All the other service providers such as DSL and cable are looking to lock people into 2 year contracts as well. add to that cellular, but I don't really consider that a competitor, customers understand the similarities that there is a common need to get into a term agreement to have service. The advantage is that customers aren't hopping around playing musical chairs with service providers for a buck savings when the service providers spend a lot of money on their install. The customers can safely ignore all the misleading flyers they get from the cable company or phone company talking about introductory prices or prices without the fees added, at least till their contract period is winding down.
We keep our contract 1 page. I'm sure a lawyer would laugh at it, but the idea is that neither party wants it to end up in lawyer's hands. Referencing the TOS on your website would be a good thing in saving paper. We do 2 year contracts for one price and 1 year for a slightly higher setup price. We track who we give them to, who gave it to them and when. We need that to be able to follow up as sometimes customers don't follow through or expect the service but lose the paperwork. We can email the customer a pdf, the installers have them printed out in the van for customers. We track when we receive them back too; if we receive a contract back and there is a big delay in the install, that is a problem we have to investigate and address. If the customer needs a contract for reference we give them an extra blank one, or offer to mail them a photocopy of the one they signed. On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 12:39:02PM -0500, Jeremy Rodgers wrote: > <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> > <html> > <head> > > <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> > </head> > <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> > For years now we have required new residential customers to sign a 2 > year term agreement. For competitive reasons we are evaluating > this. One barrier for us has been the length of time it takes from > contract creation to customer returning it. With our current > situation "striking while the iron is hot" is not possible as it > could take a couple of weeks for the agreement to be returned. It > is also intimidating at 6 pages long.<br> > <br> > So...a couple questions<br> > <br> > -How long is your customer contract (# of pages and term)<br> > -What does your process look like<br> > -Do your installers get the paperwork signed<br> > -What advantages are there to a term agreement<br> > <br> > Our thought is to possibly reduce it down to one page and reference > the Terms of Service on our website. When the new customer calls we > can schedule them right on the spot and send the paperwork with the > installer. Anything you see as a disadvantage with this?<br> > <br> > Any input is appreciated!<br> > <div class="moz-signature">-- <br> > <b><font face="Pristina" size="5">Jeremy J. Rodgers</font></b> > <br> > Sales Manager > <br> > OnlyInternet Broadband and Wireless<br> > O: 260.827.2234 > <br> > O: 800.363.0989 > <br> > F: 260.824.9624 > <br> > <br> > "…But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Joshua > 24:15 > </div> > </body> > </html> > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- /* Jason Philbrook | Midcoast Internet Solutions - Wireless and DSL KB1IOJ | Broadband Internet Access, Dialup, and Hosting http://f64.nu/ | for Midcoast Maine http://www.midcoast.com/ */ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
