How to run a smart home handover and training session
Accounts and passwords, the app, routines, voice control, what to do when something fails and a follow-up call: how to hand over a smart home installation well.
5 min read
A smart home handover should leave every member of the household able to use the system without calling you. Book a dedicated session after installation, with everyone who will use it present. Hand over the accounts and passwords, walk through the app room by room, set up a few routines with them rather than for them, test voice control if it's installed, and show what to do when something stops responding. Leave a written guide and book a short follow-up a few weeks later, once they've lived with it.
Why a separate session
At the end of an installation day, everyone is tired and the house is untidy. Explaining a new system then means half of it is forgotten by the next morning. A separate appointment, once everything is tested and tidy, gives the household time to try things themselves and ask questions. It also shows the client that training is part of what they paid for.
Who should attend
Everyone who will use the system: adults, teenagers, a grandparent who lives with them, sometimes a cleaner or a carer. Each person may need something different — the teenager wants the speaker, the grandparent wants the lights and the heating without an app. Adapt the session to each of them, and let each person try the controls with their own hands rather than watching you.
What to cover
- Accounts and passwords: the main account belongs to the client, not to you. Hand over the logins, and make sure two adults have access.
- The app: rooms, devices, favourites. Each person installs it on their own phone during the session.
- Physical controls: switches and buttons still work; show them, so nobody feels locked out without a phone.
- Routines: build two or three together — morning, leaving home, night — so they learn how to change them.
- Voice control: names of rooms and devices, and how to rename them if commands get confused.
- Notifications: which alerts are on, who receives them, and how to turn off the ones that annoy.
When something stops working
Show the simple checks the household can do before calling you: is the internet working, is the hub powered, does the device respond to its physical button, does a restart of the app or the device help. Explain what happens during a power cut or an internet outage, and which devices keep working locally. A short list on paper by the router saves stress on the day something fails.
Updates and security
Explain that devices and apps receive updates, how they are installed, and why they matter. Remind the client to change passwords if someone who had access leaves the household or a carer changes, and to remove your access once the warranty period or support agreement ends, if that is what they want.
Written guide and follow-up
Leave a short document: list of devices by room, account details to keep safe, the routines set up, the simple checks and how to reach you. Book a follow-up a few weeks later, by phone, video or at home: by then the household knows what they'd like to change, and small adjustments make the difference between a system they use and one they put up with.
Booking handovers with Book
On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page. Create a "Handover and training session" service and a shorter "Follow-up session". When installation is finished, open a slot for the handover at a time the whole household is in and book the client into it yourself from your calendar, adding their email so they get a confirmation with a calendar file. For the follow-up, you can let them pick a free slot themselves from your public page and list what they'd like to change in the optional note, which you read in your new-booking email.
| Service | Example slot | Example price |
|---|---|---|
| Handover and training session | 1 h 30 | €90 |
| Follow-up session (video or phone) | 30 min | €30 |
| Follow-up visit at home | 1 h | €60 |
Durations and prices are examples: set your own. If you need to move a session, reschedule it from your bookings list and tell the client yourself, since Book doesn't email clients about changes. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.