#churn formula

[recurly]

5 Underrated Features Your Subscription Management Platform Should Have

You’ve started your subscription-based business, and you’re ready to accelerate your growth with a management and billing platform. But where do you begin? While there are many different markets in the world of recurring payments, there are some universal features that can help upgrade almost any type of subscription you plan to offer. The obvious ones include the ability to change pricing models and reliable payment options. However, there are also some underrated features to be on the lookout for, and they might be able to transform your entire business. Here are five elements that could fly under your radar but your subscription management platform should offer.

Keep Involuntary Churn Low with an Automatic Card Updater Involuntary “churn”—the number of subscribers lost to card declines and expirations—can slow down growth. With an automatic card updater, you don’t have to worry about involuntary churn. Instead, your subscription management platform can do the work for you. Look for an automatic account updater that works with the major card companies to track changes made to payment methods. This helps keep a subscriber’s account information up to date and cuts down on the rate of involuntary churn your business faces. Look for a Platform that Makes Coupons Easy Offering discounts to customers sometimes gets forgotten in the world of recurring billing. After all, the main draw of subscriptions is a steady and predictable revenue source. It is still important to let your subscribers know that you care and use a management platform that enables you to send out coupon codes and implement discounts. Offer coupons for one-time purchases outside of a customer’s subscription or offer potential new subscribers codes for a free trial of your service. There are so many creative ways you can use a feature like this. Find a Service that Offers Customizable Communications It is essential to add a personal touch to your subscription. Turn simple communication aspects like email alerts into an opportunity for connection with customizable content. Instead of a robotic block of text, your subscriber will get to read a message you crafted. This personal connection is too often overlooked. With the right subscription management platform, you can customize notifications to your subscriber base, helping bring you closer to your customers. Don’t Forget an Analytics Dashboard Sometimes, you don’t know you need data until you want to use it. The bigger your business gets, the more you wish you had an organized place for all the data you need to make crucial decisions. An analytics dashboard is the perfect solution. Browse all the essential stats, churn numbers, revenue, and results to get a clear picture of how your business is doing. It isn’t the flashiest feature but is one you will definitely want. Protect Your Customers and Your Business with Fraud Detection Services Fraud detection benefits both your customers and your business. You’ve built your business on serving your subscriber base, and you can take that to the next level with built-in fraud detection. Partner with a subscription management platform that offers fraud-fighting capabilities by choosing a third party with experience in the industry, offering you and your customers peace of mind. Make sure to keep this feature high on your wish list, so you can rest easy knowing your customers are protected. About Recurly Are you ready to take your subscription-based business to the next level? It’s time to partner with Recurly. Subscription services have become a mainstay in nearly every market, and Recurly can help you keep up with the ever-changing world of recurring billing. Their subscription management and billing platform offers the tools you need to successfully implement and manage subscription services for your business. With over 40 million subscriptions under their belt, Recurly knows what it takes to succeed in the recurring billing industry. Their host of tools, services, and analytics can help fuel growth for your business and improve the results of your churn calculation. From testing alternate pricing models to incorporating payment gateway integrations in multiple currencies, Recurly makes it easier to build a thriving subscription-based business. When you’re ready to take the next step for your company, Recurly can help. See what features Recurly can help your subscription business integrate at https://recurly.com/ Original Source: https://bit.ly/3wrhjjP

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How to Create a Smooth Subscription Sign-Up Process

Congratulations! You have a new customer who is ready to sign up for a subscription. The next step in their journey is providing all the information you need to get their subscription up and running. From pricing tiers and custom plans to name, address, and payment details, the sign-up process can often feel time-consuming and sometimes confusing. You don’t want to lose your new customer at this stage, so you must create a smooth sign-up process. Your recurring billing model means it’s important to maintain a positive relationship with your subscribers, and signing up for a subscription is the first step in developing that connection. Here are four tips for creating a smooth sign-up flow for your new customers.

