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Cats are just like subscription customers. Don’t get us wrong- we love them just as they are. But sometimes it’s hard to figure out what they want. It’s not their fault, they’re just being themselves. Let’s look at the cats, so you can see what we mean. Meeting a cat’s needs is on us. It’s our responsibility because we look after them. Sometimes we guess and by some miracle get it right. But sometimes we’re standing there with their favourite fishing pole with the little feather on the end shaking it like fools because this is the same pole they’ve been obsessed with for 27 days in a row and yet…they flick their tails and saunter off in the opposite direction. We’ll shout “What does that meow mean? You love this toy! You destroyed the last one you liked it so much. Gahhh!” But then they leave the room. And you’re even more confused. And they don’t come back till you’ve forgotten about the whole thing and you’re trying to work on your laptop and they sit on your hands pay attention to me pay attention to meeeee. Feed me now. No wait! Scratch my belly. Don’t touch me!!! Now imagine there was a magic wand that transformed us into cat whisperers. Where we suddenly knew exactly what our cats wanted and when they wanted it. Now imagine an even better upgrade- what if that wand could not only anticipate and identify the cat’s needs, but also fulfil the needs itself? It would be amazing, right? Subscription Management Software as the Magic Wand Here’s why subscription customers are like cats. We don’t always get it right with them. They have needs and wants, and sometimes it’s hard to figure out what they might be. And when we fail, they leave. And this churn is one of the biggest, costliest problems in the industry. What’s needed is something that turns customer retention into something easy. That's where cutting-edge subscription management software comes in. It's like the magic wand we never knew we needed. It can do everything our magic cat wand could do and more for our subscription customers. Subscription management software makes us a customer whisperer. Which will reduce your churn. Here’s how it works: First, it identifies what subscription customers need and creates an effective, tailored strategy to convert them. That means it zeros in on opportunities and creates the strategy to renew and upsell and cross-sell new subscriptions, using tailored incentives and discounts that make conversion possible. In other words, they enjoy a fully personalised experience. The customer gets what they’re looking for, often before they realise they want it. They'll feel seen, heard, and valued, which will keep them coming back for more. Second, it coordinates automatic payment collection using the manner of payment that the customer prefers. Customers have very clear preferences for payment methods. Now you won’t have to worry about churn because now you’re not stuck with one type of payment method. Third, it handles all the logistics that come with subscription management and changes in subscriptions. That means everything is sorted - recognized revenue, all upselling, cross-selling, and any changes are looked after. No more human error, no more trying to keep up. That means no uncomfortable conversations with customers because something went wrong during the change. Last- are you ready for this because it’s the piece de resistance - it automates the whole thing, so that all these processes are done for you. Subscription management system? Check. Decreased subscription churn rate? Double-check. Sanity and time restored? Massive big check. You get to sit back, all fancy with your customer retention because you’re the customer whisperer, and you can finally get back to doing what you do best - selling. With subscription management software, we can finally crack the code and keep our customers happy. We can offer them personalized experiences, take care of payments and billing, and even anticipate their needs before they realize it themselves. That’s the secret formula for retention. It's like we finally have a translator for our customers' "meows" and can cater to their every whim. So let's embrace our inner cat whisperer and reduce churn in the subscription business. Who knows, maybe we'll even get a satisfied purr or two from our customers along the way. Though, we’re not scratching anyone’s belly. Curious? Get in touch.

