A client on last year's price
A twelve-person company signed a twelve-month agreement for a private office two years ago. The agreement rolled over automatically on the same terms. Since then prices for comparable offices have risen, and new clients in similar offices pay more. Nobody noticed, because nobody was watching the end date.
Elsewhere, a client whose agreement ended quietly gave notice, and the sales team learned about it only when the office appeared empty on the floor plan. There had been no conversation about whether they wanted a larger office, which they did.
Why renewals are not managed
Serviced office agreements are shorter and more numerous than leases, and they often roll on automatically. That is convenient for everyone, but it means there is no natural trigger for a conversation.
- End dates and notice terms are in each agreement, not in a list anyone reviews.
- Membership platforms hold the dates, but reports on upcoming renewals are not run regularly.
- Price increase notices, where your agreements allow them, need to go out in time.
- The account manager does not have the client's usage and history in front of them.
- Nobody owns renewals as a pipeline in the way sales owns new deals.
What notice you must give and what terms your agreements allow are set by the agreements and your advisers. Tracking them is where operators fall short.
What unmanaged renewals cost
Revenue stays at old prices for clients who would have accepted a reasonable increase. Clients who might have expanded leave for somewhere that asked them. Notices for price changes go out late, pushing increases back. And every surprise departure is an office that could have been marketed earlier.
The relationship suffers too. A renewal conversation is one of the few natural moments to ask a client how things are going. Operators who skip it only hear about problems when the client gives notice.
Across a multi-site business, the effect is uneven. One centre manager runs renewals carefully from memory and a spreadsheet; another does not. Head office sees the averages and cannot tell which centres are leaving money on the table and which are losing clients they could have kept.
The renewal pipeline we build
- Agreement end dates, notice terms and price review terms are read from your membership platform, with any exceptions recorded.
- Renewals appear in a pipeline a set time ahead, assigned to the account owner.
- Each renewal shows the client's history: current price, what comparable offices cost now, meeting room usage, desk count changes, payment record and any support issues.
- A draft renewal offer is prepared from your pricing rules, for the account owner to adjust and send. Larger discounts go for approval.
- Notices your agreements require, such as a price change notice, are drafted from your templates and sent on time, with the date recorded.
- When terms are agreed, the new agreement is generated and signed, and the platform is updated so billing follows.
- Clients who give notice instead are passed into your move-out flow, and sales is told about the office.
| Renewal stage | What the account owner sees |
|---|---|
| Coming up | End date, notice terms, current price |
| Preparing | Usage, history and a draft offer |
| Offered | Offer sent, date, follow-up due |
| Agreed | New terms, agreement out for signature |
| Leaving | Notice logged, move-out started |
How the account team works after
Every renewal is a conversation that starts in good time, with the facts in front of the account owner. Prices are reviewed as the agreements intend. Clients who want to grow are offered space before they look elsewhere. And departures are known early enough to market the office.
Leadership gets a forward view of revenue up for renewal each month and how renewals are going, which is a better guide to next quarter than the current occupancy figure.
Is this happening in your centres?
- Agreements roll over at old prices without review.
- Clients leave without a renewal conversation.
- Price change notices go out late.
- Account managers lack usage and payment history when talking to clients.
- Nobody owns renewals as a pipeline.