Keep a Progress Bar at the Top of Each Page This may seem simple, but it is a feature that can instantly help build the relationship between your business and a new subscriber. A progress bar that shows how far along the customer is in the sign-up process and how far they have left to go is an easy way to show that your business values transparency. A seemingly endless flow of forms, on the other hand, can be frustrating. With a simple progress bar, subscribers can know what to expect, and their experience can be that much less stressful. Only Require Essential Information in the Initial Form You don’t want to overwhelm your new subscriber by asking for information that isn’t relevant to their purchase. They might get scared away if you try to have them answer too many different questions and fill out unnecessary forms. Take a curated, online news subscription service, for example. They might want to ask new customers about their interest to recommend relevant articles on topics that each individual customer has expressed interest in. Or, they could ask new customers to fill out a survey about other news outlets they have enjoyed to get an understanding of their customer base. But are these questions essential during the sign-up process? Perhaps, they could be better left for a follow-up email. It’s all about determining what information is essential to begin their subscription. Make Sure the Screen Is Clear of Extra Information You want to make sure your sign-up forms are as simple as possible. Partner with a subscription management and billing platform that allows you to integrate visually pleasing forms that are easy to understand. Banners, upsells, and extra links are better left for other pages. Not only does a simple form of necessary information make the process easier on the customer, but it also helps avoid any mistakes. It can be easy to input the wrong address or phone number during a long or tedious sign-up process. Make it easy to stay on track with a focused design. Don’t Be Afraid to Have a Little Fun Once you have implemented these first three tips, you can experiment with fun and light-hearted additions that make your sign-up process unique. You might include a pun about your business on the confirmation page. Or you can make the address examples be for entirely fictional places. You can have doodles on your progress bar to represent your customer. There are so many unique ways to stand out, even after simplifying the subscription process. Most importantly, keep each step simple and straightforward, but don’t be afraid to sprinkle in a bit of humor here and there. About Recurly When you want to take the next step in growing your subscription-based business, choose Recurly. Subscription services have exploded in popularity over the past few years, and Recurly can help you manage every step of the recurring billing process. Their subscription management and billing platform has been a leader in the industry for over a decade. They have helped manage over 40 million subscriptions and can provide that same expertise and service for you. With Recurly, you gain access to a range of smart tools and data-driven insights that can help you scale and increase lifetime value for each customer. Whether you want to run a churn calculation or implement a new pricing model, discover how Recurly can help you achieve success in the world of subscriptions. Build a smooth sign-up process with the help of Recurly at https://recurly.com/ Original Source: https://bit.ly/36pNGoO

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3 Mistakes to Avoid with New Subscribers to Help Increase Retention

If your company wants to craft a subscriber experience that helps you create “forever customers,” every new subscriber’s first impression is incredibly important. When a new customer subscribes to your business, it is essential that their initial interaction with your company makes them want to stick around as an engaged subscriber. A comprehensive subscription management and billing platform can help you make a great introduction. After all, first impressions are everything. With that said, there are a few mistakes you’ll want to keep in mind to avoid making the wrong impression on new subscribers. Steer clear of these three mistakes to cultivate a positive subscriber journey.

Lacking a User-Friendly Onboarding Process No matter what industry you are in, you need a user-friendly onboarding process for new subscribers. It’s never too early to help customers understand the ins and outs of their new subscription. Your welcome email is a great place to include a step-by-step process with all the details they need to set up their account. You can also have an FAQ section full of questions previous subscribers have asked. This ensures new subscribers can get oriented to their new subscription smoothly. Say you have a pet food subscription business. The welcome email can inform new subscribers how they can choose the food they want, how often it is delivered, and how much food is included. It’s also a good idea to give new customers instructions on how to change all these details by updating their preferences when they need to do so. A detailed, user-friendly onboarding process can help you ensure new subscribers won’t feel lost or frustrated during their first interaction with your company. No Immediate Value for New Subscribers Alongside your subscription, you should add extra value for your subscribers while they wait to receive their product. This value will make them even more grateful they subscribed and give them a good opinion of your service right away. A lack of value leads to high “churn rates” or the rate of canceled subscriptions. Provide immediate value, and your churn calculation will likely show that you are keeping a good number of subscribers. Take the pet food subscription example again—there are a few good ways to offer new subscribers immediate value. When they start their subscription, you can send them a coupon for 25% off a pet toy purchase. You could also send them a small eBook on the basics of pet nutrition and what to feed their furry friends for a healthy life. These extra incentives provide additional value on top of the pet food the customer will soon receive. Instead of the subscription benefits starting when the product arrives, they begin immediately. They Need Easy Access to Customer Service and Personalization Options Making it easy to contact your customer service department is a great way to build trust between your company and new subscribers. They will appreciate being heard and having quick access to help when they need it. The faster you address their concerns, the more satisfied they will be with their experience. As well as customer service access, customers want easy access to personalization options for their profile. They might want to adjust their email preferences or change the name on their account. Make all these logistical tasks as easy as possible. A simple link in the first email can make it easy for new subscribers to quickly find what they need. About Recurly Recurly is ready to help you take your subscription-based business to the next level. From box of the month clubs to pet food subscriptions, businesses in every industry are implementing recurring billing strategies. Recurly has been a leader in the subscription industry for over a decade, helping to manage over 40 million subscriptions. Their billing platform can help your business thrive with a range of smart tools to help implement solutions, scale globally, and increase your customer’s lifetime value. Your subscription-based business might face challenges, but Recurly can help you overcome them. From iterating new pricing models to solving problems based on the results of your churn rate formula, Recurly strives to offer continued support throughout your subscription journey. Make Recurly your top choice for helping your company find success in the modern business landscape. Avoid common mistakes and grow your subscription-based business with Recurly at https://recurly.com/ Original Source: https://bit.ly/3HPTTrK

