A customer signs, everyone is pleased, and then nothing visible happens for two weeks. The salesperson assumes delivery has taken over, delivery waits for a handover that never arrives, and the customer starts to wonder what they bought.
A short checklist for the first two weeks prevents this. It works for a small service company as well as for a team that ships software.
Decide who owns the customer
Before the first message goes out, one person is named as the owner of the relationship for the first two weeks. This is not the person who does all the work; it is the person who makes sure nothing falls between sales and delivery.
- Write the name down in the customer record and tell the team.
- Name a deputy for holidays and sick days.
- Hand over from sales in writing: what was promised, what was discussed informally and what the customer cares about most.
Send a welcome message on day one
The message should be short and say three things: who the owner is and how to reach them, what happens in the next two weeks, and what you need from the customer.
Give dates, not "soon". For example: "On Thursday we will send the first draft. On the 14th we will call you for fifteen minutes to check that this is what you expected."
Collect five facts at the start
Asking the same question twice in different weeks looks careless. Collect these once, in one short call or form:
- The main contact and a backup, with the way each prefers to be reached.
- Who approves work and invoices on the customer's side.
- The goal in the customer's words, in one or two sentences.
- Existing systems and access you will need, and who grants them.
- Known constraints: deadlines, holidays, internal rules, things that went wrong with a previous supplier.
Store them in one place that the whole team can see, not in one person's mailbox.
Deliver something visible within five working days
The first deliverable does not have to be large. It has to be real: a first draft, a configured account, a working test page or a written plan with dates.
A visible result in the first week shows the customer that the contract has turned into work. If you cannot finish anything, send a short progress note that says what is done, what is next and what you are waiting for.
Check in on day fourteen
Book a fifteen-minute call or message exchange for the end of the second week and ask three questions:
- What has worked well so far?
- What was unclear or slower than you expected?
- Is there anything we should change before we continue?
Write down the answers the same day. If something needs fixing, name who will do it and by when.
What to record in your CRM
Keep the entry brief so that people actually fill it in:
- Owner and deputy.
- The five facts from above.
- Date and content of the first deliverable.
- Date of the day-fourteen check-in and what came out of it.
- Open items with an owner and a date.
If your customer records are spread across several tools, reconcile customers between CRM and invoicing first, otherwise the checklist will live in the wrong place.
Common mistakes
- No owner. Everyone assumes someone else is writing to the customer.
- A long silence after signing. Even a short update is better than none.
- Asking for information more than once. Collect it in one go and share it internally.
- Skipping the check-in because things seem fine. Small problems are cheapest to fix in week two.
- Starting with the biggest deliverable. A small, early result builds trust faster.
How to start
- Copy the checklist into a document your team already uses.
- Use it for the next new customer, and note what you had to add.
- After three customers, shorten it to what people actually did.
For a similar approach inside your own company, see the week-by-week plan for the first 30 days after launching a new internal tool.
Summary
The first two weeks are about visibility and ownership. One named owner, a welcome message with dates, five facts collected once, a first result within five days and a check-in on day fourteen give a new customer a clear picture of what is happening and who is responsible.
Sources
- Our related articles linked above.
- The checklist is common practice for small service teams and is offered as a practical guide. No client results or market figures are claimed in this article.