We’re going to say something that’s absolutely shocking.   Subscription billing managers love to have their time wasted. They love to lose cash and revenue opportunities. They love to drown in paperwork and crappy analogue processes.  Of course, they don’t love all that!  But if you look at the outdated, underwhelming subscription management processes they’ve been forced to use, it certainly looks that way. And if you’re in subscription billing management and have little support for the end-to-end, you’re probably nodding your head. The struggle is real. In fact, you’ve probably been researching solutions that can stop your struggle and revolutionise the way your subscription billing management is done. The sooner you can free yourself or your team from time wasting and churn, the sooner you can use your talents to do what you do best. Sell. Innovate. Future-proof the business. So here are 5 essential features you’ll find in the best subscription billing management software:   1. Suffer with manually generating invoices, missed payments, late fees? Automated billing lets you set up recurring payments and forget about it. No more missed payments or late fees! Your customers will no longer have to manually pay. You won’t have to remember changes in billing.   2. Lack flexible payment options that cause customer churn or late payments? Customers vary on how they like to pay. You need software that offers flexible payment options, so you can cater to all your customers' preferences.   3. Hate spending time chasing missing payments? This task’s about as fun as eating the old french fries under your car seat. Dunning management automates the process of following up with customers who have missed payments. No more awkward phone calls.   4. Are you tired of making uninformed decisions because you have no insight into subscriptions? With the right analytics and reporting features you’ll know how many subscriptions you have at any time. And the average customer lifetime value.  Solid data means solid decisions.   5. Sick to death of soul-sucking manual data entry, errors, and incompatible software? A good integration feature works with your existing tools and systems including your accounting software, CRM, and payment gateways. That means time is saved and errors are gone.   The right features make life easier. When you decide to take the plunge, you’ll have options. And one of them is our subscription management solution - leading-edge and innovation award-winning software. LISA Business automates your subscription management and grows recurring revenue – all running on top of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Our clients enjoy a revolutionised and demonstrable improvement in operational efficiency, visibility into revenue, and profitability. But we offer more than that. We offer our belief that it’s important to be the kind of people that people want to work with. Because what’s the point otherwise? We love collaboration with a huge variety of people. And we would love to see the end of your stressful days and nights. The end to your wasted time and money. And we’d love to see you enjoy happy customers and the freedom to do what you do best - grow your business. Why not drop us a line and see how we can help?

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How Bad Operations Make Progress Impossible   No one wants to fight a losing battle.   Or even worse, an invisible one.   As a subscription business owner, you have a million things to worry about. Attracting and keeping new customers. Knowing exactly what they want. Scaling when necessary. Keeping up with the competition. And innovating and future-proofing your business.   That’s a lot to handle all at once.   That’s why there's one aspect of your business that you can't afford to ignore: operations.   Disintegrating operations can be stealthy.   You often don’t notice that things get worse because it’s a little bit here, a little off there. Often everyone struggles to keep up with their own part of the process and aren’t sharing where the struggles are. They’re too busy putting out fires and doing damage control.   This is the silent killer of subscription success, and it's time to understand the impact it can have on your business.  Operations are the backbone of any subscription business model because of the absolute accuracy required in subscription management. Subscription operations must deliver the product or service to customers, manage customer relationships, and maintain the infrastructure that supports the business.     But poor operations? That’s lost customers. Decreased profits. And a damaged reputation that takes a long time to recover (if it ever does).    Complexity   One of the biggest challenges of operations management in a subscription business is the sheer complexity of all the processes involved.   You know as a subscription business decision-maker, that every single task has a domino effect on other tasks. So getting everything right the first time is essential.    For example, imagine that you run a retail subscription box service. You have thousands of customers who receive a monthly shipment of products. There might come a point where the operations team can't handle the volume of orders – or, even worse, they run out of stock.  It’s not their fault - they try but simply don’t have the resources to keep up.   Ever run down a hill and it’s fine at first, but then a few steps in you realise it’s much steeper than you thought? Uh-oh. But you keep going, faster, going even faster, and then eventually, suddenly, you hit that awful point where you know you can’t keep up anymore? That’s when you fall and break something (unless you’re very lucky).    Except in subscription management, trouble arrives more subtly. At least at first.   However little by little, things start going wrong. A customer might have the wrong subscription. Or deadlines might not be met. Perhaps there’s one, then two, then twenty invoicing errors. Manual recognised revenue becomes a mess.   Only then is it clear what you’re dealing with.   You get in trouble, you have to evaluate: Is it worth getting into trouble again? - Robert Iler   If your operations can’t cope with customer expectations, you will end up losing them, resulting in a damaged reputation and lost revenue. The Solution   The solution to these challenges is simple. It’s our LISA solutions for ERP, built on industry-proven, global-scale ERPs from Microsoft - Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, and Dynamics 365 Business Central.   LISA Business and BusinessPro streamline operations, improve efficiency, and increase profitability. Here are some of the benefits of ERP operations that will end that stealth damage:    Improved customer service. With LISA, you can manage customer inquiries and billing in one centralized location so that reps can access the information they need improve response time and make customers happy.   Common operational headaches ended. For example, LISA can automate the billing process and all the respective complicated IFRS 15 and ASC 606 financial transactions, reducing the risk of errors and ensuring that customers are billed accurately and on time.   Product management. LISA can also help businesses manage their products and track their fulfilment process, so they never miss opportunities or deadlines.   Increased visibility into the operations. With LISA, you can access real-time data on your business operations, including sales, customer service, and inventory levels. This means you can make informed business decisions and improve operations.  There’s no denying that operations are a critical component of subscription success.   Ignoring them can have serious consequences.   But you don’t have to keep up the struggle any longer. You don’t have to suffer nasty surprises that will be much more expensive to fix.   Implementing LISA BusinessPro or LISA Business will improve the management of your subscription processes, streamline operations, improve customer service, and increase profitability. It’s the smooth path to success.   Don't let the silent killer of subscription success destroy your business. Take control of your operations today with LISA. 

