How to play the checklist game (and win)
Almost every HVACR business Ahas internal checklists that techs follow during new installs. But here’s the dirty little secret that no one wants to admit: checklists are only as honest as the person filling them out.
Checklists: good or bad?
If you ask 100 different contractors for their checklists, you might get 100 different versions. Is any one of them right? Do they all have some right items? Every company is different, so it makes sense that checklists could emphasize different elements of an installation. But every installation checklist should have the same HVACR performance-related items.
However, even if your checklist includes all the right elements, that doesn’t necessarily mean the information it contains correctly reflects the system’s performance. How many times have your techs done their checklists on the way home or at the end of the week, entering information that’s sometimes days old, long after they’re likely to accurately remember the details? Does this sound like a useful “tool” that has value to you?
Checklists: Your “source of truth”
CRMs like ServiceTitan have made install checklists a required step before a ticket can be closed out. But everyone who’s had to fill one out knows how easy it is to fudge numbers or use pics taken from other jobs.
We all remember the old days when some techs or installers would use their company trucks for personal business or sit in the convenience store parking lot waiting for 5:00 PM. To reduce misuse, companies began to use services and tools, like GPS, to track vehicle use. To no one’s surprise, unauthorized personal trips and idle parking issues went away (or the company continued to suffer stupid inefficiencies!).
Oversight like this isn’t to pass judgment on the people you’ve hired. It’s human nature to look for an advantage or shortcut here and there. But after you’ve done something the wrong way a few times, you stop thinking about whether it’s the right thing to do. The problem isn’t that you’ve hired dishonest employees—it’s that you need processes that provide better insight, like GPS provided for vehicle use. So why not update your process and make it easy for everyone to do high quality work, every time?
That’s exactly what ACCA’s Quality Installation (QI) certificates do.
Oversight you can’t fake
QI certificates are powered by measureQuick, the HVACR app leading the way in quality, data-driven HVACR installations. The QI process isn’t just another checklist—it’s a real-time performance verification tool that makes sure every detail of the system’s operation is done right.
Commissioning the system to earn a QI certificate catches performance-related issues from the installation before the crew finishes the job—long before they turn into a customer complaint or callback.
Protect your reputation, deliver quality installation
QI certificates give you peace of mind that every installation from every crew meets the same quality standards.
So, ask yourself: do you want a streamlined process with accurate real-time measurements that meet industry standards, or are you willing to stake your reputation on a checklist that may or may not be trusted? Are you ready to step up and prove your quality with QI certificates?
Head over to our QI certificate page to learn more and start issuing certificates today.
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