The spreadsheet column labelled 'next review'
Your risk assessors produce legionella risk assessments for client sites. Each one has a review date, set by the assessor or the client's own policy, and the client expects you to tell them when it is coming up. Some clients have one building, some have dozens, each on a different cycle.
The review dates live in a spreadsheet, or in the assessment PDFs themselves. Someone is meant to check it every month. Some months they do. Then a client's insurer asks for the current assessment and it turns out the review date passed last spring, and nobody told the client or booked the work.
At the same time, clients mention changes that might affect an assessment, such as a refurbishment or a change of use, in passing on a monitoring visit, and the comment never reaches the assessor.
Two kinds of trigger, one list
Review dates are easy to forget because they only matter once in a long while. Change triggers are harder still, because they arrive informally through engineers and site staff.
| Trigger | How you hear about it | Where it usually gets lost |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled review date | Set in the assessment | Spreadsheet nobody checks |
| Refurbishment or alterations | Engineer notices on site | Mentioned verbally, not recorded |
| Change of use or occupancy | Client mentions at a meeting | Account manager's notes |
| New plant installed | Remedial job completion | Job closed without informing assessors |
| Client policy change | Email from client | Inbox of whoever received it |
Whether a change needs a review is a judgement for your assessors and the client. The failure is that the information never reaches the person who makes that judgement.
What a missed review costs
The client is left holding an out-of-date document, which is the opposite of what they bought from you. You lose the review fee, often to a competitor who happened to call at the right time. And your assessors end up with reviews bunched together when overdue ones are discovered in batches.
A review tracker with change reports built in
- Every site holds its current assessment, the assessor, the issue date and the review date.
- Ahead of each review date, at an interval you choose, the account manager gets a prompt and a draft email to the client with the review quote.
- Engineers have a 'change on site' button in their visit form. It records what they saw, with a photo, and sends it to the assessor team for a decision.
- Account managers can log changes the client mentions in meetings the same way.
- Each change report is marked by an assessor as review needed, noted for next review, or no action, with their name and date.
- Accepted reviews become booked assessor visits, and the new assessment updates the site's review date when it is issued.
Everything sits on one dashboard: reviews due in the next few months, overdue reviews, change reports awaiting a decision, and reviews quoted but not accepted.
How the assessor team works afterwards
Assessors see their pipeline in advance, so they can plan rather than react. Account managers contact clients before the date passes, with a quote ready. When a client asks when their next review is, anyone in the office can answer.
The change reports also give you a record of what was raised and what your assessors decided, which is useful if questions are asked later.
Quick check
- Review dates are held in a spreadsheet or in the PDFs themselves.
- You have found overdue reviews by accident.
- Engineers notice site changes but have no formal way to report them.
- Review quotes are sent late, or after a client asks.
- Assessors get reviews in clusters rather than a steady flow.