Customer notes: how to write them so they actually help
11. 8. 2026
A note on a customer record is the cheapest driver training there is. It is also where sentences end up that nobody would want to see printed.
What belongs in a note
Anything the driver needs to know before arriving:
- Boarding: "walking frame", "needs help into the car", "third floor, no lift, takes her a while".
- Where to stop: "doorbell broken, waits at the back entrance", "entrance from the side street".
- Contact: "ring before setting off", "the daughter arranges it, tel. …".
- Repeating durations: "orthopaedics always takes about 40 minutes".
These are the things that save phone calls and minutes on every ride.
What does not belong there
A note is a record about a specific person, and that person has the right to ask what you keep about them. So leave out:
- judgements of character ("difficult", "always complaining"),
- diagnoses you do not need in order to drive somebody,
- family gossip and anything overheard in the car,
- details about third parties that nobody gave you.
Record a health matter only in the form that has an operational consequence: instead of a diagnosis, "needs help boarding"; instead of "after a stroke", "speaks slowly, give her time".
Write for a stranger
The note is not for the person who knows the customer. It is for the driver arriving for the first time — probably on the day your regular colleague is off sick. Shorthand only the dispatcher understands is worthless.
A good rule: one fact at the start of the sentence, no irony. "Doorbell broken — waits at the back entrance" is a note. "At that famous back door of hers again" is not.
Keep them current or they rot
Notes tend to accumulate and never get deleted. Every so often go through your most frequent customers and remove what no longer applies — the daughter moved away, the walking frame became a wheelchair. An out-of-date note is worse than none, because the driver believes it.
Who sees them
Notes are visible to the dispatch desk and to the driver on their own rides. For the observer role (council leadership, the funder) contacts and notes can be hidden — they see the operation, not personal data. If you print the daily plan, the notes are on the paper too; do not leave it in the car and shred it at the end of the shift.
Notes are entered on the customer and appear on every one of their rides, including the printed daily plan.
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