Electricians: planning jobs in homes people live in

A job in a home people live in needs more than a time slot. Before the visit, find out who will let you in, how to get into the building, whether there are pets or small children, and what depends on the power: freezers, home offices, alarms, and above all any powered medical equipment. Tell the occupants when and for how long you'll cut the power, so they can prepare. Put the key questions in your service descriptions so customers answer them when they book, and confirm the rest by message the day before.

On a building site, you control access and nobody minds when the power goes off. In a home, someone is working from the kitchen table, a baby is asleep, the freezer is full, and the person who booked may not be the person who opens the door. A job that takes an hour on paper can lose half of it to a locked gate, a dog that needs shutting away or a customer who wasn't told the power would be off.

Many of these problems can be solved before you arrive, with the right questions at the right time.

On Book, each type of job is a service with its own price and optional description, and you open slots for each at the length it takes. The booking form asks for first name, last name, email and phone, and includes an optional free-text note. In your service descriptions, ask customers to use that note for the address details, access and who will be home.

In rented homes, the person who books and pays may be the landlord or an agency, while the tenant lives there and opens the door. Ask whoever books to put the tenant's name and phone number in the booking note, and to confirm that the tenant knows about the visit. Then contact the tenant yourself before the day. That call avoids arriving at a closed door, and it's the moment to warn them about the power cut.

When a job needs the power off for part of the visit, tell the occupants in advance roughly when and for how long, so they can plan around it:

Where possible, isolate only the circuit you're working on rather than the whole home, and say so. When the job requires a full cut, do the prep work first, cut the power for the shortest time, and let the occupants know when it's back.

In a home, a late arrival means someone has taken time off work for nothing. Give yourself realistic slots: include time to get in, protect floors, find the consumer unit and tidy up at the end, not just the work itself. Leave travel time between jobs, and group jobs in the same area on the same day where you can.

You set the start and end of every slot. If a job overruns and you'll be late for the next one, call the customer as early as possible. If you need to move a booking, reschedule it from your bookings list and tell the customer yourself, since Book doesn't email them when you change a booking.

Occupants notice the dust, the moved furniture and the switch that no longer works more than the neat work behind the plaster. Allow a few minutes at the end of each slot to clean up, test what you've touched with the occupant, and explain anything they need to know, such as a new switch or a breaker that trips. It's also the moment to agree on a follow-up visit if one is needed, and to book it yourself from your calendar.