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Retailers used to running physical stores can miss opportunities to sell and expand their business with E-Commerce. This article talks through the limitations of bricks-and-mortar, how E-Commerce can boost your business, and where to find the best retail E-Commerce help.   In this article: Why Bricks and Mortar Isn't Enough for Retailers Anymore  What E-Commerce Can Give Your Business How the Right Solution Can Crush Obstacles Easily The Impact of Bad Decisions on Subscription Retail SMBs The Secret to Good Decisions Is In Plain Sight   AI-Driven Insights: How They Give You Everything You Need  A well-designed brick-and-mortar retail space can bring a lot of joy.   But it isn’t enough. Not these days.   They’re not enough to meet the demands of modern customers or to expand your consumer base.   If you want to expand, grow, and make your mark, it's important to consider offering online shopping.    But as a retailer, adding an e-commerce strand and creating an online store might feel completely overwhelming. Where do you begin?   We’re here to reassure you that the shift is not as daunting as you may think. You just need good information and the right tools to start bringing in all the benefits that e-commerce delivers.  Why Bricks and Mortar Isn't Enough for Retailers Anymore  Bricks-and-mortar stores do provide a shopping experience that many customers love. Around 94% of customers still shop in physical stores.    However, the exclusive brick-and-mortar store does have real limitations.   Reach: You’re stuck with customers in your general geographic location, which means you cut your business off from the global market. At least 52% of shoppers shop internationally.   Costs: Physical stores demand high overhead costs, including everything from rent, heating/AC, security, staff, etc. rent, utilities, etc. 6 in 10 experts say an online store is cheaper to start, and 8 out of 10 says it’s cheaper to run, with 75% saying bricks and mortar doesn’t break even as quickly.  Consumer Behavior and Preference: It’s a fact that online shopping grows each year. Online retail sales around the world have dramatically risen from $1.3 trillion in 2014 to $4.4 trillion in 2023, and by 2027, it’s expected to hit $8 trillion, accounting for nearly a quarter of total retail sales.  Expanding your bricks and mortar store through E-Commerce will help you stay competitive. If you stay bricks-and-mortar only, you risk losing out to your competition because they will meet the customers where they are.  What E-Commerce Can Give Your Business   There are plenty of potential benefits of an online store.  Here are a few of the most popular:  Increased Reach and Accessibility - Not only will your brand be able to reach that global audience, but your products will be more accessible. And because your online store can run 24-7, your customers can buy what they want, when they want it.   Scalability: You might be used to having to hire extra help to deal with much more seasonal demand, and those costs can add up. But growing your base (both temporarily and long-term) doesn’t necessarily stretch your resources in the same way. Most of the process is automated, and online fulfillment isn’t as costly as it is in-person (unless you're selling massive products, like ships).   Customer Insights: It can be difficult, if not impossible, to get in-person customers to fill out surveys and give feedback. But online, this comes without any effort. You get detailed and valuable analytics from your customer data. This helps you understand what they like and their behavior much more.  Personalization: Not only does data give you information on segments and opportunities, but you can personalize shopping experiences for your customers. This boosts conversion rates and meets expectations while boosting your revenue by up to 40%.   These benefits are extremely tempting; every retailer could use each one of them.   Of course, creating an online store can feel daunting. There are important factors that a retailer has to consider.   A website has to be created (or expanded to accommodate E-Commerce). The site must contain an intuitive and user-friendly interface. It needs data and financial security for compliance and safety. Mobile optimization creates a great customer experience on the go. A rock-solid secure payment process brings you your cash.   Stock management is a little different too. Because customers can purchase your products at any time, stock levels can change frequently. This can require real-time updates. Fulfillment and delivery logistics have to be fast and efficient.   Rather than the 9-5 (or whatever your hours), customer service has to expand to 24-7 availability. Returns and exchange policies should be clear and easy for both parties.     At first glance, it sounds like a massive effort. But it doesn’t have to be. Not with the right solution.  How the Right Solution Can Crush Obstacles Easily   When you get the right software, things get a lot easier.   In fact, once the right solution is in place, you’re mostly to find you have more time to focus on the things you want to do.   Like interacting with customers, thinking about the future of your brand, and creating the best strategies moving forward. It's the stuff you don’t have time to do because you’re stuck in permanent admin.   You might be wondering how that’s possible, but software can ease not only the creation of an e-commerce strand, but it can take care of the obstacles for you:   Financial management: Everything from correct billing to automated payments (using the payment platforms that customers love), reconciliation, reports, and audit preparation can be a cinch that saves lots of money and time. It also ensures a hassle-free experience for you and your customers.  Inventory: Real-time inventory tracking that perfectly suits 24-7 shopping will help you avoid the dreaded stockouts and overstocks, which saves you money and customer alienation while protecting you from emergency supplier exploitation.   Customer Relationship Management (CRM): These systems give you invaluable insight into your existing and potential customers by crunching the data. You’ll discover customer behavior across regions and countries, pricing variations, segmentation, product/add-on recommendations, and everything else you need to offer that personalized experience they expect and love.    Security: It can bring you robust security measures, including legal compliance (no matter which region you sell in) including SSL certificates, and PCI compliance. Everything that protects customer data and builds trust. Conclusion  A retail brand needs everything possible to build and differentiate its brand.   Expanding from bricks and mortar to E-Commerce via an online store can give you the best of both worlds. All you need is the right solution to help you do it.   Curious about how a solution could put you on the right path? Book a free Discovery Call with our team today.

