The Facility-Type Intake Questions SOP

Purpose

A tech who arrives at a business not knowing what kind of building it is finds out the expensive way: the dental office that cannot lose suction mid-procedure, the daycare that will not let an unscreened person past the front desk, the bar that opens at 16:00, the grow facility that refuses the helper who was not on the list. Every one of those facts was available on the phone, and nobody asked. This procedure makes the office collect them at booking, so the tech reads them before the van leaves, and the job starts with the right approver, the right hours and the right site rules instead of discovering them at the door.

Scope

Covers every new service request from a non-residential building or from a residential building that houses a business (a home daycare, a home salon, a farm). It covers the intake call, the dispatch note it produces and the tech's acknowledgment of that note.

Does not cover pricing, terms or contract questions (owned by the shop's commercial sales process), writing up the formal authorization on site (see related: How to Get a Work Authorization From a Business That Holds Up), entering a business after hours (see related: The After-Hours Business Entry and Alarm SOP) or the visit rules for a specific facility type once the tech is there (see related: The Medical and Dental Office Visit SOP, The Child Care Site Visit SOP, The Food Area Work SOP). An emergency reported during intake leaves this SOP at step 1.

Roles and responsibilities

Procedure

1. Screen for an emergency, then name the facility type. Before any other question, ask whether anyone smells gas, whether a carbon monoxide or fire alarm is sounding, whether water is reaching electrical equipment, or whether anyone is hurt. Then record the facility type from the shop's fixed list (food service, retail, office, medical or dental, veterinary, pharmacy, child care, school, worship, lodging, salon, warehouse or industrial, farm, lab, cannabis, marina or RV park, other), with both types for a mixed-use building. Acceptance: no emergency, and exactly one type or a named pair recorded. Wrong looks like "commercial" or "business"; the stop rule is the sheet does not advance until a type from the list is chosen. Hazard: a yes to any emergency question ends intake and moves to the shop's emergency script (everyone out, no switches, call from outside, call 911 or the gas utility as the case needs).

2. Get the approver: name, title, number and limit. Ask who approves repairs at this location, what their title is, how to reach them during the visit, and whether there is a limit above which someone else must approve. Record the caller separately if they are not the approver. Acceptance: an approver with a title and a number that answers, and a limit or the words "no stated limit". Wrong looks like a caller who cannot name an approver, or an approver who cannot be reached during the visit window; the stop rule is the job is booked as diagnosis only, the sheet is flagged "approver unconfirmed", and the office manager calls the business before dispatch. Risk: a job dispatched on a caller's word is the one that gets disputed later. See related: Who Can Actually Authorize Work in a Business.

3. Get the open hours and the dead hours. Ask what hours the business is open to customers, when staff arrive and leave, and when the service you may need to interrupt is not in use. Acceptance: open hours, staff hours and a dead window recorded in clock times, or "no dead window" recorded on purpose. Wrong looks like posted hours copied from a website; the stop rule is ask again directly, because a bakery's baker or a clinic's sterilizer runs outside posted hours. Risk: an interruption scheduled from posted hours lands on the overnight shift nobody mentioned.

4. Ask what cannot go off, and for how long it can. Ask the caller to name what in the building must keep running: refrigeration, freezers, medical or dental equipment, a server or network closet, an aquarium or animal housing, livestock water, a sump pump, a fire system. For each, ask how long it can be off. Acceptance: a list with a tolerance in minutes or hours against each item, or an explicit "nothing" the caller confirmed when the list was read back. Wrong looks like "nothing" said before the caller has thought about it; the stop rule is read the list of examples aloud once before accepting "nothing". Risk: the unlisted item is the one the outage kills. See related: What a Business Cannot Shut Down and for How Long.

5. Get the keyholder and the access rules. Ask who lets the tech in, how (in person, lockbox, key pickup), whether the site requires badging, a background check, pre-registration of every crew name, or ID at the door, and how far ahead names must be sent. Acceptance: a keyholder with a number and an access method, and each access requirement with its lead time in hours or days. Wrong looks like a pre-registration lead time longer than the time until the visit; the stop rule is the visit is moved to a time the requirement can be met, not sent anyway. Risk: an unregistered crew member is refused at the door and the job runs short. See related: Badging, Background Checks and Getting Onto the Site.

6. Ask about the alarm. Ask whether the building has a monitored intrusion alarm, who disarms it for the visit, and whether the tech will ever be in the building alone. Codes are not taken over the phone; if the tech will need one, record that the code will be issued under the shop's key and code custody procedure. Acceptance: alarm yes or no, the person who disarms it, and "tech alone: yes or no". Wrong looks like a caller reading a code aloud to the call taker; the stop rule is stop them, do not write it down, and route it to the custody procedure. Risk: a code on a sheet is a code anyone with access to the job can read. See related: Customer Keys, Codes and Lockbox Custody.