Scale Your Subscription Business AND Keep Your Money     Dream about More Growth and Less Overhead at the same time?   Is there any point in scaling your subscription business if you have to continually hire more people to manage it?   Probably not.   But it’s not as though you’re going to turn down growth, right?  Of course, you want to scale your subscription business.   You want your name on the map.   You want to future-proof your brand.   This means you’ve got a problem- subscription management while you are scaling is an intensive process. All these issues have to be optimal, and they have to keep ticking 24-7:   Offering customised pricing options to fit your business needs  Maximising sales potential through strategic cross-selling and upselling while providing transparent invoices and renewals  Ensuring financial compliance for peace of mind  Prioritising customer satisfaction and retention with exceptional service  Navigating the complex subscription landscape and cultivating valuable partnerships  Implementing price adjustments and indexing to reflect market trends  Streamlining the transition from outdated plans to new ones  Seamless system integration for a cohesive sales, finance, and customer service experience  That’s a tall order.   And the more transactions your business handles, the stronger the temptation to hire as many people as you can to keep up.   And that can result in overheads that bite into any potential profits that scaling your subscription business can bring.   So if you want to master the challenges of scaling, keeping subscriptions ticking over, and avoiding hiring any extra people, where do you begin?    #1 – Build transparent and clear pricing models  Your pricing model can make or break your subscription business.  It's not just about setting the right price. You’ve got to provide simple and specially-tailored discounts, upsells, cross-sells, and trials that entice your customers to subscribe. And they have to be offered at the best time in a way that encourages conversion. However, commercial flexibility can lead to inefficiency. Because all these offers for different customers are like plates you need to keep spinning in the air. You don’t want them to crash. We see too many companies limit their offerings because it’s just too difficult to keep up. So create a strong pricing model and implement it in a structured business application and customer portal to ensure transparency and accuracy. It can be hard work for your teams initially, but by sticking to your pricing model, you'll create trust with your customers. #2 – Walk a mile in the shoes of your customers and team members  In an ideal world, a subscription would be a "forever transaction" that runs on a strong relationship between your teams and your customers. And customer service is at the heart of this. But it must go beyond getting on the phone with them when they have a problem. It's about creating a balance between customer satisfaction and how much of an investment in time and resources you need for your team to keep customers happy.  This means you’ll need to figure out the best way to communicate with your customers. And it varies- a high-volume subscription with low prices at scale requires a different approach than a low-volume, high-value subscription. By building an omnichannel customer service approach, you can plan workloads and provide a personal touch at the same time. And if your customers have multiple ways to communicate with you, you’ll be able to funnel requests into a case workload and use smart elements to route cases to agents. This helps you gain more customers and keep control of your service level. #3 – Automate your subscription lifecycle Once subscriptions are in place, there’s a huge number of processes and actions that have to be (if we’re being honest) endlessly repeated.  And this not only drains you and your teams of time but opens up the possibility of mistakes that can cost you money and your reputation. No one wants to be stuck in repetition limbo and no one wants to be on awkward phone calls with angry customers. And what’s worse, when you’re scaling your subscription business but still hand-cranking the operation, you and your team don’t have the time to do what you’re good at - sales. Innovation. Future-proofing the business and expanding brand reach. And then you’re stuck with that temptation of destroying your profits by paying new people to try to keep up with everything. But this can be solved with one thing - automation.  Automating these tasks is essential to keeping your finance team focused and efficient. You'll save time and resources by automatically generating billing, revenue recognition, security deposit requests, purchase order lines, and cost recognition. Automating your renewal approval, price uplifting, and monitoring entitlements will also help you scale your subscription business faster and more efficiently. And because the end-to-end is automated, you won’t have to spend your time and money hiring an endless line of new employees to continue those old manual processes. Because our solution is perfect at scaling with the growth of your subscription business. You’ll always get what you need when you need it. By investing in subscription lifecycle automation, you'll build a foundation for growth and success. Mastering subscription challenges requires heart and dedication, but with the right approach, you can scale your subscription business with confidence. And you won’t have to increase your human resources overheads to do so.  Why struggle with challenges when you no longer have to?   Keep your money!   

