Can you send us the last three years?
A customer's insurer has asked for their fire alarm certificates for the past three years, and the customer rings you. The office searches the shared drive. Two certificates are there, named inconsistently. One was emailed but not saved. Another was issued under the customer's previous company name. An hour later, three PDFs go out.
The following week a managing agent asks for extinguisher registers across six buildings for a new owner's due diligence. The week after that, a school wants the fire door inspection report from two years ago for an audit. Each request is small. Together, they take a real share of the office's time.
Why old documents are hard to find
Certificates and reports are issued as files, filed by whoever issued them, in whatever folder made sense at the time.
- Files are stored in shared drives with inconsistent names.
- Some documents exist only as email attachments.
- Customer and site names change over time.
- Registers and reports are held separately from certificates.
- Customers cannot see anything without asking you.
What repeated requests cost
Office time spent searching, often at short notice because the customer's deadline is tomorrow. Frustrated customers when documents cannot be found quickly. The occasional document that cannot be found at all, which is awkward for everyone. And a sense from customers that they depend on you for their own paperwork.
A document history each customer can open
We build a document history linked to each customer site, filled from your existing files and kept current from new visits.
- Your existing certificates, registers and reports are gathered from shared drives and email, and each is matched to a customer, site, system and date. Obvious matches are made automatically; uncertain ones go to a review queue.
- Every new certificate, register or report you issue is filed automatically against the site when it is sent.
- Each customer contact gets a secure link, or a login for larger customers, showing their sites and documents by system and date.
- Customers can download what they need, or share a time-limited link with their insurer, auditor or buyer.
- Name changes and site transfers are handled by linking old and new names, so history is not lost.
- The office sees which documents are downloaded and can add notes to a site's history.
| Request | Handled today | Handled after |
|---|---|---|
| Last three years of certificates | Search the shared drive | Customer downloads them |
| Registers across several buildings | Compile from folders | Customer selects sites |
| Report for an auditor | Email attachment search | Time-limited share link |
| Document under an old company name | Often lost | Linked to the current customer |
Access is limited to each customer's own sites, and you control who has access and for how long.
The next insurer request
The customer's insurer asks for three years of certificates. The customer opens their link, selects the site and the fire alarm system, and downloads the certificates, or sends the insurer a share link valid for a fortnight. Your office is not involved. When a request does come to the office, finding the document takes a search on the site rather than a hunt across the shared drive.
Getting the archive in shape
The first step is the least glamorous: gathering years of files that were never meant to be found again. We work through your shared drives and the mailboxes that sent certificates, pull out the documents, read the customer, site, system and date from each one, and match them to your current site list. Most match cleanly. The rest go into a queue for someone who knows the customers, such as a long-serving administrator, to resolve a few at a time. Customers see their history as soon as their sites are done.
What you end up with
Fewer interruptions for the office. Customers who can answer their own insurers and auditors. A complete, organised archive of everything you have issued. And a service customers value, which makes switching to another firm a little less appealing.
Signs this would help
- Customers regularly ask for copies of old certificates.
- Finding old documents means searching shared drives and inboxes.
- Some documents exist only as email attachments.
- Documents are filed under old customer names.
- Customers cannot access their own document history.