An elevated subscription experience is one that stands out. With more and more businesses entering the world of recurring billing, making sure your company doesn’t get lost in the crowd is essential. Your best bet is to partner with an elevated recurring billing platform so you can cultivate an elevated user experience from beginning to end. Don’t settle for mediocrity—customers will be able to see it immediately. Plus, your job isn’t done once a new customer signs up for a subscription. With the help of a subscription management and billing platform, you can add some key features to your subscription service to keep customers engaged.
The features and benefits your company offers should make new subscribers feel like they are truly valued. They don’t want to feel like just another faceless customer. They chose your business for a reason, and once they’re on board, it’s your job to give them endless more reasons to stick around. The rate at which your subscribers cancel their subscriptions, or “churn,” can be heavily impacted by the immediate experience new customers have after they subscribe. With that said, here are four key areas you can focus on to help build an elevated subscription experience, minimize your churn numbers, and keep retention high.
High-Level Customer Support on Your Recurring Billing Platform
Have you ever had a problem with a subscription? Then, you tried to contact customer support, only to wait on hold for three hours. Maybe you tried an online chat that led you in circles? Chances are good you seriously considered canceling your subscription. If so, you aren’t alone. That could be the case for your subscribers too. If they don’t have a quick and easy solution to potential problems, they might cut their losses and run. An elevated subscription experience can help change all that.
First, make your customer service experience as smooth and helpful as possible. It should be easy to call a phone number or send an email. Subscribers should be able to find the contact information quickly and easily. An elevated recurring billing platform includes all the important customer support information right on the front page of their website. When you help solve customers’ difficulties, you can make lifelong connections. You can be sure subscribers will love their experience, and they might even talk about it with friends and family. They will tell everyone how easy it was to get their issue resolved. As a result, this gives your business more opportunities for organic growth.
Give Customers the Value They Seek
When your subscriber gets their bank statement at the end of the month, and they see the name of your recurring billing platform, they want to feel like they are getting their money’s worth. If they don’t feel like the expense is providing the value they want, they will likely look elsewhere. Customers don’t want to waste their money on products or services that don’t add value to their life. Customer value is the perfect area to pinpoint specific ways you can elevate your subscription-based business.
There are many strategies for continually increasing the value of your subscription. Perhaps, you want to send special offers directly to your subscribers, such as percentage-off coupons or a free add-on. It’s also important to continually update your services and products. Add new features. Make the system run faster. Include new products in your box. You can even give subscribers early access to newly released products. Every competitor in the marketplace is looking for ways to create a better product and drive up value, so you don’t want to get left behind. When you build on your current offerings with a focus on increased customer value, subscribers notice the effort and recognize the value it adds.
Build a High-Quality User Experience
Experience is king when every industry has dozens, if not hundreds, of competitors. Your subscribers want to enjoy their experience with your product. Would you join a gym that doesn’t offer the equipment you want? Probably not. Instead, you’d probably find a different gym that suits your needs better. Both gyms offer the same general purpose—a way to stay active—but the user experience for once is much more enjoyable than the other.
When customers subscribe to a service or product, they do so because they enjoy what the company has to offer. For some, that means a smooth and intuitive billing platform. For others, that means marketing and packaging that matches their lifestyle or values. Some people might enjoy a social aspect like a newsfeed their friends can join or a way to connect with other users. Your main goal is to create a memorable user experience. When you give your customers a high-quality time with your service, they will want to stick around.
Keep Card Information Up to Date to Avoid Involuntary Churn
Involuntary churn might slip past your radar if you aren’t aware of it. Involuntary churn occurs when you lose a customer to a payment processing error like card declines or expirations. If you calculate your churn with a churn rate formula, you can see a considerable amount of churn coming from these errors. For this reason, it’s important to find a subscription management platform that handles involuntary churn, reducing your churn numbers substantially, with very little change to your business.
The best subscription management platform will manage involuntary churn behind the scenes with smart tools that solve problems before they arise. These tools make it easy for you to focus on the big picture while they handle all the behind-the-scenes work. It will update card information and send emails to customers whose cards are approaching their expiration date. That way, the churn rate formula you are using will return numbers you enjoy seeing.
About Recurly
Recurly is ready to help you take your subscription-based business to the next level. From box of the month clubs to pet food subscriptions, businesses in every industry are implementing recurring billing strategies. Recurly has been a leader in the subscription industry for over a decade, helping to manage over 40 million subscriptions. Their billing platform can help your business thrive with a range of smart tools to help implement solutions, scale globally, and increase your customer’s lifetime value. Your subscription-based business might face challenges, but Recurly can help you overcome them. From iterating new pricing models to solving problems based on the results of your churn rate formula, Recurly strives to offer continued support throughout your subscription journey. Make Recurly your top choice for helping your company find success in the modern business landscape.
Elevate your subscriptions-based business with Recurly’s help at https://recurly.com/
