A visit to a customer's premises is one of the most expensive hours a small company spends. It costs travel, a half day of someone's time and often the customer's own time too. Yet many visits run on memory: the person goes, has a pleasant talk, and comes back with a vague impression and a few promises nobody wrote down.
A short routine before, during and after the visit fixes this. It takes about thirty minutes of preparation and fifteen minutes of follow-up.
Before: one page
Write one page, or half a page, a few days ahead. It has four parts.
- Purpose. Why are you going? Typical reasons are to see how the customer really uses your product or service, to settle a problem, to agree a change in scope, or to build the relationship. One visit, one main purpose.
- The decision or result you want. For example: "agree the date of the second delivery" or "understand why two people stopped using the system". If you cannot name it, the visit may be better as a phone call.
- People. Who will you meet, what is their role and what did they last say or ask? Look at the last emails and any open requests so that you do not ask something they already answered.
- Three questions. The three things you need to learn that you cannot learn from a screen. Ask these even if the conversation drifts.
Add anything that is open between you: an unpaid invoice, a complaint, a delayed order. You do not have to raise it, but you should not be surprised by it.
This is different from a quarterly review meeting with a key customer, which is a planned meeting with an agenda and numbers, and from a kickoff meeting for a software project, which starts a specific piece of work. A site visit is about being in the customer's own environment and seeing how they work.
Before: confirm the practical details
Confirm by email two or three days before:
- the address, the entrance and who will meet you;
- the date, the start time and how long they can give you;
- parking or public transport, and the time you need to get there;
- any safety, security or identification rules for visitors, such as signing in, a badge, or protective clothing in a workshop or warehouse.
If the site is a factory, a warehouse or a building site, ask what the visitor rules are. The UK Health and Safety Executive publishes simple guidance on the basics of workplace safety, and the customer is responsible for telling you what applies on their premises. Follow their instructions, even if they seem excessive.
What to bring
Keep a fixed kit so you do not rebuild the list every time.
- The one-page plan on paper or on your phone, with the three questions.
- A notebook or a notes app that works without a signal. Many customer sites have poor coverage.
- A charged laptop or tablet and a charger if you plan to show anything, and the same material saved offline.
- Business cards or a short contact line with your direct phone number. A card still helps when you meet people who were not in the email thread.
- One printed page of what you want to leave behind, if relevant: a price list, a timeline or a contact sheet. Not a brochure.
- Small practical items: a pen, a phone power bank, a bottle of water, a copy of any document the customer asked you to bring.
Do not bring a large presentation unless it was agreed. A visit is for seeing and listening, not for talking through slides.
During the visit
Start with their world. Ask the person to show you how they actually do the work. If you provide software or a service, ask to see it in use. You will often find workarounds, printed lists or spreadsheets next to the screen, and these tell you more than any survey.
Listen more than you talk. A simple rule: for the first half of the visit, let the customer speak about two thirds of the time. Ask open questions such as "What takes the most time each week?" and "What do you do when this goes wrong?"
Write down every promise. When you or the customer says "we will send", "we will check" or "we will decide", write down who and by when. If a date is missing, ask for one before you move on.
Do not decide big things on the spot. If the customer asks for a new price, a change in scope or an exception, say that you will confirm it in writing after checking. A quick yes in a corridor is the cause of many later disagreements.
Respect their time and space. Do not photograph the premises, the screens or the people without asking. Do not read documents lying on desks. If you see something that looks private or confidential, look away and do not make a note of it.
End with the next step. In the last five minutes, repeat the main points aloud: "We agreed that you will send the sample file by Friday and I will send the revised timeline on Tuesday." The customer can correct you on the spot, which is better than correcting an email later.
After: the same day
Within an hour of leaving, while you remember it, write the notes down properly. Use three headings:
- What we learned: how the customer works, what they need, what bothers them.
- What we agreed: promises on both sides, each with a name and a date.
- What is open: questions you could not answer and risks you noticed.
Add the notes to the place where your team keeps customer information, whether that is a shared document, a CRM or the customer's folder. If it stays in one person's notebook, the next visit by someone else will start from zero.
After: the summary within one working day
Send the customer a short email by the end of the next working day. Keep it to this shape:
Thank you for the time today. I would like to confirm what we agreed:
- You will send the sample file by Friday.
- We will send the revised timeline on Tuesday.
- We will check the invoice question and answer by Wednesday.
If I have missed or misunderstood anything, please reply and I will correct it.
This email does three things. It shows the customer that the visit was taken seriously, it gives both sides the same list, and it creates a written record. Then do what you promised, on the dates you gave. Tracking the promises in the same place as the notes makes this easy; a small routine for following up after an event uses the same principle.
If the visit showed a real problem, such as a user who cannot do a basic task, say so in the email in a neutral way and propose a concrete step. Do not wait for the next scheduled meeting.
Common mistakes
- No purpose. A pleasant visit without a result is a cost, not an investment.
- Too many people on your side. Two is usually the maximum; more can feel like an inspection.
- Selling at the wrong moment. If the customer is describing a problem, do not jump to your product. Ask one more question instead.
- Promises without dates. "We will look into it" is not a plan.
- Late or missing follow-up. The longer you wait, the less the customer remembers and the less weight your summary has.
- Notes that stay private. If only the person who went knows what was said, the company has not learned anything.
Where AI can help, and where it should not
An AI assistant can help you prepare the one-page plan from the last emails, turn your rough notes into the three headings, or draft the summary email for you to edit. It can also check that every promise in your notes has a name and a date.
It should not replace your own listening or decide what the customer meant. Check any summary against your notes before sending, and do not paste confidential customer details into a tool your company has not approved. If you handle personal data, the UK Information Commissioner's Office explains the basics of what you may do with it.
What to do this month
- Take your next planned customer visit and write the one-page plan for it.
- Make a fixed kit list and keep it in the same place as your bag or laptop case.
- Decide where visit notes are stored and who can read them.
- Copy the summary email above into a template you can reuse.
- After the visit, send the summary within one working day and check the dates a week later.
Sources
- HSE, Health and safety made simple: basic guidance on workplace health and safety, including what employers should tell visitors.
- ICO, UK GDPR guidance and resources: guidance for organisations on handling personal data.
- GOV.UK, Business Support Helpline: free guidance for small businesses on running the business.
