Does anyone have any ideas how we can track yearly contract renewals?
We've been setting reminders through our CRM to follow-up with clients when it's time to renew their 12-month contract, but we're very concerned that we could have a few clients slip through the cracks, and we forget to get them locked into another 12-month contract. This has happened a few times.
Any small agency tools available to manage this type of task?
Also, what is the easiest way to track client renewals? Because we get customers signed into 12-month contracts, but they all have different renewal dates, is this just a fact that we have to continue contacting different clients at various times of the year to get them renewed.
Ultimately, we're trying to figure out the best way to streamline our processes, and we'd welcome some great feedback from the clarify community.
Hey there,
I trust that your CRM is robust enough to trigger some workflows and automated steps.
I would recommend you have an automated series of reminders to both your customer AND their respective relationship manager that fire as the client approaches their end of contract. To your internal staff, getting notified that a customer is opening/clicking on resources included in their reminder emails would be recommended, or if a client has NOT taken any action, to notify more than one member of your staff to ensure that these folks are not falling between the cracks. Additionally, monitoring and being notified of actions of the client, such as visiting your FAQ page or pricing page on your website provides helpful context for your sales team when reaching out.
Again, I think it is just as important to nurture the client as they approach this date, they should really be able to see the value of working with you and make the decision to continue their partnership with you regardless of the contract.
I'd love to help you more with this, let's set up a call if you have specific questions.
All the best,
-Shaun
Good Morning.
Your question is one that many companies offering any kind of a software or service contract may face. That means there are at least several market ready solutions for you. I've had about 25 years of experience in selling, implementing and profitably tuning the business systems and software systems like this one, and for several years of that time, was an employee for Cognos and Oracle, as well as holding certifications as a CPA and CGMA. From this experience, I've placed (and been certified) for many of these kinds of software systems for companies serving their clients under a contract-for-service arrangement and renewals are only one important aspect of making them work well for you.
If you are a growing company, and have many clients holding these contracts, your best bet is to automate your business process as much as possible. To do this, you may want to consider the less expensive solution of extending your CRM System into a kind of contract management/field service software system. This extended system is designed to provide functionality that manages and tracks the services you may give to a client, but also tracks the contracts the clients pay for that same service. Features can be very rich, and may extend beyond what you need for simple contract management, however, seeing the services side of the contracts will allow you to view your costs of servicing your customers under these contracts whether by phone or by service technicians that travel. If you have SalesForce CRM (the gorilla of CRM's) you may want to inquire into ServiceMax as they have a system that may fit your need that matches the architecture and integrates with the Force.com platform and SalesForce's system.
Salesforce not your game? Then one source for finding lists of other different systems is www.capterra.com . Another source would be to inquire into your CRM provider and ask them if they have created any contract management/field service management software modules that integrate with their system. A third place to look is to google the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management systems. This report, while there is a fee, will list many of the players in this software space and their strengths/weaknesses.
Good Luck!
