Classic Policy Loopholes That Are Costing You Money…and the Business Processes to Fix Them

Jim Stockwell

Who doesn't want an easy, fast way to make more money? Usually, those quick "tricks" are just that – a trick that doesn't result in any substantial or long-term results. But we want to talk about three very common issues that may be costing your business money every year – and the simple business processes you can use to fix them.

The Costly Culprit: Renewals Data

If you’re operating a renewals-based business, it can be tricky to stay on top of the vast amounts of data that flow through your systems every day. With so many renewals to process, it’s not surprising that large numbers of them slip through the cracks. You may not be worried about a few missed renewals, since they tend to be low value and high quantity. But if you’re missing more than you realize, those lost renewals could be costing more money than you think.

“Only 56 percent of companies treat existing customer renewals as a high priority.” (Source: Totango)

Kick These 3 Renewals Policy Loopholes to the Curb

Policies and procedures are in place to help your business run efficiently and effectively. But sometimes a policy ends up costing you money instead. So what costly renewals policies do we see all too frequently?

No Reinstatement Fee

Your customer fails to pay their renewals on time, or within the stated deadline following the expiration date. When they realize what happened, what do you do? If the answer is “nothing,” that policy is leaving money in your customer’s pocket that ought to be in yours. If they make a late credit card payment, they are charged a penalty fee. Your business should do the same.

Business Process Solution: Establish a set reinstatement fee. Clearly identify this fee in each of your automated customer renewal notifications. Then follow through.

Support Without a Contract

No contract? No support. Period. As they say, nothing in life comes for free. Now the key to this issue, and to fixing the loophole in a way that serves both you and your customers, is having easily accessible and accurate customer data.

Business Process Solution: Ensure that your renewals system can provide the customer support or engineering teams with immediate access to contract information, so they can validate the contract status while the customer is on the phone. Giving them the ability to process credit card and enable support instantly would be a customer service and revenue win.

Continued Access Following Termination

While the customer onboarding process is certainly important, off-boarding policies and processes are equally critical. Failing to shut off service after a contract has expired or been terminated can leave your business exposed and represents lost revenue.

Business Process Solution: Automatic workflows can ensure that all systems are updated when a contract has expired or been terminated.

By building out a set of business processes that alert your teams to expiring contracts at regular intervals (for example: at 90 days, 60 days, 30 days and 10 days), you can proactively plan renewals with your customers. As a result, you will achieve greater on-time closure rates and avoid these classic policy loopholes that effectively lend your customers money. You will also book more revenue and spend less time on administration.

Read more best-practice strategies for successful renewals management in “The Ultimate Playbook Guide to Renewals Management.” This in-depth guide includes strategies for building an actionable IB picture, unifying KPIs and processes, segmenting your sales strategies, and creating a tech refresh pipeline.