How to Use Subscription Billing to Boost Customer Experience

27th December 2022

Did you know, as per a study, 86% of customers will abandon a brand they were once loyal to after two poor customer experiences?

That’s right!

We are living in an era, where customers are expecting increasingly more from the brands they choose to associate with. Businesses are in unending battles to outperform on experiences such as delivering faster and making the customer journey easier. 

How do you enhance customer experience, though? Especially if you have a subscription-based business model with a growing consumer base.

In this blog, we have outlined the best ways you can use your subscription billing for an improved customer experience. 

So, let’s get to it.

1. Improve Customer Touchpoints

B2B SaaS companies that rely on best automatic tools for seamless subscription management can lose out on a lot of customers over billing errors. 

A great way to mitigate this risk is by integrating your customer relationship management (CRM) software with your subscription billing software. By doing so, you can gain helpful insights into a customer’s interactions and payment history. 

Once you can consolidate this information into a single location, you can leverage the data to provide improved customer experiences. By monitoring the open rates, you can identify opportunities to upgrade services, and thereby improve personalization too.

For example, you can identify your most profitable customers and develop loyalty programs to keep them coming back for more.

Or, you can identify the common roadblocks your customers face and come up with strategies to combat them for a better customer experience.

2. Offer Multiple Payment Methods

What do you think would make for a better customer experience—forcing customers to pay using one payment method or giving them several payment options to choose from? The answer is quite obvious.

The more choices you offer your customers in terms of payment, the better the customer experience. This requires a more thoughtful approach especially if your business is going global. 

Ensure to set up local payment methods that have a stronger foothold in the desired market for a better customer experience.

If your business requires recurring billing capabilities, a subscription management solution is apt for you.

3. Simplify Recurring Payments

Apart from offering multiple payment options to your customers, it is equally important to simplify the payment process.

For example, if you force your customers to re-enter their card details over and over, it may make them frustrated and lead to a poor customer experience. A good idea would be to store their credit information within their customer portal for a smooth payment experience.

After the initial payment, your system can automatically charge the customer using their credit information, which means lesser worries for both you and the customer. 

Also, reduce the number of steps in your payment process. If your payment process is confusing and redirects the customers to third-party sites, it can hamper their experience of doing business with you.

A right type of recruring billing software can help you automate your billing and payment process effectively. It can automaticall send reminders and other required information to customers.

4. Reduce Your Involuntary Churn

Often, payments can fail for a number of reasons which leads to involuntary churn. But don’t let that get in the way of a customer relationship. 

If you can understand the reasons behind the churn, you can adopt a strategic approach to prevent it from stripping your revenue.  

For example, a lot of your customers’ transactions fail due to expired credit cards. To combat this, you can set up in-app dunning messages that can remind your customers to update their card details before they expire.

Sometimes, it may not be possible to catch a payment failure before it happens. In such cases, have a post-dunning email setup in place that can help you recover customers who have involuntarily churned. 

With the right tactics in place, you can maintain your most important customer relationships.

Conclusion

Addressing the key areas throughout your customer’s journey is vital to reducing churn and increasing the lifetime value of your customers.

As a B2B SaaS business, going the extra mile for your customers should feature in your priority list. From offering multiple payment options to automating self-service functions, focus on making your customers’ experience more meaningful. 

These small actions can be the differentiating factor that makes your customers feel valued and ultimately stick to your brand for the long term.