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Why a Personal Touch Helps Create Loyalty in Your Subscriber Base

Loyalty is crucial in any subscription-based business. The world of recurring billing is focused on keeping and retaining loyal customers. Subscribers who connect with your business in a meaningful way are less likely to let cards expire and subscription renewals fail. Loyalty also translates to higher customer lifetime value. But how do you build this loyalty? By following these three steps, you can help create loyal customers and increase the lifetime value of your subscription plans.

Create an Onboarding Plan to Start on the Right Foot Onboarding is your first step to delivering the value you promised before your subscriber hit purchase. It’s your first and best tactic to drive repeat purchase—onboarding has the highest correlation to retention and it’s all about driving engagement. Say you’re a gym and you succeed when your customers see results, keeping them returning to the gym and renewing every month. Your onboarding journey may consist of a welcome email, a survey to understand their goals, and then relevant workouts sent weekly to help them reach those goals. Going a step further, and to drive potential upsells via your onboarding journey you offer weekly 1:1 coaching sessions as part of an add on or an elite plan. This part of Subscription management, creating segmented offers and upsell paths, should start from day one. Following this type of approach you’re consistently delivering value, ultimately retaining that customer for longer and potentially increasing LTV by driving add ons and upsells. Create Memorable Moments by Celebrating Milestones As part of your onboarding journey you can set or gather milestones—if we continue with the gym analogy maybe it’s inches or weight lost or number of sessions achieved at the gym. Using this type of “surprise and delight” tactic you’re building a connection between that subscriber and your brand, a connection that results in staying power. Another example might be a pet subscription product business. A pet food subscription service can provide a great example to see the benefits of this strategy. Asking for information on the type of dog to tailor box items, or at a minimum for the subscriber’s pet’s birthday during the onboarding experience can go a long way toward building brand loyalty. Every year send a “Happy Birthday” email with a coupon code or some free goodies in their box. Create a Lifecycle Marketing Plan to Constantly Connect with Subscribers Onboarding is only the first step in delivering on the value promised. Engaging your subscriber throughout their lifecycle is critical to retaining customers. This type of lifecycle marketing can reduce voluntary churn, keeping your customers from hitting the cancel button. A second type of churn, involuntary churn, a key part of your churn calculation is also critical to consider when setting your lifecycle marketing in motion. Ensuring you have things like an account updater and personalized dunning flows can mitigate involuntary churn. Dunning isn’t only when a payment fails, it can also be used to drive conversion for your free trial customers as part of a trial conversion flow. And lastly, planning out, as mentioned in the last section, moments of surprise and delight throughout your subscriber lifecycle by leveraging promotions for items your subscriber may enjoy, special discounts, and early access to features deliver repeat value that drive repeat purchase. About Recurly If you are ready to take the next step in evolving your subscription-based business, Recurly can help. In all kinds of markets, from pet food to software, businesses are introducing subscription-based models to build recurring revenue streams. Recurly has been a key part of the recurring payment industry for over a decade and has helped manage over 40 million subscriptions. Their expertise features a range of smart tools to help your company adapt quickly, scale globally, and increase customer lifetime value. They understand the difficulties you face and remain a partner throughout your subscription journey. Whether you are iterating new pricing models or want to optimize your churn rate formula, make Recurly your top choice to help your business thrive in the modern business landscape. Discover how Recurly can help you make a personal connection with customers at https://recurly.com/ Original Source: https://bit.ly/33U0sdC