Multi-site, multi-vendor check-in: one process for every location and vendor

No one designs a fragmented check-in process. It builds up one site and one vendor at a time:

• Every vendor brings its own process. One uses a phone tree, another an app, a third texts the site manager, and a subcontractor does nothing at all.
• Every site has its own habits. A sign-in sheet at one front desk, a call from the store phone at another, nothing at the sites that are unstaffed when the technician arrives.
• Systems differ across the portfolio. Brands, regions and acquired locations often run different work order systems, or a spreadsheet.
• Regional vendors cover different markets. A national footprint usually means many vendors per trade, each with its own way of reporting a visit.
• Site staff aren't facilities staff. Store associates, kitchen managers and front desk teams are busy with customers and patients, so any process that depends on them confirming a visit gets skipped.

The result is that visit data exists in some places, in different formats, and mostly in the vendor's hands. Each gap has a cost, and each one is closed by a specific piece of data:

A process can only be standard across a portfolio if it doesn't depend on site staff, doesn't depend on each vendor adopting a new tool, and writes the same record wherever the visit happens. With spryggAIVR, every visit at every site follows the same four steps:

On Scale and Enterprise plans, technicians can check in and out in English or Spanish, and the completion report is always written in English, so a bilingual vendor base still produces one record format. For how each element of a visit is verified, see vendor check-in verification; for what syncs to each system, see integrations.

1. Connect your work orders. Connect ServiceChannel, spryggCMMS or a Google Sheet, so technicians check in against the work orders you already dispatch. Nothing about how you dispatch changes.
2. Set the on-site radius. The default is 0.1 mile from the site address. It applies to every site in the account, so widen it if your sites include large campuses or centers where the service entrance is far from the address.
3. Add your vendor companies and technicians. spryggAIVR can add each vendor on your synced work orders as a vendor company with its own PIN, so a technician calling from a phone that isn't on file can still check in. Technicians whose numbers are on file are recognized by caller ID.
4. Give every vendor the same instructions. spryggAIVR fills in check-in instructions for each vendor company (the number, the work order and their PIN). In ServiceChannel and spryggCMMS they can be posted on each work order, so the technician sees them with the job, and kept up to date automatically after each sync. You can also send them to the vendor directly.
5. Start with one region or a group of busy sites. Pick sites with a high volume of vendor visits. Compare the verified visits with the invoices that come in, and with what your coordinators used to confirm by phone.
6. Make it the standard for every vendor. Add the check-in number to vendor onboarding and your service terms, so a visit without a verified check-in gets a second look before its invoice is approved.

The live board shows every site in one view: who is on site now, which dispatched visits haven't started, and which visits were flagged. Each site's day is counted in its own local time, so in a portfolio that spans time zones every visit shows on the day it was scheduled at that site. Every time on the board and in alerts is shown in the site's own time with its zone (for example, 2:14 PM CST), so no one has to convert. A visit is only treated as a possible no-show when one was actually expected: the work order is open, assigned to a vendor or technician, and dispatched.

For how verified visit records change invoice approval, see proof of service.

The process is the same everywhere. What changes is which visits cost the most when they go wrong:

• Restaurants. Refrigeration, cooking equipment and hood failures cost sales and product, and visits have to fit around service, so a same-day no-show matters more than anywhere else.
• Retail. Many visits happen before open or after close with no staff on site, and a failed HVAC unit or entry door can delay an opening. A location-verified check-in is often the only record that the visit happened.
• Medical. Clinics, dental offices, urgent care and outpatient facilities often need a record of who was on the premises, and visits have to fit around patient hours. Each check-in names the technician and their company, with times.

It depends on who does the work and where the record needs to go:

• Your work order system's built-in check-in. Enough if every vendor already uses it consistently and you don't need proof of location.
• A field service app with GPS check-in. A good fit if your technicians are mostly your own employees, who will install and run it.
• A verification layer such as spryggAIVR. The fit when many outside vendors serve many sites, you need location-verified visits from all of them, and you want the record in the system you already use.

Whichever you choose, ask whether it's the same process for every site and vendor, whether technicians need an app, what it writes to your system, and how it's priced as you add sites and vendors. spryggAIVR is priced by monthly check-ins, from $99 a month for 100, and every plan starts with a 30-day free trial. For the full checklist, see choosing a vendor verification service. For how spryggAIVR works for multi-site operators, see the spryggAIVR overview.