Is your CAC too high?   Over the last number of years we have experienced a major leap forward for technology advances. On the business application side new digital selling tools have become available, so you can design digital lead-to-customer journeys, using inbound and outbound marketing activities. We have now reached a point where the availability of technology has become so immense, it is hard for companies to understand and implement the right solutions for them.   These days, business applications have become a lot smarter.   Business applications and technology do contribute to a better and smoother running sales and marketing process, but without getting the users and people involved engaged and ramped up, they will fail. Before we focus on digital sales and marketing applications and technologies, we need to define why we are even implementing these. In our journey providing applications and technology to subscription-oriented businesses, a key driver for transformation is customer acquisition costs (CAC). A quick search on Wikipedia gives us the following clarification: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the cost of winning a customer to purchase a product or service. As an important economic unit, customer acquisition costs are often related to customer lifetime value (CLV). CAC is an important metric to manage a subscription driven business, as it is not always certain what a customer’s lifetime span will be. The higher your CAC, the more lifetime run-rate of subscriptions are needed to absorb CAC.   Understanding your CAC   It does not matter if you are a B2B or B2C subscription business, or if you sell software, products, or services. You must get to grips with the costs related to acquisition of new customers. Let’s get down to the details. #1 — Continuously improve your sales and marketing business capability Subscription sales and marketing is not fundamentally different, but it does require you to understand customer relationships based over a longer period. That means we need to stay in touch with customers and not allow them to disappear from the sales radar, once the first deal is signed up. Creating a lasting relationship is critical. Making big shifts is risky, so building a continuous improvement roadmap is a better, more controlled way forward, resulting in reduced CAC and ultimately getting more customers through the door. #2 — Use your business data, all of it These days, business applications have become a lot smarter. It has never been easier to connect applications and mesh data into meaningful insights. With AI, we can interpret data and push out insight. Is this customer green or red? If red, what are the recommended actions? But without getting into a tech-overload discussion, how can such a level of business data usage be achieved? Here’s some directions: Select CRM and Customer Service solutions that integrate your communication channels to your customers. Automatically link emails and calendars to customer accounts and have all data from there linked to your customer account. Make sure you deploy intelligent AI services that can create insight, such as lead and opportunity scoring, and relationship health based on email content. Focus on time spent per lead or opportunity and benchmark the data. Setup continuous workshops and sessions with sales and marketing teams and create understanding and awareness about how these applications and technology can make their day better and more effective. Facilitate application and data management. Often businesses think that this is all done by a tech partner, but the results are best if data ownership and management is performed as part of operations, in-house.

