Renewal and notice-deadline reminders
How the SaaS pack reminds staff ahead of renewals and notice deadlines, how it can tell the customer before renewal, and the limits on those reminders.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Software (SaaS) 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.
Two renewal stories, both common. In the first, a customer's annual subscription rolls over automatically, they had meant to cancel, and the first anyone hears of it is an angry e-mail about an invoice they will not pay. In the second, a happy customer's renewal passes without a conversation, and with it the chance to move them to a bigger plan.
Both come from the same cause: dates that live in a contract and nowhere else. Achekam's Industry CRM, in its SaaS pack, puts those dates in front of the right people at set points before they arrive.
Two dates on every subscription
Every subscription carries two dates that matter, and they are easy to confuse:
- The renewal date is when the next term starts and the next invoice is due.
- The notice deadline is the last day the customer can tell you they do not want to renew, under the notice period in your order form.
The notice deadline always comes first. A subscription renewing at the end of a month with a notice period of a few weeks has a notice deadline well before that. Miss the notice deadline and the renewal is, contractually, already decided. That is why the SaaS pack treats them as two separate reminders.
In the pack's own words, the customer is an Account and the quote that started it all is an Order form, so the reminders point staff straight back to the account and the agreement behind it.
Renewal reminders for staff
The SaaS pack reminds staff of a renewal 90, 60 and 30 days before it. Each reminder is a prompt for a different conversation:
| Reminder | What it is for |
|---|---|
| 90 days before | Review the account: usage, open support issues, who the decision-maker is now. |
| 60 days before | Hold the renewal conversation: seats, plan, price, anything to change. |
| 30 days before | Confirm the outcome, update the subscription, and prepare the invoice. |
The early reminder is the most valuable and the most often ignored. Three months out there is still time to fix a problem that would otherwise cost you the account. Harvard Business Review's refresher on keeping the right customers explains what a churn rate measures and why keeping customers costs less than winning new ones.
Notice-deadline reminders
The pack also reminds staff of a notice deadline 14 days and 1 day before it.
The earlier reminder gives the account manager time to check in with a customer who has gone quiet. The last-day reminder is a safety net: if the customer has sent notice, it should already be recorded; if they have not, the team knows the renewal will go ahead on the contract's terms.
Telling the customer before renewal
The SaaS pack can also tell the customer 30 days before a subscription renews. This is a courtesy many customers expect, and it removes the "nobody told us" argument when the next invoice arrives.
Write the notice so the customer can act on it without calling you: the subscription, the renewal date, the plan and seats that will renew, and who to contact with questions. Keep the notice deadline in mind; a customer message sent after the notice deadline is information, not an invitation to cancel.
Switching reminders on, and the limits
Some limits are worth knowing before you plan around these reminders:
- Channels. Industry CRM reminders go by e-mail and in-app only. There is no SMS or WhatsApp. Make sure the account's billing contact has a working e-mail address.
- Customer reminders start off. Each customer reminder stays off until a workspace administrator switches it on.
- Once only. Each customer reminder is sent at most once.
- A daily cap. Customer reminders are limited by a daily cap, so a large batch of renewals falling on the same day may not all go out on that day.
Subscriptions and their renewals are part of the Industry CRM's third wave, which also brings deferred revenue; the reminders above work on those subscriptions.
When the customer does give notice
Sometimes the reminder works exactly as intended and the customer says they are leaving. Handle it as carefully as a sale:
- reply in writing the same day, confirming the date the notice arrived and the date service will end;
- record the notice on the account, so nobody sends a renewal invoice by mistake;
- ask, politely, why they are leaving, and record the answer;
- agree what happens to their data and their users before the end date;
- check what is still owed, or held as credit, and settle it.
A clean exit costs little, and customers who leave well sometimes come back.
Acting on a reminder from the account
A reminder is only useful if it leads somewhere. When one arrives, open the account and work through a short routine:
- Check the latest usage score and any notes on the account; see tracking account health without a usage feed.
- Look at open tasks and support issues.
- Confirm who signs for the customer now. People move on, and the person who signed last year may have left.
- Record what you agreed, or what you are waiting for, on the account straight after the call.
When the renewal is an annual prepayment, the invoice that follows needs careful treatment in the books; annual prepayments released month by month explains why. And if the renewal turns into an upsell, the same stages as a new deal apply, as described in from product trial to won deal.
Start by checking that every subscription has both dates filled in. A reminder cannot fire for a notice deadline nobody recorded.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
