Reminders before contracts end and SLAs fall due
When the Telecom pack reminds staff before a contract ends or an SLA falls due, and how its optional notice to customers before contract end works.
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.
Two dates cost a provider money when they slip past unnoticed. The first is the end of a subscriber's contract: miss it, and the subscriber drifts to month-to-month, or to a competitor, without anyone having spoken to them. The second is an SLA due date on a support ticket: miss that, and you have broken a promise to a customer who is already unhappy.
Both dates are known well in advance. The problem is that they live on records nobody is looking at until it is too late. The Telecommunications pack in Achekam's Industry CRM watches them and tells the right people in time to act.
The reminder timetable
| Reminder | Who receives it | When |
|---|---|---|
| Contract ending | Staff | 90, 60 and 30 days before the contract ends |
| SLA falling due | Staff | The day before the SLA is due |
| Contract ending | The customer, if switched on | 60 days before the contract ends |
Every one of these depends on a date that someone recorded: a contract end date on the subscription, an SLA due date on the ticket. A subscription with no end date, or a ticket with no due date, produces no reminder. Make both dates part of opening the record, not something filled in later.
Three warnings before a contract ends
The pack reminds staff 90, 60 and 30 days before a contract ends. Three reminders can feel like a lot, until you look at what the contract-end workflow has to fit into that time. That workflow reviews the account, calls the customer, sends a renewal or upgrade quotation and has the new agreement signed, as described in contract end: review, call and renewal quote.
A sensible way to use the three warnings:
- At 90 days, start the review. Look at the support history, payments, the package and the equipment while there is no pressure.
- At 60 days, make the call. You know the account, and the customer has time to think.
- At 30 days, the quotation should be out and the signature in progress. If the customer has not decided, this is the last comfortable moment to follow up.
Nothing in the pack forces that rhythm; it is a suggestion. What the reminders do is make sure that no contract with a recorded end date reaches it without three prompts to someone in your business.
The day-before SLA reminder
For support, the pack reminds staff the day before an SLA is due. By then the ticket has normally been acknowledged and checked, and may be with a technical team or the network operator.
The reminder is a decision point. If the fault will be fixed in time, nothing changes. If it will not, the useful actions are to escalate further, and to tell the customer honestly before the deadline passes rather than after. A customer who hears "this will take longer than we promised, here is why and here is what we are doing" the day before is in a very different mood from one who discovers the breach on their own. For South African providers, ICASA's consumer protection regulations, including the End-User and Subscriber Service Charter, bind telecoms and internet providers, so read them alongside the service levels you promise.
If the breach was caused by an outage on your side, your outage policy may lead to a credit; see crediting subscribers for an outage last month.
The notice to customers
The pack can also tell the customer 60 days before their contract ends. This one goes to the subscriber, not to your staff, and it follows stricter rules.
Each customer reminder in the Industry CRM stays off until a workspace administrator switches it on. Once on, it is sent at most once, and the number sent is limited by a daily cap. So nothing reaches your subscribers simply because the pack was activated; someone with authority chooses to turn the notice on, and no subscriber receives the same notice twice.
Before switching it on, decide whether the notice fits your sales approach. For some providers, a written notice that arrives at the same time as the 60-day staff call reinforces the conversation. For others, the call should come first. Either way, read the wording your subscribers will receive before you turn it on, and make sure your e-mail settings work; knowing a subscriber actually got the invoice explains why that matters.
Agree who acts on each kind
A reminder that several people see is easy for each of them to assume someone else has handled. Agree, as a team, who acts on which kind. Contract-end reminders usually belong with the account manager or the sales desk. The SLA reminder belongs with whoever leads support on that shift, because that is the person who can push a ticket up a tier or call the customer.
Once a month, look back at the contracts that ended. Which ones renewed after a timely call, and which slipped through despite three prompts? The answer tells you whether the early warnings are being used or ignored.
Channels: e-mail and in the app
Industry CRM reminders are sent by e-mail and shown in the app. There is no SMS or WhatsApp. Staff who work mainly from their phones should have their work e-mail there, and support leads should open the app's reminders at the start of each shift.
Before you rely on them
Three things are worth having in place first. Every active subscription should carry its contract end date. Every open ticket with an SLA should carry its due date. And your administrator should have decided, with whoever runs sales, whether the customer notice goes on. With those done, the first 90-day reminder will reach someone who knows what to do with it.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
