This section is going to go through how we process a form with an offer on it and what deadlines do we have in the contracts team.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Offers
- How do you apply offers when its on a contract
- Our Contracts cuts off and deadlines
- Sales cut off
- Contracts cut off
- Main Billing run
- Credit cut off
- Mop up Billing
- Where can I find them?
Offers
New Business Intro Offer (NBIO)
This offer is eligible to new business on Rightmove only. When they first sign up, they will receive up to 6 months of their Core and Product at half price (this is from date of form creation, not Go Live). Pricing will then return to full price after this term.
1st Month Core & Product Free
This offer can be given to Agents who are not eligible for the New Business Intro Offer. It can be used when an Agent re-joins Rightmove, or when they bring on an additional branch. This will give 1 full month of Core and Product free of charge (this will be from date of Go Live).
Dual Intro Offer (Lettings to Dual, or Sales to Dual)
Agents upgrading either from Lettings to Dual, or from Resale to Dual for the first time are eligible for this offer. It will give the Agent 50% off the new service. (Lettings to Dual would receive 50% off the Sales uplift, and Resale to Dual would receive 50% off the Lettings uplift).
2 Step Upgrade Offer (100, 200, 300, 400)
We’ve updated the 2-step offers with lower uplift thresholds. These offers can be used for any package upgrade as long as it meets the uplift requirement, so you can use them towards contract renewal as well. The uplifts are based on the net amount.
A couple of watch-outs regarding 2-step offers -
- 2-step uplifts are calculated at the branch level, and uplifts cannot be shared across the company.
-Example 1: Two branch agent, with total £200 uplift (£100 uplift per branch) à does not qualify for any rebate
-Example 2: Two branch agent, with total uplift of £400 (£200 uplift per branch) à qualifies for £100 rebate per branch
- 2-step rebates cannot be “stacked”.
-For example if a customer is already receiving a £200 rebate as part of a 2-step and then upgrades again, you cannot add 2 rebates together.
- The customer is signing onto a 2-year agreement.
-If drop spend in the first year, the customer will be obligated to pay back the rebate received
-If drop spend in the 2nd year, customer obligated to pay remaining contracted amount
- There is no validation in Sales Centre to stop you from applying an incorrect offer, so please check that the customer qualifies before applying the offer.
- Processing will reject any forms where the offer is incorrect
Optimiser 2020 6 Month Term
Same as the previous 4-month term offer, this offer allows the customer upgrade to Opti 2020 for only 6 months instead of the usual 12.
The contract will go into rolling thereafter, but the customer is able to downgrade after that without penalty.
This offer will expire on 1st July 2021.
Upon selecting the offer, the following offer text will appear on the form to confirm the term length:
How do you apply offers when its on a contract
When you see any offers on a form you need to ensure you’re adding it onto the account when processing by ticking the relevant offer box in Novus. With offers you also need to ensure the contracts free and chargeable date’s are correctly entered depending on the offer.
NBI intro offer
This offer has an end date on the New Joiner form. The form will show 01st of a month end date. In Novus you must put an end date of the last day of the month before the forms 01st date. If you put the first of the month, the Agent will be pulled in to receive a rebate again that month, when they should return to standard pricing from 1st of the month.
1st month core & product free
THIS OFFER HAS TO BE PROCESSED MANUALLY - Novus will not prompt you to put an offer end date. So when setting live make sure everything is free and then set to go chargeable one full calendar month later. Go live date can be ASAP but the chargeable date must be one full calendar month later so that they are not billed incorrectly.
Dual intro offer
An easy mistake to make is to tick the wrong dual intro offer. E.g. a customer goes up from sales to dual and you tick the dual intro (lettings to dual) Ensure the offer match’s the form.
2 Step Offer
- For Opti & Enhanced packages only – different rebates can be applied across branches under the same company.
- Upgrade can be from any package & can include change of service.
- No set free period.
