How a security company earns your trust
A security company earns your trust with things you can check, not promises: a valid licence, stable people on your site, reports you get without asking, openness when something happens, owning its own mistakes and references you can call. The real proof comes in the first 90 days, when you see whether what was said before signing actually happens.
Updated: 5 min readSources: 1
What is the first proof that a security company deserves trust?
Its legal operation, on paper: a valid operating licence and a work-licence number for every guard who will come to your site. A company slow to provide them loses trust before it starts.
Under Greek Law 2518/1997, a company’s operating licence cannot be transferred and is valid for five years (art. 2 §3), every guard needs a personal work licence (art. 3), and the company reports its staff to the police every month with each person’s licence number (art. 4).
That is the threshold, not an advantage. How to check it step by step is in the guide security company licence check.
Why do stable guards build trust?
Because a guard who knows your site, your people and its exceptions does better work than one who is there for the first time. Constant rotation means nobody knows what “normal” looks like on your site.
- Names, not “a guard”: who the core team on your site will be.
- Briefed relief staff: who covers leave and sickness, and whether they have seen the site before.
- Notice of changes: you hear before a guard changes, not when a stranger appears at reception.
- A named supervisor: one person who knows the site and answers for it.
Ask directly: “How many different guards will work on my site in the first month?” The answer says a lot about how stable the company is.
Which reports show that guarding really happens?
Reports that arrive without being asked for and can be checked: a shift report, patrols per checkpoint with times, and an incident log with actions and who handled them.
Trust does not mean you stop checking; it means checking is easy. A report that arrives every morning, even when “nothing happened”, shows a company with nothing to hide. What it should contain is in the guide to the security shift report, and how performance is measured in security company KPIs.
At OVIT, patrols, incidents and reports are recorded in the Guardly platform, so the client sees the same picture as the operations team — and when an answer is needed, a person at the operations desk gives it.
How should a security company handle an incident or its own mistake?
Tell you quickly and in writing, say what happened without polish, and show what changes so it does not happen again. A company that admits a mistake is more trustworthy than one that “never makes mistakes”.
Mistakes will happen: a guard will be late, a patrol will be missed, an instruction will be misread. What decides trust is what follows.
- You hear it from the company, not from your staff or a camera.
- A written report with times, facts and actions — see how to write a security incident report.
- A cause, not an excuse: what allowed it to happen.
- A corrective action with an owner and a date.
- Confirmation at the next review that the fix held.
How do I check a security company’s references?
Ask for two or three clients with a site like yours, call them and ask specific questions: how stable the guards are, what reports they get, and how the company handled its last problem.
- How long have you worked together, and did anything change after the first months?
- Do the guards change often? Are you told in advance?
- What reports do you get, and how often?
- What was the company’s last mistake, and how did it handle it?
- Would you choose it again?
The question about the mistake is the most useful. A client who says “nothing has ever gone wrong” probably cannot see what goes on; one who describes a mistake and its fix gives you real information.
What should I see in the first 90 days with a new security company?
In month one, written post orders and a stable team. In month two, reports arriving at a steady rhythm. In month three, a review where the company shows you what changed and what was fixed.
- Days 1–30 — foundation: approved post orders, the team by name, their work-licence numbers, the supervisor and the escalation channel.
- Days 31–60 — rhythm: a shift report every day, visible patrols, notice of every incident without asking.
- Days 61–90 — review: a meeting with evidence: what happened, which exceptions arose, what was fixed, what should change.
If you are coming from another provider, the transition itself has its own steps — see switch security company without a gap. OVIT runs the same cycle on every site: read the site, coordinate the shift, turn every action into a record, and review what changed with the client.
At a glance
- Trust is built on evidence you can check, not on promises.
- A valid operating licence and a work-licence number for every guard are the threshold, not an advantage.
- Stable, named guards and reports that arrive without being asked for.
- A company that tells you first about its own mistake and shows the fix deserves more trust.
- The first 90 days are the proof: foundation, rhythm, a review with evidence.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know whether I can trust a security company?
From evidence you can check: a valid operating licence, the guards’ work-licence numbers, a stable team, reports you get without asking, and references from clients with a similar site.
Is it a bad sign if a security company admits a mistake?
No, the opposite. Mistakes happen in all guarding. A company that tells you first, in writing, and shows the corrective action is more trustworthy than one that never reports anything.
What should be done in the first 90 days of a security contract?
Approved post orders and a stable team in month one, daily reports in month two, and an evidence-based review in month three showing what was fixed.
Sources
Every legal or pay point in this guide was checked against the official sources below.
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