In real estate, “it’s a handyman’s special” is a polite way of saying “that house is a dump.” In other words, it’s only a deal if you’re “handy” enough to fix it up.

dilapidated houseBut we know how most fixer-uppers turn out. Unless the buyers are experts at restoring homes, they hire people who are experts to help them—or they end up with a house that still looks like a “handyman’s special.”

The same result often happens when companies try to use generic electronic checklists for inspections or audits.

Many checklists for use on mobile devices are “handyman’s specials” that need a lot of work to become as effective as a checklist should be. They are developed by software companies with little or no actual experience with how inspections or audits are actually conducted—resulting in template-based checklists that are too generic to be useful.

Considering the countless types of commercial equipment and processes that need inspecting, generic checklists simply aren’t sufficient. Because of the wide variance in items to be checked between different things, there’s no way to ensure that a sufficient inspection has been done if the checklist isn’t specific to the thing being checked.

With template-based, generic checklists, it’s up to you to provide that specificity. You have to go into the template and try to modify it to suit your needs—which takes time and often can’t be done satisfactorily.

The Checker frees you from that task. We offer electronic checklists already specifically designed for hundreds of types of equipment and key inspection/audit processes. And if we don’t have a checklist for what you need to inspect or audit, we can easily create one for you. We use our practical experience to design electronic checklists that are easy-to-use while also being detailed enough to be effective.

We can also design our checklists to match your unique business processes. Unlike software companies that produce checklists, we specialize in inspections and audits. We’ve been involved in safety, inspections, and audits for more than 25 years, and we know the best practices to follow and how to integrate them into a particular business’s operations.

And with The Checker, all the results can be immediately aggregated and stored in The Checker software on the cloud, which we specially developed to provide valuable management features for making the most of inspections and audits.

Most people avoid “handyman’s specials” for good reason. It’s usually much easier and less expensive to buy a house that’s already in great shape, especially if it can be modified to your needs. The same logic applies with electronic checklists: Why buy a generic electronic checklist that requires fixing up when you can get checklists expertly designed for your needs by The Checker? 

 

Image courtesy of Lucy Orloski, Creative Commons.

Tags: inspection checklists, checklist design, inspection software, mobile inspections

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