Like some of the many necessities that business owners need to sort out before they launch their business in order to ensure that their business runs smoothly and successfully, service agreements are a way to ensure that there are no potential problems that can arise in your business due to oversight or misunderstandings with the clients in the future.
Creating a service agreement isn’t as complex as you’d think. If you run a HVAC business, for instance, you can easily create one using an online HVAC service agreement template which will be customised to suit your business needs.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the many reasons why a service agreement will benefit your business, no matter what type of business you’re running! Let’s get started right away.
1. Everything is put down in black and white
In simple terms, a service agreement is a written contract that covers all the details of the service you’re offering to clients. Whether you’re running a law firm or a painting business, it will be beneficial to both you and your clients if you have everything put down in black and white.
For example, you’d save a lot of time trying to solve disputes or disagreements in the future, when you have a written document that validates everything you say or claim. This way, your clients will be left in the dark about any detail. After all, transparency is key to achieving trust and loyalty from your customers.
2. Easily manage money and payment details
In most businesses, there’s a constant struggle with clients about fees they either weren’t aware of, or didn’t know they had to pay. There’s also almost always a delay in the payment of fees, since most clients assume that they need not make the payment on the day the service is delivered (or before that, if you prefer getting paid prior to the service).
In order to avoid such problems related to on-time payment and additional fees, service agreements usually have a section that clearly state out the amount which will have to be paid by the client, along with all the additional fees that may often be overlooked, such as travel or unforeseen costs that came up along the way.
This way, your clients won’t be surprised by the fees that need to be paid, and your business will receive timely payments as well.
3. Procedure followed during unforeseen problems
Very often, plans don’t always go as smoothly as you’d expect them to. Bad weather, or lockdowns can come and ruin the smooth running of a business or service. In order to make up for such problems which no one can predict, service agreements are used to explain the procedure that will be followed if something were to go wrong in the plan.
Sopmetimes, it may even be the client’s fault that some problem or delay arises, and your service agreement will make sure your business does not get into trouble for not delivering exactly what you promised if some unavoidable circumstances were to come up and disrupt the flow.
4. Cancellation of services
You never know what kind of problems can arise further along during your service, so it’s wise to always have a section which speaks about how either party can cancel services for any or a particular reason during a said period of time.
This way, you’ll be able to cancel services or your clients will also be able to change their minds if you feel you aren’t the right fit or option. You can also include the prior notice which has to be given to you or the clients by whoever wishes to cancel services.