Growth is everything in the SaaS world. But how can a CEO know how impactful their growth strategies might be? Prioritizing four metrics in particular will empower tech CEOs to drive customer satisfaction and sustainable growth, driving insight on what is working and what needs to be adjusted.  In this article: Growth is Everything The SaaS Playbook: Decoding Four Key Metrics to Ignite Success  Recommendations to Make Things Easier For Yourself Customer Retention: The Key to Eliminating Churn and Building Growth  SaaS is a tough game to win. And growth is at the center of it.   You as a tech CEO must build, scale, and push your resourcefulness to the limit. Every gain comes from countless hours spent strategizing, analyzing, and figuring out what best works for your brand.   CEOs must drive growth. But they often lack the tools they need to bring the results that are expected of them. That’s where KPIs come in.   This article talks through what KPIs are, and how they can be used to harness growth in the short and long term.   Growth is Everything  As a tech CEO, you must build, scale, and push your resourcefulness to the limit. Every gain comes from countless hours spent strategizing, analyzing, and figuring out what best works for your brand.   As a CEO you’re in charge of:   Revenue growth and profitability while controlling costs Product development Market expansion and strategic partnerships Customer and employee satisfaction Regulatory compliance and data security Company valuation and funding But you face a lot of challenges:   Scaling the business demands: How do you find and implement the right systems, people, and processes to grow, while ensuring costs are low?  Outmaneuvering the competition: How do you differentiate your brand and products while innovating and staying relevant?   Acquiring and retaining talent: How do you attract the best talent to keep your brand cutting-edge?  Customer churn: How do you retain customers and prevent them from being poached by competitors?   Security and compliance: How do you lock down your data, so you avoid financial penalties and loss of trust in you or the brand?  Maintaining positive cash flow: How do you keep positive cash flow (even when scaling) so the company’s financial future isn’t at risk?  Complexity in pricing strategy: How do you decide on competitive pricing that pleases customers and benefits the company?   Adapting to market changes: How do you anticipate and adapt to changes, and not miss any opportunities?  That’s a tall list of obstacles and responsibilities.   It can be hard to get an accurate picture of what works, how quickly (or slowly) you’re growing, and which investments in the business bring the best results.  That’s why KPIs are important. Measuring KPIs will give you the information you need on current metrics, what needs to change, and which is the biggest priority.  The SaaS Playbook: Decoding Four Key Metrics to Ignite Success   Four pivotal KPI signposts form the bedrock of your successful SaaS business model.  Customer Churn Rate (CCR) CCR measures the percentage of customers who decide to drop your service in the middle or at the end of a subscription period. The higher the score, the more your bottom line is at risk.   Formula: Lost Customers ÷ Total Customers at the Start of Time Period) x 100.  There are multiple causes of churn:  Bad pricing  Payment processing or billing errors  Lack of automation in subscription renewals.  Inability to personalize the product offering  Subscription or product dissatisfaction  Poaching by competitors  A poor UX   Out-of-date offerings  Currently, the average SaaS churn rate is 7.6% and a good churn rate is below 6% annually.  Churn is costly because it costs you in two ways. First is the missing revenue from your churned customers. Second is the investment into customer acquisition (and reacquisition) required to make up for lost revenue.     If your churn rate is too high, it can be turned around. With the right tools you can boost customer satisfaction, high product value, and customer loyalty.  Revenue Churn Rate (RCR) Where CCR is about customer count, RCR is about the money count.   Formula: Net Revenue Lost from Existing Customers ÷ Total Revenue  The RCR is like a machine that monitors the financial vitals. Specifically, it’s the net revenue impact of lost customers either monthly or annually.   When the RCR is low, that means you’re currently keeping customers happy. But when the RCR soars, it’s time to refocus and investigate your strategy to stop the leak. Revenue loss needs to be fixed fast because it also has a knock-on effect on growth potential, product innovation, and brand reputation.  Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) CAC is all about balance.   The CAC analyzes the average sales versus the marketing cost involved in winning over a customer. This cost takes a lot into consideration, including everything from your social media to following through on sales leads.  Formula: Customer Acquisition Cost = Cost of Sales and Marketing divided by the Number of New Customers Acquired.   Spending a lot of money acquiring each customer can be worth it when it’s working and you see great results.   If not, action has to be taken because a high CAC combined with a low CLTV (more on that in a second) will burn through your cash reserves.   Though constantly monitoring your CAC can be stressful, it can be the wake-up call your business stakeholders need to finally give you the space to create and implement smart and cost-effective customer acquisition strategies.  Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) CLTV represents the net present value of the revenue stream from an average customer over their lifetime - in other words how much money one customer will give to your business over your entire relationship.  Formula: CLV = average value of sale x number of transactions x retention time period.    Maintaining a healthy CLTV is a big commitment because it requires so many resources.   You have to play the long game.   You have to ensure continual customer satisfaction despite ever-shifting needs and wants.   You have to drive customer loyalty and beat the competition.   A high CLTV speaks to high customer retention, consistent product value, and successful upselling strategies. And it boosts trust in you and your decisions.   And if it’s low, there are important decisions to make. Fortunately, the right steps make boosting your CLV much easier and cheaper than you’d think.   With all four of these KPIs, it’s important to remember that each of these four metrics don’t just exist in isolation. They have to be treated like a cohesive whole to fuel sustainable growth.  Recommendations to Make Things Easier For Yourself      As a tech CEO, it’s important that you measure and track the performance of these KPIs, starting with setting a baseline.   Setting a baseline will help you gauge where you stand and what your targets could and should be. That way you’ll know exactly how much progress you’ve made (or how much work needs to be done).   If all the KPIs aren’t ideal, there are priorities that will turn things around faster.     Start by mitigating CCR and RCR. This involves:  Interacting with and engaging your customers  Listening to their feedback to improve product offerings and pricing   Boost their perception of your product value  Ensure your UX is as good as possible  With CAC, you can create a strategy with your sales and marketing people to streamline it. This can include:   Targeting campaigns  Using analysis on your customer data to make better decisions  Studying your customer retention trends vs. your competition’s rates  Optimizing your digital channels for better reach and conversion  Lead nurturing   Finally, work on improving your CLTV. Acting on the other KPIs can automatically boost this figure, but there are other things you can do, including:   Identify sales opportunities  Optimize your website and web presence   Make on-time payment painless for customers  Cut costs including invoicing, billing and reconciliation  Boost add-on and cross-selling.  All these can make your customers stick around and continue to buy from you. There's one additional specific way you can drive growth.  Customer Retention: The Key to Eliminating Churn and Building Growth Customers who stick around the longest are the most valuable.   It’s easier and cheaper to keep the ones you have compared to finding new ones.   The average cost of acquiring each new SaaS customer is $702, but can reach as high as an eye-watering $1,450.  But existing customers spend 31% more than your new customers and are 50% more likely to try your new products. And that's key for successful add-ons and cross-selling.  Not only do long-term customers bring in more money, but they are a treasure trove of other resources including brand advocacy, recommendations, and useful feedback for both product R&D and product offerings.   So the key to converting a new customer into a long-term customer is to smash churn into oblivion.   Though there isn’t a hard and fast roadmap that works for every SaaS business, CCR, RCR, CAC and CLTV are great places to start. They let you know where you’ve been, where you are, and where you could go.   They also point toward the issues and work and the issues that need fixing.    Curious about getting the tools you need? Book a free Discovery Call with our team today.

