Enhancing the Usefulness of Contract Alerts
By Karen Howe
I’d like to begin with a little analogy suggested to me by a colleague.
Chirp…. pause…Chirp…. pause…Chirp. You hear it, and inwardly groan. You know what it means. Somewhere a smoke alarm battery has reached the end of its useful life. But which one is it? Downstairs in the den? In the upstairs hallway outside the bedrooms? By the kitchen door? You work your way through the house pausing at every unit, head cocked, to see if THIS is the one that needs attention. For me, it’s invariably the last one I check and the one hardest to reach.
Now I’m not denying the importance of the low-battery warning, but it sure would be nice to have more information.
The same goes for contract alerts related to dates and obligations (expirations, renewals, or any milestone or date you need to be aware of). Sure, it’s great to be alerted that a contract is expiring, but exactly when does it expire, and how much prior notice is needed to cancel or renew the agreement? Are there other important details that will help you decide whether you can mentally set this one aside for later, or if you need to deal with it right away?
Contract management software from Contract Logix has you covered with automated contract alerts that come in two forms – emails and in-system alerts. In-system alerts are meant to be succinct reminders and have a standard format that includes the contract ID, when it expires and how many days until it does. Email alerts, however, utilize fully configurable email templates that enable you to include exactly the information you want to provide.
Using the Email Template editor, you can craft any number of appropriate messages for any situation requiring contract alerts. Selecting from a list of contract fields (both standard and custom), simply click to insert the merge field into the text and it will populate dynamically when the email is sent.
For example, the expiring contract template shown here …
was used to produce the email below:
Takeaway
Automated contract alerts are critical to ensuring you never miss an important date or milestone — be it an expiration, autorenewal or obligation. But, like low battery warnings, those alerts can come at you at the most inopportune times, when you’re busy with other tasks or unable to act immediately. The more useful information is included with the message, the better you can respond appropriately. With the ability to create an unlimited number of custom email templates, Contract Logix enables you to provide consistent and informative messages that enhance the usefulness of your contract alerts.
Want to learn more? Schedule a live demo of our contract management system with one of our contract management specialists.