Why are your customers taking a hike?   In recent years we have seen a massive move forward in terms of digital transformation. For many customers in both the B2C and B2B space this has led to higher levels of digital interaction. For example, customers can access apps, social media, commerce sites or portals that help them to get things done with the company they are dealing with. How can this help stop your customers taking a hike? Your world is about delivering a recurring offer for the long term, ensuring your customers stay in love with your offering.   Connecting your subscription model to your customers’ needs   It does not matter if you are a B2B or B2C subscription business, or if you sell software, products, or services. Your world is about delivering a recurring offer for the long term, ensuring your customer loves your offering. Let’s get down to the details.   Managing your subscription master data Being able to define your subscription offering into clear and understandable master data is crucial. As a subscription provider you must be able to define the following data elements:   #1 — Definition of a subscription product To define a product means to set up a clear identification of the subscription product. It requires a name, description, variants, and a definition of how the subscription is consumed or bundled. #2 — Clear pricing model reflecting the value of the subscription product Customers need to understand your subscription pricing and what they are going to get. Being transparent is key. Customers must be able to calculate and understand pricing on their own, unless your model is more intricate. Build models, like gold, silver and bronze plans with attached pricing and entitlements. Allow customers to choose. When your sales team offers a price, or when customers review pricing online, simplicity is key. #3 — Terms and conditions for the subscription product Subscription is about defining what the customer is going to get, often called entitlements, and when they can consume these entitlements. Definition of terms and conditions is important. Can customers who have bought a yearly subscription cancel mid-way? What if they upgrade to a new plan or offering, what happens to the payment and changes to the subscription model? All possible real-life situations should be captured as terms and conditions, and made clear during the buying process. #4 — Financial and compliance aspects Once the aspects above are all defined, the financial ramifications and compliance aspects must be assessed. Can we deal with the right financial postings? Are we compliant with, for example, IFRS 15 or ASC 606? Once subscriptions are rolling, financial postings, VAT or Sales Tax and other aspects, like revenue recognition, must be defined and automated. #5 — Operational and supply terms and conditions Lastly, once finance and sales are set, we need to deliver our performance obligations. This operations aspect is critical for the customer experience. Your ability as a subscription provider to slam dunk services delivery, ship your product or supply licences must connect to the customer experience at the moment of buying. Failure to do so leads to an increase in churn and a decrease in customer satisfaction.

Are you still struggling with customer churn?   You have created a subscription offering, and you’re running your business and encounter a lot of churn. What’s happening? As Bill Gates once said “Your unhappy customers are the best source of learning”.   The challenge is to keep your subscription offering fresh, resulting in lifetime customers. It is unlikely all your customers stay onboard forever, but in this article, we outline strategies to keep churn to a minimum. Create excitement and interaction and continue the relationship your customers are used to.   #1 — Customer chemistry Customers like to be treated with royal service. Ensuring you offer adequate and prompt service along the customer journey is paramount. Every part of your customer support services needs to be running effectively: from responding to questions and taking calls to delivering product and scheduling services. Welcoming, efficient, and caring are the adjectives to keep in mind; create a list of best practices and train your employees extensively. Use easy to run customer service apps to allow self-services and drive initiative-taking responses to outstanding queries. These aspects will ensure that your customer satisfaction stabilises based on great customer chemistry. #2 — Listen to your employees and customers Loyal customers grow a business faster than sales or marketing. If we never ask for customer feedback, we'll never understand what drives customer satisfaction. If we don't know what drives satisfied customers, it will be impossible to create customer loyalty. The same counts for your employees that collaborate daily with your customers. Developing a feedback loop,and gathering feedback in the moment of need is crucial to drive business improvements and innovation initiatives. Tactically, it is also a rather easy step to take, here are some ways to get going: Use a tool to send out relevant and in-the-moment surveys using NPS style feedback questions. Microsoft Forms is an example of an easy tool to trigger a survey, for example after billing the customer for their subscription. Setup customer meetings in a defined frequency and listen to their input and feedback, document where needed and act promptly on any items pending. Run frequent debriefing or retrospectives with your teams and capture what went well and what did not go well. #3 — Stay in touch with customer teams Every customer interaction is a people business. Knowing your customer’s teams and staying in the loop is a wonderful way to ensure you are on top of your subscription services and how the people at the end perceive your performance. When teams or people dynamics change for the customer, help new people onboard and ensure they see the value of your subscription services. Explain what has been achieved and what is on the roadmap in the next months to come. Create excitement and interaction and continue the relationship your customers are used to. #4 — Be transparent about any shortcomings Your subscription is not perfect. Customers might figure out elements of your subscription service that are not meeting their requirements. No worries, it happens to the best of us. Dealing with shortcomings is part of the job. Here’s a few ways to deal with it: Schedule a meeting addressing the issue(s) with the customer and stakeholders Learn and understand the issues at hand and ask questions to get deep insights into what your customer is expecting from your subscription and service Decide an action plan quickly and stay in communication on every item of the plan Decide if you can resolve the shortcoming or not. In case you cannot overcome it, explain why, and figure out if your service or product is still bringing enough business value for the price paid If your customer perceived the value to be too low to continue, formally close the relationship in a friendly manner.