Information is power. And this is particularly true for the recurring service industry, because workers need the right details to do their job. Without it, a recurring service company has to contend with delays, mistakes, unhappy customers, churn, and job dissatisfaction. These problems have a knock-on effect for the business in both the short and long-term. Fortunately, an operations system that promotes the free flow of information across teams in real time empowers service workers. It streamlines resource allocation and revolutionizes both operations and results.    In this article: Why the Lack of Information Makes Service Workers’ Jobs Hard  How It Hurts You As a Recurring Service Business  What Real-Time Information Flow Brings to Service Workers  The Extra Benefits You Get  Recurring service workers need accurate instructions on where, when, how, and what they’re supposed to do.   The problem is that many recurring services companies don’t give them what they need to delivery a service. So how can they do their job correctly?   The short answer is they can’t. And that can have a massive impact on the bottom line of a recurring brand.   But providing all the information necessary is a mammoth task if your operations are manual. This article will discuss the problems that come with the lack of free-flowing information. It will analyze how these problems impact your workers and your business. It will then give a good picture of what is needed to turn things around, smoothing out service provision and improving the bottom line for your business. Why the Lack of Information Makes Service Workers’ Jobs Hard    Recurring service workers have jobs that require information to be correct and available. This includes things like contracts, terms, and usage.   Recurring services companies that use manual processes will have fleets that struggle to deliver consistent, reliable services. In these circumstances, here are the ongoing pain points they contend with on a daily basis:   Silos everywhere: When there’s little or no information sync between the financial, sales, customer service, and other teams, the chances of the information going through being correct and timely plummet.   Delays aplenty: Thanks to both the manual recording of data and the manual retrieval of information, the data’s delayed, and so is service delivery and decision-making.   Bottlenecks in the day: Manually created workflows (especially combined with the delayed and incorrect info) impede service workers' productivity and service quality. This makes bottlenecks that can put them hours or days behind.   Mistakes in delivering service: Any outdated data (which can occur at any time with siloed data) leads to costly mistakes in service provision.   Resource misallocation: Without reliable information, and with bottlenecks, effective resource allocation becomes impossible.   Plunging worker morale: Frustration from manual processes, delays, and lack of access to real-time data, and mistakes in resource allocation can lead to decreased job satisfaction and motivation.  All of these throw a monkey wrench into your operations and revenue while both disappointing and infuriating your workers.   And these problems will impact your business as a whole as well.  How It Hurts You As a Recurring Service Business   These problems can spread across anywhere in your recurring service organization. Do any of these impacts sound familiar to you?    Higher cost and less incoming revenue: Inefficient operations cut into revenue at any given time because you have to spend more to get results. It also cuts future revenue, because you have continual delays in service onboarding, contract processing, etc.  Resource allocation: This is one of the most important challenges in recurring service. You can’t allocate your resources properly when there are delays and data silos that stop information flow. Because manual operations mean phone calls with suppliers. Sales and customer service teams phoning customers putting out fires. Finance checking with sales and customer service about contracts and terms so they can set things up and approve installation. And these scenarios are just for starters.   Expensive worker turnover: Employees in burnout or employees who quit are expensive. Either way, it’s most costs for you as you look for replacements who will face the same challenges.    Customer dissatisfaction: Customers need consistency in their service quality from installation all the way through the lifetime of your relationship. Without it, customers get unhappy. They rumble. They complain to your customer service department. You’re forced to offer benefits and discounts that you wouldn’t have had to before.  Less cash flow: Because inaccurate invoicing, billing discrepancies and delayed payments slows down inbound revenue, you’ll get cash flow issues, and perhaps creditor and supplier issues too. That adds more pressure to workflows to find the money from somewhere else.  Churn: There are multiple reasons why you’ll have more churn, and not just because of the problems directly related to your service team. Word of bad service gets out. You competition will notice you’re losing customers. If your base catches wind you’re having service delivery and operations problems, that damages trust in your brand. It also harms your relationships with your customers which drives up customer acquisition and cuts Customer Lifetime Value costs.  Given these harms, it’s no wonder that original problem of lack of the free-flow of information poses such a threat.   Fortunately, with the right information flow, things can look up, and fast.   The solution comes in the form of subscription management platform that analyses and shares data in real time. It brings all the benefits of real-time information, with zero additional effort from you and your workers.   In fact, you’ll save them time and resources.  What Real-Time Information Flow Brings to Service Workers    Subscription management software eliminates data silos so that all the information about your customers, their needs, their contracts and terms, and usage are readily available, anytime, and all the time.   It’s accurate and free from manual errors too.  This information is available to you, your sales team, customer service, finance, fleet management, and anyone else in your operations who need it.   Real-time information flow transforms how service workers operate within recurring service businesses. They get real-time access to important data, which includes usage, changes in contract terms, offerings, and service schedules, preferences, inventory/supplies, etc.   This helps them with any decision-making they’ve got along the way.   When data flows in real time across the service-related departments, service workers know where they are supposed to go, when, and for what.   Management becomes more…manageable because the free-flow of data also gives them bonuses - proactive issue resolution, predictive maintenance, and personalized customer interactions.   Workflows are nicer too, because they’re not based on errors or guesses.   Which all means…satisfied service workers with a much less stressful day-to-day schedule.   