A salesperson takes a new role inside the company. Her biggest customer has been buying for four years. A colleague inherits the account with a spreadsheet row and a folder of old emails. Three weeks later the customer asks about a discount that was promised in the spring. The new owner has never heard of it, and the customer concludes that the company does not keep its word.
Accounts change hands for ordinary reasons: a departure, a new role, a holiday cover that becomes permanent, a rebalancing of work. This article is about the account as a relationship. It covers what to pass on, how to tell the customer and how to spend the first month. The internal side of handing over tools and systems is a different topic, covered in the one-page handover for an internal tool. The customer's own view of a change of contact is in when your main contact at a customer changes.
What to pass on
The CRM already holds names and orders. What it usually lacks is context. Put the following on one page, written by the person leaving the account, not by the person taking it over.
- People. Who decides, who uses the product, who pays, and who is easy or hard to reach. Add how each person prefers to be contacted.
- History in five lines. How the customer came to you, what they bought, what went wrong once and how it was settled.
- Open commitments. Every promise with a date: prices, discounts, deliveries, callbacks, favours. This is the most important section.
- What the customer cares about. Speed, price, a named contact, a certain way of reporting. One or two sentences.
- Risks and opportunities. A renewal date, a competitor mentioned, a project they plan next year.
- Where things are. Links to the contract, the last proposal, the support history and the shared folder.
Keep it honest. If the relationship is strained, say so and say why. The new owner can only repair what they know about.
How to tell the customer
The customer should hear about the change from you, before it happens and not from an automatic reply. A short personal message or a call works better than a formal notice.
Say four things: that the change is happening and when, who takes over, why that person is a good choice, and what stays the same, such as prices, terms and open orders. Then introduce the colleague by name and offer a joint call.
Avoid two common mistakes. Do not disappear without a word, and do not promise that nothing will change if you cannot guarantee it. If something will change, for example the response channel, say so now.
The first month
Plan the month before the handover, not after it.
- Week 0, before the change. Joint call with the customer, the old and the new owner. The old owner makes the introduction and leaves the conversation to the new one.
- Week 1. The new owner writes to the customer, confirms the open commitments in writing and asks one question about priorities for the coming months.
- Week 2. A short check with the old owner, who stays reachable for questions during this period. Questions go to one agreed channel, so they are not lost.
- Week 3 to 4. The new owner reviews the account: open orders, the renewal date, anything that looks different from the handover page. They update the page.
- End of month. A ten-minute check with the customer: is everything working, and is there anything the new owner should know?
If the old owner is leaving the company entirely, agree the questions window before the last day. After that, the page is the only source.
What to do this week
- List the accounts where only one person knows the full story.
- Write the one-page handover for the largest of them now, while nobody is leaving.
- Add the open commitments section to your account template.
- Agree a standard introduction message that a leaving owner can send in five minutes.
- Decide how long the old owner stays reachable after a handover, and tell everyone.
Sources
- GOV.UK, Consumer protection and rights: background on the rights customers have, relevant when a promise made by a previous contact is questioned.