Contract end: review, call and renewal quote
How the Telecom pack handles a subscriber contract that is ending, from reviewing the account and calling the customer to a signed renewal.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Telecoms 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.
The end of a contract is when many subscribers leave. It is also when many of them would upgrade, if somebody asked. Which one happens usually depends on whether your business noticed the date before a competitor did.
Too often nobody does. The contract rolls on month to month without a conversation, the subscriber keeps paying for a package that no longer suits them, and one day a cancellation notice arrives. Nobody called, so nobody knew they were unhappy about last winter's outages or that they had started working from home and needed a faster line.
The Telecommunications pack in Achekam's Industry CRM treats contract end as a piece of work with its own workflow. Here is how it runs, step by step.
The contract-end workflow
The Telecom pack keeps service subscriptions, support tickets and installation jobs for internet, voice and mobile providers and resellers. When a contract is ending, its contract-end workflow:
- reviews the account
- calls the customer
- sends a renewal or upgrade quotation
- has the new agreement signed
A workflow in the Industry CRM creates its tasks stage by stage, so the work reaches people in order: review, then call, then quotation. Tasks can carry subtasks up to three levels deep for anything that needs breaking down.
Reviewing the account
The review is what makes the call worth taking. A salesperson who rings without looking at the account sounds like a stranger. One who has read it sounds like someone who knows the customer.
Before the call, look at:
- the service history. Support tickets, faults and how quickly they were fixed. A customer who had a bad year needs that acknowledged before any offer is made.
- the payment record. Late or missed payments shape what you can offer.
- the current package. Is it still the right one? Packages that were good value at signing may now be outclassed by your own newer ones.
- the equipment. An old router can be the real reason for complaints about speed, and replacing it is an easy part of an upgrade.
- what the customer pays now against what they would pay on renewal. No subscriber likes to find out about a better deal from a competitor.
Write down what you found where the caller will see it, so whoever makes the call has it in front of them.
Calling the customer
The workflow's next step is a call. Not an e-mail, a call. The purpose is to find out what the customer needs now, not to read a script.
Open with what you found in the review. If they had outages, say so and say what was done. Ask how they use the service today, because a household that has added two people working from home, or a business that has moved its phones to the internet, has different needs from when it signed. Then, and only then, talk about options.
If the customer says they intend to leave, ask why and record the answer. Even a cancellation teaches you something about your prices, your service or your competitors.
The renewal or upgrade quotation
After the call, the workflow sends a renewal or upgrade quotation. It should reflect the conversation: the package you discussed, the price you discussed and any equipment change agreed. A quotation that does not match what was said on the phone undoes the trust the call built.
Keep the quotation simple. One recommended option, perhaps one alternative, is easier to say yes to than a menu.
Give the quotation a validity date that falls before the contract ends, and agree with the customer when you will call back if you have not heard. A quotation sent without a follow-up date is easy for a busy customer to forget, and the contract then rolls over by default rather than by choice. South African providers whose subscribers are consumers should read section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act, which sets the rules on fixed-term consumer agreements, including cancellation, cancellation charges and renewal notices.
The new agreement, signed electronically
Once the customer agrees, the workflow has the new agreement signed. In the Industry CRM, a workflow step can send the customer a document to sign electronically, and the customer's answer moves the task on.
Achekam's e-signing places signature and initials fields, sends to signers in order or all at once, and sets an expiry and reminders. When everyone has signed, the signed PDF and a completion certificate are filed back into Documents. For a business customer, check who has authority to sign a renewal before you send it.
Every contract or agreement in the industry packs is marked as starter wording that the business must review before use. If your renewal terms differ from a new connection's, for example on equipment that the customer already owns, make sure the version you send says so.
Recording the outcome
When the workflow ends, record what happened: renewed on the same package, upgraded, moved to month-to-month, or cancelled. Add the reason in a sentence. A customer who moved to month-to-month without deciding anything is not a renewal; treat them as a contract end still to be resolved, and come back to them.
Looked at over a year, those outcomes are some of the most useful information a provider has. A rising number of cancellations from one area may point to a network problem; a run of upgrades after a particular offer tells you it works.
Starting with this quarter's renewals
List the contracts ending in the next few months and run each through the workflow, starting with the review. For customers whose renewal follows a bad experience, look first at their support tickets. And for South African providers, the new-connection workflow shows how the original agreement was put in place.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