- Process like you would a normal Opti/Enhanced (making everything live at the same time) but offer must be ticked in core
- If go live date is pushed back (authorised by AD) then offer end date should be amended accordingly.
Customers are allowed to upgrade from an Enhanced 2 step to an Opti 2 step with another full rebate period.
When approving the contract:
- If the rebate price is changing (e.g 200 to 250) when they upgrade package, Account Managers will be able to apply the offer correctly on the contract which will populate the correct offer end date.
- If the rebate price is staying the same when they upgrade package, Account Managers will NOT be able to apply the offer correctly on the contract. Instead, they will need to put the offer text clearly in the Order Notes (see below example)
When processing the contract (at go live stage):
- If the rebate price is changing, you will need to raise a ticket with Rev Ops to amend the offer end date for the offer that is being replaced (as you will not be able to do this in Novus). Example: https://rightmove.freshdesk.com/a/tickets/1605794 - in this example I asked Rev Ops to change the offer end date for the Enhanced Upgrade offer to end just before the new Opti Upgrade offer started. So once Rev Ops actioned it looked like this in Novus:
- If the rebate price is staying the same, you will need to raise a ticket with Rev Ops to extend the offer end date to the correct new offer end date (as you will not be able to do this in Novus). Example: https://rightmove.freshdesk.com/a/tickets/1593996
Free Profiles
- Core should be marked as FREE with a free reason (e.g. Different Branding).
- Reject if put through with a chargeable core (rate 0).
- Though it is a free profile this still needs to be signed
When can a free profile be given?
- Needs to be different branding from main company e.g. fine & country, land & new homes, luxury brand.
- The address for the free profile must exactly match a paying branch they have with us already.
- Package for the free profile must match the paying branches package.
- Only core & brand plus (unless legacy package such as gold/premium) are free if they want additional extra products these will be charged. If they are an opti customer microsites are also included free of charge.
- Once all the above are confirmed the account manager needs to create a free profile form as normal.
- If TAM/AM still have questions after this it’s probably best to put them through to RevOps so they can talk them through it. Ext 5204.
Our Contracts cuts off and deadlines
What are they?
We work around various business deadlines which effect ourselves and other teams so it is important we understand what they are and when they are:
-SALES CUT OFF
-CONTRACTS CUT OFF
-MAIN BILLING RUN
-CREDIT CUT OFF
-MOP UP BILLING
THEY OCCUR MONTHLY
Sales cut off
- This is the deadline our Account Managers have to ensure contracts that need to be processed in time for our next billing run are signed by the customer and with us (Contracts) to be processed
- We have this deadline a few days before Contracts cut off to ensure our team has enough time to process these contracts
Contracts cut off
- This is the deadline OUR team has to process all contracts received up to (and including) Sales cut off in time for billing
- This deadline is particularly important for any contracts that have downgrades/product cancellations as if we do not process these contracts by this date the customer will be billed incorrectly for next month
Main Billing run
- This is the date Accounts run EA billing for next month
- We have to pause confirming any branch changes in Novus until billing has fully run and is complete
- Billing run usually lasts most of the day but we are still able to put any pending lines into Novus and set go live dates for the following month(s)
- On billing run day we do an 8am start for a few team members to process as much as possible before billing run commences. You finish at 4.30 on this shift
Credit cut off
- This is the deadline we have to raise any Credits that need to be issued alongside a customers next bill (payment is taken on the 1st of the month)
- Credit cut off is often quite busy as invoices don’t go out long before this - so it is when most errors tend to be spotted and need to be rectified alongside a credit
Mop up Billing
- This is the date Accounts run EA mop up billing for next month
- Accounts should advise when this is running as we should pause confirming any branch changes in Novus until it is complete
- Mop up billing usually lasts 30-60 mins so is much shorter than the main billing run
Where can I find them?
- EA Billing Calendar (sent out annually at end of year) - Saved in EA CST drive in contracts team folder.
- Three places around the desks (TV screen, window and pillar)
- In Outlook calendar (team invites are sent round each month as a reminder)