Table of Contents
What are Warranty Policies?
A Warranty Policy defines how physical goods bought by customers can be replaced, free of charge, within a specific period of time after the purchase.
Multiple warranty policies can be defined and be active at the same time. Each warranty policy defines the traceable goods or product types or brands or families which can be covered and the period during which the physical goods will be covered after their purchase. They are applicable only for traceable physical goods which are sold to customers - ether directly or indirectly - within CRM.COM (through Jobs).
Warranty Policies are applicable only for sold traceable physical goods that are provided on subscriptions.
Glossary of key terms
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Warranty Policy | Simply this is the definition of the policy on how a set of traceable goods are covered by warranty. |
| Coverage | The term that indicates whether a traceable item is under warranty, or in other words, covered by a specific warranty policy |
| Physical Good under Warranty | Indicates that the physical good has a valid Warranty Policy with remaining coverage period |
| Physical Good out of Warranty | Indicates that the physical good does not have a warranty policy or if a warranty policy exists, then its coverage period has expired. |
| Coverage Reason | Indicates the reason a physical good which is under warranty is required to be changed. According to the reason the system decides if the replacement will be free of charge or not. |
| Replacement Coverage Policy | On changing a physical good which is under warranty, the Replacement Under Coverage Policy will determine whether the warranty policy will be transferred to the new physical good, or not, or whether a new one will be applied. |
| Warranty Remaining Duration | On changing a physical good which is under warranty, if the warranty policy is carried over to the new item then the Warranty Remaining Duration represents the time left till the warranty period is over. The period is calculated based on the date that the warranty policy was applied on the old physical good and the coverage period defined on the warranty policy. Note that this is only applicable when warranty policies are carried over from one physical good to another. |
Warranty Policies Key Processes and Concepts
| Processes / Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Automatic determination of Warranty coverage | At the point of order and sale (through CRM.COM Jobs) the system will apply the Warranty Policy automatically. If more than one policy can cover the physical good, then the most recently created (most recent valid from date) policy is applied. |
| Checking Warranty coverage of physical goods | When a physical good requires replacement then the agent can check whether the physical good is still covered by warranty as well as if its replacement will be free of charge, depending on the cause of damage, via raising a Service Request. |
| Transferring Warranty coverage between physical goods | Define whether a good that replaces a defective good carries over the remaining warranty time or resets for the whole warranty |
| Billing of replaced physical goods with Warranty coverage | On replacing a physical good under warranty, decision on the billing (bill new physical good or replace for free) is automatically determined, based on the coverage reason that the good needs to be replaced, which is selected by the agent. Note: Coverage reasons are configurable |
| Moving damaged replaced physical goods to specific warehouses | Sold physical goods under warranty, that are replaced for free, are returned back to one of your company's warehouses. (As opposed to damaged sold physical goods that are not replaced for free, which remain to the customer's location). Physical goods are returned to different warehouses, based on whether the initial sale was done by your company or a partner. |
| Warranty Policy Management Tools | Dashboards and a report are available to offer an overall picture of warranties provided by your company:
In addition for each Installed Item with warranty coverage a Printout is available that can be printed directly from the item's page. |
Access & Viewing Controls
Network Characteristics define the level of access for each record. i.e. Whether it will be available for selection, for viewing or editing etc.
| Entity | Network Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|---|
Warranty Policies | Controlled Selection Entities | A warranty policy can be applied on a physical good, only if the user adding the physical good on the Job belongs to one of the Organisational units added in the Allowed Organisational Units (AOU) of the warranty policy, or a collaboration exists between his unit and the AOU of the warranty policy, or is a superuser. |
| Warranty Coverage Reasons | Global Viewing Entities | Warranty coverage reasons have no access restrictions. They can be viewed and selected by all logged in users. |
Warranty Policies Related Modules
| Interaction Entity | How |
|---|---|
| Installed Items | The Installed Items are the traceable physical goods that the Warranty Policies are applied to when added or swapped via Jobs |
| Jobs | Warranty Policies are applied automatically by the system on physical goods at order taking (through a Job).
|
| Service Requests | Raise Service Request on damaged physical goods and check whether they are under warranty coverage |
| Inventory Management | Allows you to specify the warehouses where damaged physical goods under warranty and replaced for free will be returned |
| Reports | Reports specifically developed for warranties, such as a report to provide the number of physical goods that have been sold and are under warranty or their warranty has expired |
| Dashboards | Dashboards specifically developed for warranties, such as Dashboards to provide information on raised Service Requests or Jobs for swapping physical goods |
Warranty Policies - Business Examples
The following section provides business examples to help you understand how the CRM.COM Warranty Policies module is used.
