Transcript of Video
After completing the sale, your relationship with your customer continues through customer support. You may have support agreements with the customer that address: how much support you will provide, how long you will provide the support,or how often the customer can contact you for support.
In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, contracts keep track of these agreements and help your customer service team have the correct information right away.
In CRM, a contract is a pre-paid support or service-level agreement between your organization and your customer. A contract applies only to services and support.
When a customer contacts your organization about an issue, a customer service representative checks the customer’s contract and reviews the contract lines to determine the appropriate level of service.
Each contract line defines what the customer is entitled to receive. Any work done to resolve the customer’s issue will be tracked against the contract, based on the contract line items.
A contract is created from a template that pre-defines: the billing frequency, type of coverage the customer has purchased, and number of allotments. An allotment is typically the total amount of time a customer has paid for or the number of times a customer can contact support. As cases are resolved, the contract tracks how much of the allotment is used.
Contracts have start and end dates, as well as points in between:
- A draft contract has not been activated and can still be edited.
- An invoiced contract has been set up, but the contract has not begun.
- An active contract has reached its start date.
- An on hold contract is one that you have temporarily suspended.
- A canceled contract is no longer needed, but it has charges against it and cannot be deleted.
- An expired contract is past its end date.
Contracts provide valuable information to your customer service team and ensure you are providing the appropriate level of service to your customers. Having this information helps you offer better service and continue the customer relationship on a positive note.
