The First Month of a New Contract Is the Whole Contract

Most owners I know put their energy into winning the contract. The tender, the site visit, the price, the handshake. Then the contract starts and the energy goes somewhere else, because there is a new enquiry to chase.

I think that is backwards. The first month is where the client decides what kind of company you are. Everything after that is mostly them confirming it.

The client is watching more closely than you think

On day one, the client has a picture in their head from the tender. Now they get to compare it with what turns up at the gate. They notice who arrives, whether that person knows where to go, whether they have been told what the site actually needs, and whether anyone at your end can answer a question without a phone call to someone who is out.

They won't tell you they're watching. They'll just form a view, and views formed in the first few weeks are stubborn. A good first month buys you patience when something goes wrong later, and something always goes wrong later. A poor first month means every later problem is read as proof.

What a client forgives, and what they don't

In my experience clients forgive the odd late arrival if you rang them before they had to ring you. They don't forgive finding out for themselves.

They forgive a new officer who needs a day to find their feet if that officer has been briefed. They don't forgive a person standing at the gate who has never seen the site and has no idea who to call.

They forgive a missed patrol if the record is honest. They don't forgive a record that says it happened when it didn't.

Notice that none of those are about being perfect. They are about being on top of things, and about telling the client first.

Before day one

Here is the list I would want ticked off before a new contract goes live. None of it is clever.

Assignment instructions that someone has actually read. Not a document that was written for the tender and filed. A short, current set of instructions for that site: who to call, where the keys and panels are, what the client's own staff expect, what is off limits. If the officer on the first night can't find it on their phone, it doesn't exist.

The same few people for the first weeks. Constant changes of face in the opening month tell the client the site is an afterthought. If you can only afford to protect one thing, protect continuity for the first month. Pick the people who are reliable and put them on the new site while the relationship is forming.

One named contact at your end, and a response time you can keep. Not the best response time you can imagine on a good day. The one you can hold on your worst day. Then keep it.

A first review booked in the diary before you start. Put a date in at the end of week two or three, and tell the client it's coming. Ask what they have noticed and what they would change. Clients who are asked early tend to raise small things early, and small things are cheap to fix. Clients who are never asked tend to save it all up for the renewal.

Don't promise what the rota can't carry

This is the one that catches growing companies out. You win a contract that needs six more people than you have been running, and the tender promised a full team from day one.

Be honest with yourself about the rota before you sign, not after. Who covers the first fortnight of nights? What happens if two people go off sick in the first week? If the answer is "we'll sort it out", then the client will be the one who finds out it wasn't sorted. If your cover plan depends on the same two people saying yes every time, it isn't a plan.

I would rather tell a prospective client that we start with a smaller team and build up, than say yes to the lot and let them find the gaps. It's a less exciting conversation, and it's the one that keeps the contract.

Keep it simple and keep a record

Whatever you do in the first month, be able to show it. Patrols that can be shown to have happened, incidents recorded properly and passed on the same day, hours that match what you invoice. Not because you expect an argument, but because the one time there is a query, being able to answer it in a few minutes rather than a few days is the difference between a conversation and a complaint.

That is the main reason I care about a good system for this. When the records are in one place and written as things happen, the first month is far less of a scramble. If you want to see how we do it at TacDesk, I'll walk you through it.

Why this is also your best sales tool

A client who has had a clean first month is the client who gives you the reference, the second site, and the introduction to the neighbouring building. It is cheaper than any marketing you will do this year. If you want more on standing out when the work is up for grabs, I wrote about differentiating a security company in a crowded market, and the first month is where that difference is proved or lost.

Win the contract by all means. Then treat the first four weeks as if the renewal is being decided in them, because in practice it is.

If you'd like to see how TacDesk can help you run a clean first month on a new site, book a demo.