And that’s not all…   The Extra Benefits You Get    Just like the lack of data flow causes knock-on impacts for you and the greater business, so does free-flowing information.   Here’s how things turn around for the greatest business and brand beyond your happy service workers:   Your customers get an exceptional experience: Everything from fast responses to personalized services right down to the service delivery and invoicing/payments, everything’s customized end-to-end for them. That creates loyalty and cuts churn in general.   Siloes are cut down, and communication is better between all teams: Real-time data that is automatically and freely shared means that numbers are more reliable, forecasting more accurate, and reports are great foundations for strategic decisions. All people can collaborate more effectively because no one has to chase or guess anything.   Resource allocation is optimized: It won’t just be your service team that loves this free flow of information. When your scheduling is efficient, your maintenance planned, and your resources utilized in the best way, you cut costs and boost efficiency.    More revenue growth: With proactive service management and the best billing and payment processes that are automatically run for you by a good solution, revenue grows because you don’t have costly errors. Your teams aren’t throwing out expensive discounts to keep customers with later service on side. You aren’t replacing your burned out service workers. You’re not waiting for payments. And word of mouth works in your favour between customers.   Long story short, you get the competitive edge.   Conclusion  Real time information flow isn’t just a tech upgrade. It’s a necessary investment in the contentment of your service workers, and the future revenue growth of your business.   The efficiency and effectiveness of service workers will play a pivotal role in any recurring service business. They just need the tools necessary to their jobs.  Going with the right subscription management solution will solve these problems and bring so much more to the table.    Curious to see how it will work for you? Book a free Discovery Call with our team today.

Recurring services have an untapped free resource that could help them build lasting customer relationships and drive growth. The resource? Psychology. It gives insights into customer behavior which is the key to understanding how to build trust, communicate with impact, and grasp customer behavior. This article covers multiple strategies a recurring service-offering business can use to leverage psychology to better meet their customer base’s needs while enhancing customer satisfaction, retention, and a competitive edge.  In this article: What Links Understanding Customer Behavior to Success  Building Trust and Credibility: The Pillars of Customer Relationships  Starting a Referral Program Knowing the Customer Understanding what people want and why they do the things they do is the most valuable thing a business can know.   This is especially true for recurring services, which rely on long-term relationships and continual customer satisfaction.    If you are a business that offers recurring services, you know that building those long-lasting relationships with your customers drives sustained growth.   Appreciating why your customers need what they need and make the decisions that they do will be a game changer.   In this article, we’ll dip our toes into the pool of consumer psychology, and then have a look at some of the strategies that successful recurring services brands use to boost their customer relationships.   What Links Understanding Customer Behavior to Success  A successful recurring brand will put consumer behavior front and center. Consumer behavior guides a business to know things like:   what products and services they should sell  when they should sell them  what customers like and dislike  how they like to be communicated with   In essence, it shows how to make customers happy.     86% of buyers will pay more for a great CX.  -Price Waterhouse Coopers  80% of organizations expect to compete based on CX.  -Gartner   When a recurring service jumps into the world of psychology, they are better equipped to create and tailor offerings to meet the needs and demands of their target market.    Creating segments and personas that are based on demographic and psychographic data further helps by personalizing how they service and communicate with the customers. Building Trust and Credibility: The Pillars of Customer Relationships     Who wants to give their business to a company that can’t be trusted?  Trust is extremely important in the recurring services industry because brands have an ongoing purchase-involving relationship with customers.    Trust forms the bedrock of successful customer relationships.   When customers feel appreciated, listened to, and told the truth, their trust builds. And that trust is needed to keep building a customer base.  Knowing the Customer      What steps can a company take to build that trust?    Researching and acting on how and why customers do what they do has a positive impact on everything from pricing strategies to leveraging loss aversion to shaping product and service offerings.   Here are some of the most popular options:   1. Use FOMO and Social Proof to Drive Conversions Both social proof and Fear of Missing Out can boost conversions and loyalty.   Social proof capitalizes on a customer’s likelihood to look at the way others behave to influence their decisions. If a customer is uncertain about your brand or recurring service, they would find the experiences of others useful when making their own decision.   It’s why businesses put testimonials on their website and write case studies. It’s also why customers check reviews before they buy things.   Similarly, FOMO takes advantage of the fear of missing out on a rare opportunity which may never happen again. It’s an emotional trigger that can inspire a customer to act fast, especially true for the 70% of Millennials who experience it.    Everything that falls under these two factors including testimonials, reviews, timers, pop-ups for one-off flash sales, user-generated content, and endorsements on social media boost the confidence of potential customers. They also encourage action.   2. Bring in Gamification for Engagement and Retention Gamification in the User Experience makes things a lot more fun. Competition and achievement tap into the brain’s rewards systems and gives a good hit dopamine to add fun,   Their sense of accomplishment encourages engagement and keeps them coming back for more. They’re motivated to stay active, check out the different features you want to highlight, and work for set goals.   It’s a win-win situation - you expand your base and Customer Lifetime Value, and your customers associate your brand with fun.    3. Show Reciprocity in the Personalized Experience That old saying “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” is a popular phrase for a good reason.   As customers we like to know a business isn’t taking advantage of us. We need to feel appreciated and seen. This is especially important online, where so many financial interactions are faceless.   Reciprocity, or giving something in return, is a great way to meet this expectation.   