Gaining new customers, but struggling to keep them? High customer retention is an aspiration of any business, yet gaining loyal customers isn’t an easy task.
Higher customer retention is one of the greatest benefits of offering subscriptions- throughout the pandemic not only did 37% of British adults sign up to at least one new subscription, but 75% of these customers intend to continue with their subscriptions as the world comes out of lockdown. Customer loyalty in the subscription economy is booming, despite the amount of fast-paced change in the rest of the world.
Still not convinced? Read on to learn more on how offering subscriptions helps you captivate loyal customers.
Selling your offerings DTC (direct-to-consumer) allows you to take advantage of tracking key customer metrics, such as buying behaviour. With full control over your customers' buying journey, you can monitor exactly where customers click off and how many people don’t make it to the checkout stage. This information allows your business to identify which parts of the sales journey (e.g. which page on your website) appeals the least to customers. As a result, you can fine-tune your offerings and the sales process to best fit your customers’ wants and needs.
With subscriptions, you can gain even more valuable customer insights. The range of customizable options that come with offering subscriptions gives you further information surrounding exactly what it is that your customers are looking for, and what part of your offering is seen as most valuable. If and when customers choose to upgrade or downgrade their subscriptions also gives you feedback not only on the limits set for your subscription offerings, but also the pricing. For one-off purchases customers make only one decision (whether to buy or not), but with subscriptions, you get to view and analyze all of the smaller decisions made before and after purchasing, such as subscription length, subscription ‘tier’, and level of extra customization. With this wide range of customer insights, subscription businesses can better target the needs and wants of their customers, helping themselves gain more loyal customers from the start.
Consistent and predictable revenue is key for the growth of your business. That revenue can be used to fuel sales and marketing efforts, that in return will help you increase your customer base even further. Applying what you have learned from analyzing your subscribers will allow you to understand your customers and market fit better, hence generating higher quality leads from those sales and marketing efforts. This translates to lower customer acquisition costs, and higher lifetime customer values. Win- win!
The key to a high quality customer experience is customization, and with subscriptions, customization is second nature. When offering subscriptions your customers have the options to upgrade or downgrade their chosen plan, add on one-off purchases, or revise their subscription choice at any point. With this advanced level of flexibility customers are always being catered to, so they are less likely to cancel their subscription plan and search for alternatives. A one-size fits all approach won’t meet all of your customers needs, so staying flexible with subscriptions is a great way to tackle the ever-changing demands of customers.
Subscriptions also help achieve high customer retention as they leave room for additional customer benefits. The customer experience can be enhanced with subscriptions by offering customizable plans, coupons for those with high levels of loyalty to your business, and much more. With these extra touches customers feel not only looked after, but truly valued.
A flexible billing and subscription management platform is an essential partner in your subscription journey. Setting up subscriptions the right way is important, and so your business needs to have a reliable subscription management software to help you during the process. Billforward allows you to customize your subscriptions in order to fulfil your customers’ needs, and offers a range of features and integrations to aid you as your business grows and evolves over time.
Why not book a discovery call with one of our billing experts and see how we can help you meet your subscription goals!