The engineer who could not get in
The fibre broadband install is booked for Tuesday morning. The supplier confirmed the slot a fortnight ago, and your provisioning team passed it on to the customer by email. On Tuesday the engineer arrives at a business park, finds the unit shut because the office moved to a four-day week, and marks the job as no access.
Wednesday brings a supplier note: appointment aborted, customer not available, charge applied, new appointment offered in a few weeks. The customer is annoyed because their old line has already been ceased. Your provisioning team is annoyed because the email went to a director who forwards nothing. And the charge lands on your supplier invoice, not the customer's.
Leased lines are worse. There the survey, the wayleave, the civil works and the final install are all separate visits, each of which can fail for a reason on the customer's side.
Why visits fail on the day
The supplier books the slot. The customer owns the site. You are in the middle, and the information that decides whether the visit works lives with the customer.
- The contact on the order is the person who signed, not the person who holds the keys.
- The comms room or cupboard is managed by a landlord or building manager who needs notice.
- Power, a free socket, a clear route for cabling or rack space is assumed rather than checked.
- Confirmation emails with the appointment go to an address nobody watches.
- Appointment changes by the supplier are not passed on quickly enough to rearrange access.
None of this is difficult to ask. It just is not asked at the right time, by anyone in particular.
What each failed visit costs
| Failure | Where it hurts |
|---|---|
| No access on the day | Supplier aborted visit charge, new date weeks away |
| Wrong contact on site | Engineer leaves, customer blames you |
| Landlord permission missing | Leased line delayed while it is sought |
| No power or space for the router | Second visit and a frustrated customer |
| Old service already ceased | Customer without service in the gap |
Whether you pass the aborted visit charge on depends on your terms and on who was really at fault, and it is often easier to absorb it than argue. That is money, and it is the customer's first real experience of you after the sale.
An install readiness process we put in place
- When an order is placed, a site record is created with the named site contact, the key holder, any landlord or building management contact, and access hours. Sales cannot close the order without it.
- Once the supplier confirms an appointment, the site contact gets a message by SMS and email with the date, a plain explanation of what the engineer needs, and a one-click confirm or 'we need to change this'.
- A short readiness checklist goes to the customer: access to the comms room, a free power socket, rack space for leased lines, and any building permission needed.
- If the customer does not confirm, or answers no to a readiness question, provisioning gets an alert with enough time to rebook with the supplier before a charge applies.
- A reminder goes out the day before, to the site contact and key holder, with the engineer's arrival window.
- When the supplier moves the appointment, the new date goes to the customer automatically, and confirmation starts again.
Messages go out through a service such as Twilio for SMS and your own email domain, so they come from you and replies land with your team.
What your provisioning team sees
Every upcoming install has a readiness status: confirmed, waiting on customer, or at risk. The at risk list is short and actionable. Provisioning can rebook early with the supplier instead of hearing about a failed visit the day after.
Customers notice too. The first thing they get from you after signing is clear information about what happens next and what they need to do, which is exactly what they did not get from their last provider.
Are aborted visits a regular thing for you?
- Aborted visit charges appear on your supplier invoice most months.
- Install confirmations go to whoever signed the order.
- Landlord or building access is sorted after the appointment is booked.
- Customers find out about appointment changes from the engineer, or not at all.
- Nobody checks site readiness for leased line installs before the visit.