There’s so much variety in how you can show reciprocity! There are personalized gestures that can be created for any individual including:   discounts  loyalty schemes  public shout-outs  Features on the website  surprise gifts  or handwritten notes  All of them can trigger a feeling of appreciation and uniqueness, which deepens your connection. Customers who feel valued will stay and continue their recurring purchases.   They’re also far more likely to tell others about it!   4. Leverage Personalized Email and Marketing Strategies  Marketing teams equipped with the customer data and insights they need to drive marketing have a huge advantage. They have the power to build relationships with all their customer segments through personalized messaging for each group and individual customer.  And what’s more, they know the best times to deliver those targeted messages, offerings, and campaigns.    76% of customers are more likely to buy from brands that use personalization.   Personalization can bring companies up to 40% more revenue.  -McKinsey  Personalized marketing brings both existing and potential customers content that is compelling, because it’s tailored for their specific situations. Whether it’s to educate, entertain, or to build relationships with the brand, customers will find it useful.   And that nurtures relationships over time, driving revenue growth and a better Customer Lifetime Value.    These are all impactful strategies that can boost your customer satisfaction and lifetime value.  But there’s a slight snag. They will take up time and resources from your teams. Unless you use a solution that does everything for you, freeing up that time and resources.  Where Help Comes From   There is a comprehensive, automated solution that boosts customer experience by using psychology-focused strategies so that you get all the benefits but need less time and resources diverted from your teams.   Imagine one platform that does everything for you. It pulls together all your legacy data, and streamlines all data trapped in silos, sharing it in real-time.   That data forms the basis of an agile knowledge bank that knows your customers, their behaviour, their needs, their segments, what your competition is doing, the best pricing models, and insights and reports that is available at any time.   On top of that, automation uses all that information for its processed actions.   Everything from:   Product offerings   Coordinating customer feedback and testimonials   Individualized pricing and add-on combinations  Determining the best offers for each customer   Marketing like email funnels designed to guide an individual customer journey Identifying the best times for a FOMO promotion   Boost transparency with clear communication about pricing, usage and maintenance, contract terms, etc.   Tracking the impact of all these actions   And so much more.   It leverages psychology for you, making your impact with your customers so much stronger. And it makes your employees so much happier, because they’re not stuck doing repetitive, time-consuming work.   Instead, they’re taking these customer insights and creating a more compelling customer experience for new and existing customers.   Conclusion   Understanding the psychology behind customers and how they interact with brands enables a recurring service provider to drive up engagement, conversion, loyalty, and long-term revenue.   It gives a strong advantage over competitors too.    Curious to see how fast you could benefit? Book a free Discovery Call with our team today.

Growth is where it’s at. But it can be elusive and hard to hold on to. It can also be expensive. This article explores three small changes that subscription-offering businesses can make to boost their CLV and long-term growth. The strategies bring bonus benefits as well including strengthened customer relationships, cut churn, payment failure prevention, and boosted word-of-mouth marketing.    In this article: Offer a Subscription Pause Option  Letting Customers Pay the Way They Want  Starting a Referral Program In business, it’s not very often that something easy to do has a big impact on something important.   And in the subscription industry, it can feel as though everything that’s necessary for growth is a massive drain on time and resources. Marketing campaigns. Product development. Demos. Onboarding. Customer service. Invoicing.   So here’s a little good news. Not everything requires months of logistical planning, consultants, and a slush fund. There are three tiny changes you can make that can have a massive impact on your revenue and growth over the long term, strengthening your market position.   Let’s get right into it!  1. Offer a Subscription Pause Option  A subscription pause option simply allows your subscribers to pause your service without cancelling the subscription. This can be for any reason - they might have other temporary priorities, money might be tight, or they may have to re-evaluate their usage and figure out which add-ons and services work better for them.   Subscription companies might feel ambivalent about a pause option because it sounds like a gateway to cancellation. It feels counter intuitive to growth.   But it has the opposite effect. You’re far more likely to keep them as long-term customers because it creates trust.    Why it Matters in the Subscription Arena:  When you give subscribers a pause option, you’re telling them you understand them. That they have differing needs and circumstances. That you would rather have them on board as satisfied customers, over raking in the monthly fee.   It also shows that you understand that they don’t want to lose their account and their data - you’re not forcing them to make the impossible choice of “we can’t keep up, so we’ll have to cancel everything.”  It’s up to you to define what a pause means and how it works:   Limited or no access to the subscription?  How long can they pause it for?  How often can they pause it?  All that is needed is a tunnel – a point of occasional contact that ensures you keep them onside throughout the pause.   The pause option boosts customer long-term satisfaction by giving them the flexibility and sense of control that they want. You might take a temporary financial hit, but you cut your churn and enjoy a much stronger relationship with your customers for the long term.   And that will pay in dividends.  2. Letting Customers Pay the Way They Want     Letting customers pay in the way that works best for them will make them happier and more likely to pay on time, every time.    There is no financial benefit to making customers jump through hoops to pay for their subscriptions. There are far too many competitors out there, who have no problem offering customers exactly what they want.   And when payments are more time-consuming to make, obstacles get in the way. Then payments are forgotten and fall through the cracks. Then you’re stuck wasting precious time chasing tons of payments. You’ll suffer revenue leakage as well.  That gets expensive if you have thousands or hundreds or thousands of subscribers.   On the other hand, accommodating preferred payment methods gets logistically difficult. Often you content with multiple billing cycles, currencies, and regulations, stretched around the world. Accommodating preferred payment methods might not look like a tiny change.   