or the fuse box, they touch nothing.
• No heating for vulnerable people. A reason to raise the priority and to call the customer back quickly with a time.

Write these instructions out once, have them checked by your prevention adviser (preventieadviseur / conseiller en prévention) and keep them next to the phone.

What priority does the breakdown get?

The answers set the priority, even when the caller insists. Four questions are usually enough: is there any danger, is the installation at a standstill, does the customer have an alternative, and who is affected? Which response time goes with each priority is explained in SLA and response time.

What do you tell the customer before you hang up?

• Briefly repeat what you have noted, with the address and the unit.
• Say when they will hear from you, for example “you will get a time today before four”. Do not promise a time the planner has not yet confirmed.
• If you charge for travel or a minimum, mention it now, provided your general terms and conditions allow for it. Have the text of those terms checked by your accountant or legal adviser.
• Say what the customer needs to arrange: access, a unit that has been cleared, a contact person. And what to do if things get worse.

A breakdown form: template

Copy this into your form, your email template or your software.

An example: a heat pump with an error code

On Friday morning, the manager of a small office calls: the heating keeps cutting out. The person who answers starts with safety. There is no smell of gas and no water, and nobody is in danger. It is a heat pump the company installed itself last year. The customer reads the serial number off the rating plate and emails a photo of the display with the error code. The problem started yesterday after a power cut, and a reset helped for an hour. The building closes at five; the caretaker has a key.

The office creates the intervention on that installation, as urgent, because the premises are cooling down. The technician looks up the error code in the manufacturer’s documentation before setting off, and takes along the part that may be involved. The customer hears before noon when the technician will come.

How it works in Digitalnatie Service Suite

The report becomes an intervention, which you then put on the schedule. In the standard roles, the planner, the manager and the administrator create interventions.

• New intervention: from the list of interventions or from the create menu in the top bar. The customer and the site are required, the installation is optional, and the type is set to breakdown by default. The description is for what the customer reports, the access, the keys and the contact person. You can schedule it straight away by choosing the technician, date, time and duration.
• From the installation: look up the installation in the register by name, reference, serial number or model, and report the breakdown from its record. The window opens with the customer, the site, the installation and the breakdown type already filled in.
• The history: the installation file has, among others, tabs for the interventions, the breakdowns and the maintenance history. See also the service history per installation.
• Priority: normal, important, urgent or critical. Important is filled in by default, so choose deliberately for every report. The default response times are 72, 48, 24 and 8 hours; your organisation’s response times set the deadline shown on the intervention.
• Danger and standstill: if the site has an open hazard with the severity danger or stop work, the window points this out to you. If the installation is at a standstill, you record the standstill in its file, with since when, the type, the cause and the impact; the installation goes to out of service.
• Other channels: an email in the service inbox becomes an intervention, with the title and text of the email already filled in, and the customer too if the sender is recognised (see a shared inbox for service requests). A report that the customer sends themselves through an installation’s QR label becomes an intervention automatically, in principle (see a QR code on installations).

Good to know: no email goes to the customer when an intervention is created, so you confirm the time yourself. If you do not know the installation yet, leave the field empty: in their mobile app, the technician can link an installation to the intervention, or add one with its name and, optionally, its serial number.

Frequently asked questions

Which questions do you ask when a customer reports a breakdown?

First, whether there is any danger. Then who is calling and who will be on site, the address and the access, which installation it is (brand, model, serial number), what exactly is happening, the error code, since when, what the customer has already tried, a photo, and when the technician can get in.

What do you say if the customer smells gas?

You do not ask any technical questions. Have the customer follow the safety instructions of their distribution system operator: no flames or switches, close the gas meter valve, ventilate, leave the building and, from outside, call the free emergency number for a smell of gas that is on the system operator’s website. In case of fire or injuries, they call 112.

Do you already say on the phone what the travel costs?

If your general terms and conditions provide for a travel charge or a minimum, mention it when the breakdown is reported, so that the customer knows before the technician arrives. Have the text of your terms checked by your accountant or legal adviser.

Does the customer get a confirmation when you record the breakdown in Service Suite?

No. No email goes to the customer when an intervention is created. You confirm the time yourself, for example by calling back or by replying from the service inbox.