The Same Callback Twice Is Telling You Something

The problem in one breath

A pipe boot leaked in May. Two hours and a tube of sealant, and she was happy again. Another leaked in June, different house, same crew. There was one in March too, and nobody in your shop has put the three together. Each one got fixed alone and forgotten alone.

Why it happens

Every callback is small by itself, and that's what hides it. They land weeks apart, each gets closed the day it's handled, and nobody's job is to look at them together. So the shop rebuilds the same detail and calls it bad luck.

The other half is how you count. How many of each cause, and what each cause cost you, are two different lists, and they don't have to agree. Only your own log says which cause tops which — so read the dollar column, not just the count.

The play

Call it the callback read. Twenty minutes, once a month, with the callback log open (Play 1).

1. Read it at a sitting you already hold. The same monthly sitting where you grade the jobs that closed (Module 6, Play 19). The folders are already out. Don't start another standing meeting — one nobody wants dies by March.
2. Read by cause and by cost, never by count. The log adds up both: how many of each cause, and what it cost you after anything you billed back. Read the dollar column — one big number beats six cheap ones.
3. Question one — which detail keeps coming back? Not which house. The detail: the boot, the valley, the wall flashing, the ridge. Two of the same cause in a month, or three in a season, is worth a hard look at the step itself: it's probably built differently depending on who's up there.
4. Question two — which crew, or which man? Line the calls up against the crew column, then against how many roofs that crew built — count those off the closed job folders. The busiest crew collects the most calls, and that's fair. You're hunting one crew holding most of ONE cause: a hole in what somebody was taught, not a bad crew.
5. Question three — which job's callback cost more than the job made? Set the worst line in the log beside what that roof made on the job report card. When the fix beats the profit, you built that roof for free — price the next one before you fight it (Play 5).
6. Pick ONE fix, and hand it to the play built for it. A detail nobody builds the same way twice gets a how-we-do-it page (Module 3, Play 8). One man's hands get the training card (Module 3, Play 4). Same cause on top after you wrote the page? The standard is a poster — test it (Module 3, Play 7). Either way it gets said at the next job debrief (Module 3, Play 1).
7. Next month, look at that one number again. The by-cause block totals the whole log, so the figure moves as new callbacks land, and it drops when you bill one back for more than it cost you. Write today's figure on the card; next month subtract it from the new one. What the cause added since is your answer, and a smaller add — with nothing big billed back — means the fix is holding. A fix nobody checks is a wish, and wishes are how the same boot leaks a fourth time.

Do this this week

Twenty minutes with your invoices, back-filling the log: every callback you can name from the last three months, one line each. Then read the by-cause block you just built and write one line on the board — the cause that has cost you the most, and the crew whose name sits on it most. Don't fix anything yet; this month you're only learning to read it.

The tool

Print the card and keep it with the log — one a month, at the sitting where you grade closed jobs. The three questions run in pen, in order. One fix, one name, one date. The last block is the easiest one to skip, and it's the only proof the read earns its twenty minutes.

THE CALLBACK READ — twenty minutes, once a month

Month read: __________  Read by: __________  Date: __________
Same sitting as the monthly job grading. Log open, by-cause
totals in front of you. Read the dollars, not the count.

1 - WHICH DETAIL KEEPS COMING BACK?
    Top cause by what it cost you: ______________  $________
    How many: ____   Next cause: ________________  $________

2 - WHICH CREW, OR WHICH MAN?
    Crew holding the most of that ONE cause: _______________
    Roofs that crew built (count the job folders): ____
    Its callbacks: ____

3 - WHICH JOB'S CALLBACK BEAT THE JOB?
    Job: ______________  Fix cost you $______
    That roof made $______  (off the job report card)

THE ONE FIX - one only, this month
    The detail: __________________________________________
    [ ] The how-we-do-it page for that detail
    [ ] The training card, for one man
    [ ] Page already written and it is still on top - test
        the standard, not the man
    [ ] Sub crew - it goes to his company, not to his men
    Who: ______________   Done by: ______________
    Said at the next job debrief:  [ ]

NEXT MONTH - the only thing that proves any of this worked
    The cause you went after: ____________________________
    What the sheet says it has cost you, today .... $______
    Off last month's card ......................... $______
    What it added since (subtract) ................ $______
    Compared with last month's add:
    Smaller [ ]    Same [ ]    Bigger [ ]

If your crew is 1099

The read doesn't change. Where the fix goes does. The looking is still yours (Play 2); the fixing belongs to the company that employs those men, never to the man who built the detail. Two of the same cause out of one sub company is a talk with that owner about the checkpoints (Module 12, Play 3). How much you may direct his men, and what may come off his check when the fix came out of your pocket, is set by that agreement and by your state (Module 12, Play 4) — read yours, and ask your own attorney before you short anybody.

One more thing: this play is how we run a shop — it's not legal advice. Rules change by state and by contract, so before you act on the legal-sounding parts, run them past your own attorney or accountant. It's your business, and what you do with any of this is your call and your responsibility.