But with the right tool, making this change is easier than your current payment system currently.  Why it Matters in the Subscription Arena  It’s important to cater as much as possible to subscription customers because it’s so easy for them to leave and go straight to your competition.   In the subscription industry, there’s nothing more important than a good Customer Lifetime Value. And keeping customers with you and paying will contribute to your CLV.   Here’s how costly not providing easy payments can be for you:   How many hours a week do you spend chasing payments?  How much is your teams’ time worth, versus the size of these payments?  How much do you lose annually due to payment failures?  What’s the churn rate for customers who experience failed payments disruption?  What’s the long-term cost over 10 years?  The costs of not accommodating preferred payments can be astronomical. And that’s revenue and time loss that could have been invested or put toward innovation, development, growth, etc.  3. Starting a Referral Program     We’re all use word-of-mouth. We listen to other people’s opinions. And whether we have good or bad experiences with a subscription, we talk about it.   A referral program leverages the power of word-of-mouth by incentivising your subscribers to refer new customers to you in exchange for benefits, rewards, and discounts.    With the right benefits, happy subscribers turn into brand advocates. Given how much people trust recommendations from family and friends, that advocacy is like gold dust.   92% of consumers trust personal referrals. And people are 400% more likely to buy when referred. (Nielsen)  Referred customers have a 16% higher CLV. (Harvard Business Review)  Why it Matters in the Subscription Arena:  It’s the ultimate marketing plan that you don’t have to plan or find the right words for.   The right referral plans boost customer retention because rewards keep customers on side.   Referral programs are extremely important in the subscription space for customer acquisition. Acquisition is often one of the biggest and most expensive challenges that a subscription business has.   But when existing customers are brand advocates, they attract new subscribers for you. And those new subscribers are also far more likely to be long-term customers.   Why struggle to do something that others can do for you easily? When you leverage the customer base you already have, you broaden your base, and lower customer acquisition costs.  There’s nothing set in stone about which benefits your referral program needs to include. But the rewards should be exclusive to the referral plan only. That locks in the incentive.   Conclusion Sometimes it’s the little decisions that make all the difference.   Whether you decide to offer a pause, broaden payment options, and/or start a simple referring program you have a lot of potential to boost everything from Lifetime Value, retention, and revenue, while cutting significant costs like acquisition and leakage.   These subtle adjustments can help you as a subscription business position your brand for long-term revenue and customer base growth, and success.   If you’re curious about an all-in-one subscription management software package that implements and automates all these changes for you, why not get in touch? Book a free Discovery Call with our team today.

In recurring services, an excellent pricing strategy can bring growth and customer satisfaction. Without one, a business risks revenue, churn, and limits on growth. This article talks through what is at risk and then offers impactful actions that can be taken to improve pricing strategies. It also discusses a singular solution that can automate pricing, streamline processes, and drive profitability by giving customers the priced offerings they want and expect.    In this article: The Lack of Pricing Strategies Proven Elements of Good Pricing Strategies for Recurring Services The OOPS Reaction to Pricing Strategies  Because recurring services is an ultra-competitive industry, every clear advantage your business can get will help.   Pricing is one of the most important issues because it is often the first thing potential customers notice about you. And it’s one of the most important factors that determine whether your current customers stay.   But why do pricing strategies matter so much? And what specifically do recurring services have to gain by using the best pricing strategies for their offerings?  The Lack of Pricing Strategies When a recurring services business doesn’t have reliable pricing strategies, it risks growth, customer trust, and long-term sustainability.  The best pricing strategies are clear, competitive, and meet the collective and specific needs of the customer base.   But getting this right can be a huge drain on resources. A recurring services company may need to:  Continually solicit feedback  Conduct A/B testing  Constantly monitor market conditions and competitor offerings   Adjust to meet changing needs and circumstances  Incorporate new products and phase out obsolete ones    Alter pricing/offer combinations depending on audience demographics, location, and currency  And that’s just for starters.   Most recurring services cannot spare the resources to find and keep optimal pricing strategies. Which damages them in the short and long term.   These are some of the most common problems and their impacts:  Depleting profits: Pricing that undervalues the offering undercuts profits. Revenue potential stays untapped, which compromises growth and opportunities.  Unhappy customers: Unclear or misleading pricing strategies damage trust. Hidden charges cause a lot of dissatisfaction. And when customers are unsatisfied, they leave.   Losing to competitors: Without competitive pricing that differentiates a recurring service business from the competition, customers won’t see the offering’s value. The business will lose market share and limit their own customer acquisition. Eroding profit margins: The wrong pricing structures can miss out on incorporating taking market trends, operational costs, or competition. This can squeeze margins and raise pressure to perform on the workers to make up for the loss.   Limited growth: Bad or no pricing models do not support innovation, scalability, and market share, making long-term sustainability difficult.  These are all problems that can have far-reaching and irreversible consequences for the health of a recurring services business.   So what steps can be taken to stop them, and bring good pricing strategies into the equation?  Proven Elements of Good Pricing Strategies for Recurring Services    To be successful, the best pricing strategies require essential elements to be in place. These elements include:  Value-based pricing: This aligns the pricing with customers’ perceived value of the offering. This requires clear communication about your product/service’s uniqueness,  which problems it solves, features, and outcomes so that customers immediately see and understand the value.  Dynamic pricing: Agility in pricing is key. Market trends, demand, behavior, and competitor pricing fluctuate, so a recurring services business needs to be able to welcome constant changes in pricing that maximize sales, customer satisfaction, and profitability.  