Reminders for quote expiry, deliveries and reviews
When the Manufacturing pack reminds staff before a quote expires, a delivery is due or a dealer agreement needs review, and what to do with each.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Manufacturing businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
Manufacturers lose business to dates more often than to competitors. A quotation is sent, nobody follows it up, and it expires while the customer is still deciding; when they come back, the steel price has moved and the quote has to be redone. A delivery date promised to a dealer creeps up on the factory, and the truck is booked the afternoon before. A dealer agreement reaches its review date and quietly rolls on, with a credit limit set three years ago for a much smaller business.
Each of these is a date the business already knows. The Manufacturing & distribution pack in Achekam's Industry CRM watches three of them and reminds the right staff in good time. This article explains the three reminders and what a well-run office does when each one arrives.
The three dates the pack watches
| Date | Reminder goes to | When |
|---|---|---|
| A quotation's expiry | Staff | Before the quotation expires |
| A delivery date | Staff | 7 days before, and again 1 day before |
| A dealer agreement's review | Staff | 30 days before, and again 7 days before |
All three are internal reminders. They prompt your own people to act; they are not messages to dealers or customers.
Before a quotation expires
A quotation sent from a quote request does not stay open for ever. Before it expires, the pack reminds the staff concerned.
The reminder is a cue to call, not to resend. A good follow-up call answers three questions: has the customer decided, is anything in the quotation unclear, and does the price still hold if they need more time? If input costs have moved, it is far better to say so before expiry than to honour a stale price or surprise the customer with a new one after it lapses.
If the quote is for configured products, the call is also the moment to confirm the configuration is still what the customer wants. A changed option after signature is much more expensive than one before it; quoting configured products and confirming orders explains why.
Seven days and one day before a delivery
Delivery reminders come twice, and the two serve different purposes.
A week out, the question is whether the order will be ready. Use the reminder to:
- check with production that the order is on track;
- confirm any bought-in components have arrived;
- book transport if the business does not run its own fleet; and
- warn the dealer early if the date is at risk, with a realistic alternative.
The day before, the question is whether the hand-over will go smoothly:
- the goods are finished, checked and packed;
- dispatch paperwork, including the waybill, is ready;
- the dealer knows the truck is coming and who will receive the goods; and
- the driver has the delivery address and a contact number.
A late delivery explained a week in advance is an inconvenience. The same delivery explained on the day is a broken promise. Once the goods are handed over, the signed delivery record matters too: DP World's explanation of proof of delivery covers what it records (recipient, time and condition of the goods) and why it matters for billing and disputes.
Thirty days and seven days before an agreement review
Dealer agreements in the pack carry a review date. The pack reminds staff a month ahead, and again a week ahead.
Use the month to prepare. Pull the dealer's purchases, payment record and any warranty claims since the last review, and talk to the salesperson who looks after the account. The questions are simple: is the credit limit still right, are the terms being kept, and is the territory still being served?
Use the final week to decide. Renew on the same terms, renew with changes, or begin a conversation about ending the arrangement. Whatever the outcome, record it. If the limit or terms change, they go through the same approval as at onboarding; see onboarding a dealer.
How the reminders reach your people
The Industry CRM's reminders go by e-mail and in-app. There is no SMS and no WhatsApp. For a factory office, that has two practical consequences. Every person who owns quotes, deliveries or dealer accounts needs a working e-mail address on their user. And the reminders only help if someone reads them, so make "check reminders" part of the morning routine for sales administration and dispatch, not something people do when they remember.
A word on reminders to customers
These three manufacturing reminders go to staff. The Industry CRM treats reminders to customers more cautiously: each customer reminder stays off until a workspace administrator switches it on, is sent at most once, and is limited by a daily cap. If you ever want dealers themselves reminded of something, that is the rule that will apply, and an administrator has to decide it.
Setting the habit
Reminders do not follow anything up on their own; people do. Before the pack's reminders are relied on, settle a few things with the team:
- Owners. Every open quotation, every promised delivery and every dealer account has a named owner, because a reminder sent to nobody in particular is read by nobody in particular.
- Cover. Leave and illness happen in the busiest month. Decide who picks up a colleague's reminders while they are away.
- Done. For each reminder, agree what counts as dealt with: a logged call for a quotation, a confirmed truck for a delivery, a recorded decision for a review.
- Review. Once a month, look at the quotations that expired without a follow-up and the deliveries that went out late, and ask why the reminder did not help.
Then a lapsed quote, a scrambled delivery or a forgotten review becomes the exception rather than the pattern, and the dealer relationships described in warranty claims with serial numbers and photos start from a better footing.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
