A company delivers a small internal tool. At the handover the owner says, "Don't worry, if anything is wrong we'll fix it." Eight months later the customer writes that a report shows wrong totals and asks for a free fix. The company remembers the sentence differently: it meant a few weeks, and only for errors in its own work. Nobody wrote anything down, so both sides are sure they are right.
A spoken guarantee is a promise with no edges. This article describes a one-page written guarantee for a company of ten to fifty people: the wording, what it covers and how long it lasts. It deals only with the text of the guarantee. How to handle a claim once it arrives is a separate routine, described in the warranty and after-sales claim routine.
Why write it down
A written guarantee helps both sides. The customer knows what to expect and for how long. You know what you are responsible for, and you can price the work knowing the limit of that responsibility. It also saves time: when a problem appears, you open one page instead of searching old emails.
Check first what the law already gives your customers. Consumer and business rules differ by country, and some rights cannot be reduced by contract. Your page adds clarity on top of those rights; it must not contradict them. If in doubt, have a lawyer read the final text once, then reuse it.
Write it in plain sentences
Avoid legal language. A customer should be able to read the whole guarantee in two minutes. A workable structure has five parts.
- What we guarantee. One sentence about the delivered work.
- How long. A period and a start day.
- What is not covered. A short list.
- What we do. Repair, redo or refund, and a response time.
- What we need from you. How to report a problem.
An example opening:
We guarantee that the work described in the accepted order works as described in it. If it does not, we will correct it free of charge for 90 days from the date you accepted it in writing.
Say what is covered
The most common dispute is not about whether a guarantee exists but about what it protects. Separate three things.
- Defects: the work does not do what was agreed. A button that should save a record does not save it. This is what the guarantee is for.
- Changes: the customer wants something new or different. That is a new job with a new price, even if it feels small. A written scope change keeps that conversation factual.
- Running costs and upkeep: updates, hosting, new users, training. These belong in a monthly support agreement, not in the guarantee.
The agreed description of the work is the yardstick. If the order or proposal is vague, the guarantee is vague too, so a clear one-page proposal at the start makes the guarantee easy to write.
Choose the period and the start day
There is no correct number. Three questions help.
- How soon would a defect show? A website form fails on day one. A year-end report may show a problem only in January. Make sure the period includes at least one full cycle of the thing you delivered.
- How long can you stand behind it? Work that depends on third-party services you do not control can change under you. Say so, or shorten the period for those parts.
- What do competitors and your own customers expect? Ask three recent customers what they assumed. The gap between their answers and your intention is what the page must close.
Then fix the start day. The cleanest choice is the date of written acceptance, because both sides can point to it. "From delivery" is less clear, since delivery can be gradual. The acceptance checklist already produces that date, so reuse it and write it on the guarantee page.
Also say what happens to the period when you repair something. A simple rule: the repaired part is guaranteed for the rest of the original period or for 30 days, whichever is longer.
List the exclusions
Exclusions feel unfriendly, yet they are kinder to the customer than a surprise. Keep them short and concrete:
- changes made to the work by someone else without telling you,
- problems caused by third-party services, devices or data you did not deliver,
- misuse that the instructions warned against,
- normal wear, such as content getting old,
- new requirements, including those that look like small adjustments.
If you cannot explain an exclusion in one sentence, it is probably too complicated for the page.
Say what you do and how fast
Promise only what you can deliver. State the remedy and the time to respond, not the time to finish:
Report a problem by email to support@your-company.example. We reply within two working days. If the problem is covered, we repair it or redo that part free of charge. If that is not possible, we refund the part of the price that relates to it.
A response time is a promise you can keep; a fixed repair time depends on the problem. Say which one you give. The customer's side matters as well: ask for a short description, an example and the date it was noticed, so you can reproduce the problem quickly.
Where to put the page
Attach the guarantee to the same document the customer accepts, or to the acceptance protocol. A guarantee that the customer sees only after the problem appears is not worth much. Keep a copy with the project records, and add the start and end dates to your project list so that someone can see which guarantees are still open.
What to do this week
- Find the last three finished jobs and note what you promised about problems after handover.
- Write the five parts above on one page, using plain sentences.
- Decide the period and tie its start to written acceptance.
- Write the exclusions list and cut anything you cannot explain in one sentence.
- Add the page to your proposal or acceptance template, and ask a lawyer to read it once.
Sources
- GOV.UK, Consumer protection and rights: overview of the rights customers have when they buy goods and services, useful background for what a written guarantee must not contradict.