Flexibility: Flexibility allows businesses to adapt to a changing market and enables customers to respond to their changing circumstances. Expectations and needs evolve, so flexible pricing stops the churn caused by customers being forced to go to a competitor to get the price they need. Things like personalized plans and tiered packages help you cater to all your segments.   Transparency: Customers love transparency. No one likes nasty surprises on their invoice. Clear pricing plans and terms build trust and eliminate confusion. That cuts down on disputes and boosts satisfaction.  Segmentation: Leveraging data-based segmentation (based on factors like demographics, needs, and how much customers are willing to pay) is necessary for personalized pricing. The more personalized the pricing, the more likely they are to be engaged and feel appreciated because their specific goals and needs are met.   Add-on packaging: Singular and bundles of additional services, features, or perks with core offerings to create compelling value propositions for customers. Add-ons differentiate businesses and increase CLV. Pricing add-on packages that meet customer needs enhance overall customer experience and boost retention rates. Value-added pricing packages also help businesses showcase the breadth of their services and justify premium pricing levels.   The OOPS Reaction to Pricing Strategies    These proven pricing strategies sound well and good until you realize that someone’s going to have to run all these processes.   This is where a common (and costly) mistake is made: a recurring revenue business decides to bring in a pricing strategy, but then realizes they lack the means to do it.   Especially if most of your operations are still manual. You could end up in dire straits. Right back where you started. That’s the oops factor.   There’s one way to stop this from happening. Go automated.  The right automated subscription management solution will give you self-running pricing strategies which will bring all the benefits, but cost you less in time, revenue, and resources.   Automation streamlines and consolidates all the processes involved in real-time pricing strategies. It optimizes pricing based on segmentation. It tracks the market and your competitors’ offerings. It adjusts 24-7.   It keeps track of contract terms and billing and sends all this information across sales, finance, and customer service. Automated subscription management software can even spot selling opportunities at the right place and time.   It can also give your customers the option of self-service whenever and wherever they want.   And because it’s automated, it also scales as much and as fast as you want.   And as a bonus, for no additional money, you receive all the other benefits that come with an end-to-end subscription management solution, service resource allocation, automated invoicing, payments and collection, reconciliation, recognized revenue, reports and forecasts, and financial compliance.   Sounds amazing, right?  Conclusion Pricing strategies aren’t just picking numbers.   They’re your first chance to influence a potential customer’s opinion of your recurring services brand.   The best pricing strategies will drive growth and revenue. But you need the right tools to get and maintain these strategies.   Curious about how automation can help? Book a free Discovery Call with our team today.

The success of a recurring service brand can depend on a positive customer onboarding experience. This article investigates the most common obstacles of effective onboarding that lead to customer churn. It also provides best practices to enhance the onboarding. It then provides a solution that automatically integrates best practices into operations, ensuring an excellent and efficient customer onboarding experience.    In this article: Your Customer Onboarding Challenges Onboarding Best Practices Let Subscription Management Software Automate Best Practices for You Customer onboarding is important because it kickstarts a subscription experience.   It’s also the first chance a customer has to watch a recurring service in action. It sets the tone for the customer relationship.   Because recurring revenue services feel pressure to deliver smooth onboarding, knowing best practice is invaluable.   This article explores the challenges of onboarding for your recurring service business. Then we’ll talk through the best practices, and how to action them easily.  Your Customer Onboarding Challenges   Onboarding consistently can be difficult when there are so many internal and external factors that can impact your process at any time.   The average onboarding time is 20-90 days  It involves at least 10 follow-ups   The cost averages between $20,000 and $30,000.  Delays can cost revenue losses as high as $25,000.  Do any of these challenges sound familiar?   The customer wants to change the terms of the contract just before they start – Last minute changes can cause delays that push onboarding back or make it more complex.   Finance didn’t get the contract and offering terms on time - Finance teams need vital information like contract terms from sales and customer service teams as fast as possible. This helps them set up the correct invoicing and payments. If the team is stuck chasing up information, that can severely delay onboarding.   The offering, the terms, or the onboarding are unclear - If customers aren’t sure about the subscription plans, pricing, features, invoicing, and payment methods, they can get frustrated and make the wrong choices. Then Customer Service then has to spend time and potentially offer discounts to keep them onside.   There’s an error in resource allocation - Your installation team or virtual engineers can be impacted by mistakes in resource allocation. That’s more delays.   The experience isn’t personalized - A generic customer onboarding experience can make customer satisfaction take a nosedive. Recurring services is an arena where ongoing loyalty is a must, so personalization must be part of it.    Scaling puts too much pressure on the process - A sudden surge in subscriptions can overpower your end-to-end operations, and delay things indefinitely until you’re caught up.   Any delays lead to customer unhappiness. And it’s expensive too.   Fortunately, there are actions you can take to reverse these challenges. Onboarding Best Practices    There are best practices that will help you steer around onboarding problems:  Proactive Communication Channels: Proactive anything might sound tough to deliver because your resources might already be stretched to the limit. But giving customers multiple channels for support, guidance, or clarification can stop bigger problems down the road.   Try personalized emails, live chat support, tutorials available 24-7, and even a designated rep to sort out questions fast and build trust and reliability.    Interactive Onboarding Resources: Resources that are interactive and gamify the process will help customers feel more involved and invested in the process.  Video tutorials, product demos, interactive apps, or guided tours can boost customer understanding and engagement.   