Apply Warranty to replace damaged physical goods for free
Business Requirement
Company ZX would like to provide a Warranty period for 24 months to decoder products that have been bought by its customers
- Within this period if the decoder is reported as faulty then the company:
- Will replace the item
- Will not charge the customer
- Will transfer the Warranty to the new item. i.e. if the decoder is replaced on the 13th month then the new decoder should be within warranty for another 11 months.
CRM.COM Solution
Configuration
• Coverage Reasons
Set up the following Coverage Reasons
- Faulty
• Warranty Policies
Set up a Warranty Policy with the following attributes
24 months New Sales Warranty
Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | 24 MONTH DECODER WARRANTY - CARRY OVER |
| Life cycle state | Effective |
| Validity | Always Valid |
| Duration | 24 months |
| Replacement Under Coverage Policy | Carry Over Remaining Duration |
| Coverage Reasoning |
|
| Physical Goods Covered | Product Type = Decoders |
• Job Types
Set up 2 Job Types
- New Subscription
- Swap Subscription Installed Item
In the New Subscription add the Warranty Policy: 24 months New Sales Warranty
In the Swap Subscription Installed Item you don't need to add anything (as the warranty in this case will be carried over due to Replacement Under Coverage Policy setting on the policy)
User Process
• Create a new Subscription - Sell a new Decoder
For every new Subscription created via New Subscriptions Jobs, any decoders added on a subscription will automatically get a warranty that will expire 24 months after their removal from the warehouse (i.e. on the day of the addition.)
Note that the warranty will be given, only if its directly or indirectly sold. (The warranty is not applied for Rented Installed Items)
• Customer with faulty decoder
When a customer calls in with a fault on his sold decoder then the user will
Raise a Service Request
◘ User will raise a Service Request for the Subscription
◘ On selecting the Affected Products the user will select the decoder and proceed to select Faulty for coverage reason.
The system will automatically calculate Coverage and update the related field to YES
Create a Swap Subscription Installed Item Job
◘ User will create a Swap Subscription Installed Item Job
◘ On adding the installed Item on the Job the system will require a Coverage Reason
◘ User will now select the Faulty coverage reason
The system will automatically calculate Coverage and update the related field to YES
◘ User will then select the item to replace the faulty decoder
On completing the job the system will
• Transfer the new item to the customer
• Place the old item back to the Subscription/job warehouse
• Transfer the warranty on the new item
• Set the Coverage period of the new item equal to the remaining period from the previous item
More Information on Specific modules can be found at:
Replace physical good and charge for its replacement
Business Requirement
Company ZX would like to provide a Warranty period to decoder products that have been bought by its customers for 24 months. The warranty will cover the full replacement of the product for free in case that it is faulty, however if the damage is identified as intentional then the customer will need to pay for the new item. In both cases the new item should get a new warranty policy whose warranty period will start from the beginning. (i.e. for another 24 months)
- If the decoder is swapped due to intentional damage then Company ZX process is as follows:
- Replace the damaged item
- Bill the customer
- Provide a new warranty to the new item if available
CRM.COM Solution
Configuration
• Coverage Reasons
Set up the following Coverage Reasons
- Faulty
- Intentional Damage
• Warranty Policies
Set up 1 Warranty Policy with the following attributes
24 months New Sales Warranty
Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | 24 MONTH DECODER WARRANTY - New Warranty |
| Life cycle state | Effective |
| Validity | Always Valid |
| Duration | 24 months |
| Replacement Under Coverage Policy | No Warranty |
| Coverage Reasoning |
|
| Physical Goods Covered | Product Type = Decoders |
• Job Types
Set up 2 Job Types
- New Subscription
- Swap Subscription Installed Item
Add the 24 months New Sales Warranty to both Job types.
User Process
• Create a new Subscription - Sell a new Decoder
For every new Subscription created via New Subscriptions Jobs, any decoders added on a subscription, will automatically get a warranty that will expire 24 months after their removal from the warehouse (i.e. on the day of the addition.)
Note that the warranty will be given, only if its directly or indirectly sold. (The warranty is not applied for Rented Installed Items)
• Customer requires Decoder Swap due to
When a customer requires to swap his decoder and the agent identifies that the damage has been intentional then:
Raise Service Request
◘ User will raise a Service Request and relate it to a Subscription
◘ On selecting the Affected Products the user will select the decoder and proceed to select INTENTIONAL DAMAGE for coverage reason.
The system will automatically calculate Coverage and update the related field to NO
Create Swap Subscription Installed Item Job
◘ User will create a Swap Subscription Installed Item Job
◘ On adding the installed Item on the Job the system will require a Coverage Reason
◘ User will now select the INTENTIONAL DAMAGE coverage reason
The system will automatically calculate Coverage and update the related field to NO
◘ User will then select the item to replace the old decoder
On completing the job the system will
• Transfer new item to the customer
• Leave the old item on the customer
• Provide a new warranty to the new physical good
• When the Job is billed then the new installed item will be billed
More Information on Specific modules can be found at: