What do alarm company buyers ask about my customer list and service calls?

Buyers want to know whether the customer list is real and stable. Be ready with a breakdown of home and business accounts, the contract or agreement for each, when it renews and how it is billed. They will ask about cancellations: how many left, when and why.

Service calls tell them what the business costs to run. Prepare a history of calls by type, such as false alarms, equipment faults and upgrades, and how they were resolved. Show whether the same sites call again and again, and what you did about it. Be open about complaints and how they were handled.

Expect questions about who holds the relationships: your technicians, a monitoring partner or you. Explain how customers reach you after hours. Customer lists contain personal and security information. Decide what to share and when, and require a confidentiality agreement first. Ask your lawyer how to share it, and ask an IT advisor how your records are protected. Tidy your records before the first conversation. Duplicate entries, missing contact details and unclear contract dates slow a buyer down and make careful buyers cautious. Prepare a one-page summary of the account base, covering account types, typical agreement terms, how long customers stay and what drives cancellations. It gives the buyer a map of the business before the detail begins, and it keeps the conversation on facts rather than impressions.

Key takeaways

• Prepare contract, renewal and cancellation details for every account.
• Show service-call history by type and any repeat sites.
• Share sensitive customer data only after a confidentiality agreement.