7. Name the regulator and the site rules. Ask what agency licenses or inspects the business (health department, state child care licensing, state pharmacy or veterinary board, state cannabis regulator) and what site rules apply to visitors: escorts, sign-in, PPE, hours when work is not allowed, rooms off limits, photo rules, privacy rules for patient or client areas. Acceptance: a regulator recorded or "none known", and each site rule written as the caller stated it. Wrong looks like a medical, child care, pharmacy or cannabis type with "no site rules"; the stop rule is the sheet is flagged for the office manager to confirm with the business before dispatch, because those types always have them. Risk: the rule nobody asked about becomes a violation on the business's next inspection. See related: The Regulator Behind Each Kind of Facility.

8. Ask who will be in the building. Ask who the tech will be working around: customers, patients, children, residents, guests, animals, livestock. Ask whether any area will have people who cannot be moved or should not see the work. Acceptance: occupants recorded by kind and the areas they occupy, with any area the tech may not enter. Wrong looks like children or patients recorded with no note about which areas they are in; the stop rule is ask once more where they will be during the visit. Hazard: tools, ladders and open panels around children, patients or animals need the facility type's own control rules, which the dispatcher matches in step 10.

9. Ask about hazards already on site. Ask whether there are known hazards: chemicals in use, gas appliances, animals that are not secured, recent pest or pesticide treatment, a known roof or floor problem, high carbon dioxide in grow rooms, solvents in a lab or extraction area. Acceptance: each hazard recorded with where it is, or "none known" after the question was asked. Wrong looks like a hazard mentioned in passing and not written down; the stop rule is the call taker reads the hazards back before ending the call. Hazard: an unrecorded hazard reaches the tech with no warning and no protection.

10. Review the sheet, match the tech and get acknowledgment. The dispatcher reads the sheet, checks every acceptance slot is filled or flagged, matches a tech who meets the site's requirements (registered, background-checked, licensed for the trade), and sends the dispatch note. The tech confirms reading it before departure. Acceptance: no unfilled slot, every flag resolved or explicitly carried as a visit condition, and a tech acknowledgment with a time. Wrong looks like an open flag on the morning of the visit; the stop rule is the visit does not go out until the office manager resolves or accepts the flag in writing on the job. Risk: a note the tech never read is the same as no note.

The record this produces

The intake sheet lands on the job and carries: the emergency screen answer, facility type, caller and approver with title, number and limit, open, staff and dead hours, the cannot-go-off list with tolerances, keyholder, access method and lead times, alarm facts, regulator, site rules, occupants, known hazards, every flag with who resolved it, and the tech's acknowledgment time. The tech reads it before departure; the office reads it when the business calls back; the office manager reviews flagged sheets weekly to see which questions callers struggle with.

A worked pass

A receptionist calls at 14:05 on a Tuesday: a veterinary clinic's exam room air conditioning has stopped.

INTAKE  Job 7034  Tue 14:05  taker: office
1 Emergency  none   Type  veterinary
2 Caller     front desk receptionist
  Approver   "the doctor"; office mgr on leave
  FLAG  approver unconfirmed, book diag only
  14:40 owner vet called back: approves,
        limit = diagnosis + 2.0 labor hours
3 Open 08:00-18:00  staff 07:00-19:00
  Dead window  none; boarding staff on site
  overnight
4 Cannot go off  kennel ventilation (boarders),
  vaccine fridge (minutes), oxygen concentrator
  in surgery; caller first said "nothing"
5 Keyholder  front desk, in person; no badge
6 Alarm  yes, staff disarm; tech alone: no
7 Regulator  state veterinary board;
  rules: no entry to surgery during procedures
8 Occupants  clients and pets in lobby, boarded
  dogs in kennel, surgery 13:00-16:00
9 Hazards  x-ray room (do not enter when lit),
  oxygen in surgery, two loose cats in back
10 Tech acknowledged 14:52, ETA 15:30

Step 2's stop rule fired: the receptionist could name only "the doctor", and the office manager was on leave. The call taker did not book a repair on the receptionist's word. The job went on as diagnosis only, flagged, and the office manager reached the owner veterinarian at 14:40, who approved diagnosis plus 2.0 labor hours. Step 4's stop rule fired too: the caller said "nothing" until the call taker read the examples, and three items came out, including the vaccine refrigerator, which tolerates minutes, not hours. The dispatcher matched a tech who had worked the clinic before, the tech acknowledged at 14:52, and the note told him surgery was off limits until 16:00 and the x-ray room whenever its light is on. Reading the general section back against the pass: every slot is filled or carries a flag with a resolution time, and both stop rules that fired ran exactly as written.

References

• See related: Who Can Actually Authorize Work in a Business
• See related: What a Business Cannot Shut Down and for How Long
• See related: The Regulator Behind Each Kind of Facility
• See related: Veterinary Clinics, Animals, Anesthesia and X-Ray Rooms
• See related: The After-Hours Business Entry and Alarm SOP