Continuous Feedback Loop: Customers should feel free to share their experiences, suggestions, and concerns.  Activity seeking their feedback via surveys, feedback forms, or follow-up calls/emails, gives valuable insight into their pain points so that you can adjust collectively and individually.    You also show your customers that you’re committed to improving and optimizing their experience. That’s a great way to start a relationship.   These best practices take time and resources. But what if you don’t have a lot of either?   Let Subscription Management Software Automate Best Practices for You    Subscription management software can take care of the best practices (and more!) for you with AI-driven automation.   Here’s what it does for your operations:   Automates welcome sequences: You’ll be able to set up automated welcome sequences that give your new customer what they want, when they want it. Resources, next steps, constant communication and help all ensure smooth onboarding. It saves your teams untold hours and boosts engagement.   Personalizes the customer onboarding journey: Data-driven personalization brings customer preferences, behaviors, and interactions into the onboarding experiences. The more tailored the content, notifications, recommendations, and journey, the happier the customers.  Tracks and Optimizes Onboarding Metrics: Analytics and reporting tools will track your onboarding metrics (including activation rates, time to value, and user engagement). You’ll spot bottlenecks, optimize workflows, and better-informed decisions to improve the onboarding experience. It’s a chance to constantly make things better.   Conclusion Customer onboarding sets the stage for great long-term relationships with your new customers.   That’s why it’s important to make the recurring service onboarding process as easy and enjoyable as possible. And not just for your customers; for you and your teams too.   Bringing in best practices and automating them so that nothing falls between the cracks saves time and money. It also boosts the customer experience.   Everyone wins.   Want to learn how subscription management software can change your customer onboarding experience? Book a free Discovery Call with our team today.

When done right, subscription boxes can bring customers a lot of joy. But there are a lot of things that can go wrong, jeopardizing a customer’s relationship with the brand. This article talks about how automation can sort out the biggest challenges to smooth delivery success, enhancing the customer experience and boosting revenue and brand competitiveness.   In this article: The Havoc of Missed and Late Deliveries  Technology to the Rescue  It’s All About Growth If you’re a box subscription customer, you know what it’s like to get that box on your doorstep. They’re little curated collections of goodness, just for you.   It can be like Christmas, minus the huge cost, argumentative family members, and the big mess to clean up afterward.   That’s why we as subscription customers love our boxes. They’re fun. Unless they’re late, or worse, they’re not what we expected at all.    If you’re on the other side of the subscription box, working tirelessly to source and process products, then deliver them on time, you’re caught in a logistical challenge.   Spending countless hours on spreadsheets. Chasing after suppliers. Double-checking delivery schedules. And dreading customer disappointment.  The Havoc of Missed and Late Deliveries  If you want to keep customers, you’ve got to turn their disappointment into a YES every time you have a point of contact.  Churn in the subscription box industry is high. One big cause of churn is delivery problems. No matter what the cause, you have to deal with the financial consequences.  Technology to the Rescue    Fortunately, you can turn things around, easily. You just need the right tool. And that’s automation. It’s like having an invisible assistant who doesn’t need to take a break or ever go home.   Automation does all the stuff you hate to do including managing orders, tracking shipments, and updating customers. Specifically, it brings your business advantages like:   Fulfillment thanks to a comprehensive inventory management system Great inventory management runs end-to-end, from suppliers to fulfillment.   The best solutions offer real-time visibility into your stock levels, supplier lead times, and customer demand patterns. It can anticipate shortages and adjust if stock levels don’t meet demand. It can adjust product selections (even when customers make last-minute changes) and it ensures that every box is packed with the right goods and shipped on schedule.  Customer knowledge driven by AI-driven analytics  Analytics transform data into actionable insights. The right system looks at your customers’ behavior, purchase history, trends, and seasonality to accurately predict future preferences.  With this foresight, you can customize how customers experience your website. And you can offer personalized product selections and pricing. Subscribers love a personalized experience - it matters when a business offers things that they love!   Streamlined operations and cut costs  Automation handles the worst, time-consuming, soul-sapping repetitive tasks easily:  Sorting customer inquiries  Managing subscriptions   Creating sales opportunities including add-ons and upgrades  Invoicing and payments   Optimizing delivery routes  Not only does that save you time and money, but you’ll be free to focus on high-value work like development and strategy.    Less stress thanks to real-time tracking Customers love to know where their packages are. Real-time tracking means customers don’t have to worry about the whereabouts of their packages.    And you’re spared the avalanche of worried messages and frustrated queries that come from uncertain customers.   Clarity in recognizing revenue   Automation makes revenue recognition an easy ask.   All your revenues and expenses will be accurately allocated to the right periods, even if customers change their subscriptions. And you get real-time visibility into financial health whenever you need it.    Less risk thanks to compliance   Compliance isn’t just about revenue recognition. Automation brings you certainty about rules regarding consumer protection, data privacy, and selling across different regions and countries because it monitors everything relevant.   The worry about fines, legal challenges, and reputational damage due to non-compliance becomes a thing of the past.   You get the competitive advantage Automation brings your customers their subscription boxes on time. And it gives your business a leg up over your competitors who still do things manually.   It’s All About Growth  When you get the tools you need for delivery schedule management (and box subscription management in general) you give your business so much potential.   Don’t put your business at risk by doing it manually. Be compliant. Recognize your revenue. Give your customers transparency. Streamline your operations.    And reignite each customer’s love for your products every time that package arrives on their doorstep filled with what they want and on time. Give them the YES! Factor.  Curious about how this could work for you? Book a free Discovery Call with our team today.