Subscriptions are becoming ubiquitous, to the extent that probably everyone reading this first line (and their families) are signed up to at least one subscription service.
Businesses love subscriptions because they offer repeatable, predictable revenue and customers enjoy the convenience, personalized curation and cost savings they get as subscribers.
This mutual benefit is the driving force behind the rapid adoption of the subscription model. In fact, according to Gartner, 70% of organizations (across all industries) have deployed, or are considering deploying subscription services.
You too may have joined the fast-growing number of businesses balancing toward converting one-time customers to recurring subscribers. But, while you can dabble with the management of a small pool of subscriptions using your existing business systems, it is important to note that a digital transformation is required if you plan to launch something scalable.
Here are five of the most important qualities to look for in a subscription management platform and why Cloudmore fits the bill.
1. Excellent Time Keeping and Reminders are Crucial
One of the first things that you’ll need is a system that understands the concept of time and recurring revenues. Subscriptions are usually billed at monthly or yearly intervals. Whatever your terms, having flexibility is key.
Cloudmore allows you to bill your customers when a service is provisioned, when a customer signs up, or at any other milestone of your choosing; be it daily, monthly, quarterly or yearly. Importantly, notifications can be set up to ensure that no renewal dates or cancellations are missed, removing any chance of revenue leakage.
2. Your solution Should be Able to Handle Spur of the Moment Changes
Subscribers flex their subscriptions; adding and taking away products, as well as upgrading, downgrading, renewing and cancelling their services and memberships. Most traditional payment systems can’t keep track of this activity, especially as subscriber numbers grow.
Cloudmore is optimized to automatically administer the high transaction numbers subscriptions require, including managing frequent, spur of the moment subscription status changes.
3. Choose a System That Gives You Pricing Flexibility
The last thing you want to do is limit the pricing options you offer customers because of billing complexity, especially in a market that demands flexibility.
Cloudmore helps you to bill based on a variety of pricing models including flat fee, per unit, tiered, volume pricing, usage-based, overage and more. All prices are easy to set up and simple to adjust, enabling you to be responsive to the changing demands of your subscriber base.
4. Implement a Solution That Enables Self-Service and Usage-Based Billing
Customers increasingly want to manage their own accounts, and ever more commonly, only pay for what they use.
In answer to this demand, Cloudmore has built-in features that enable self-service, and which accommodate usage-based billing. This means that permissions can be set to enable customers to adjust their subscriptions according to need. Unused services or seats can be assigned to other users (within their group or organization) or downgraded and upgraded, as and when required.
5. Choose a Scalable Enterprise-Grade Infrastructure
The ultimate aim of any subscription business is to operate at scale. For this, you need an enterprise grade architecture that can process large volumes of transactions and data without losing attention to detail. Preferably this infrastructure will have the capacity to manage your end-to-end business, from product discovery, through to billing.
Cloudmore, unsurprisingly, fits this profile. Cloudmore is SaaS-based, scalable, secure and expert at processing complex pricing and calculations. All changes to transactions in Cloudmore are supported in real-time and are accurately reflected across every billing report and user dashboard, the customers’ included. Cloudmore can also connect to share processes and data with your existing business systems, simplifying set up and the user experience.
Cloudmore Subscription Management in Bullets
We’ve covered some of the most important features to look out for in a subscription management platform. Cloudmore delivers this and more.
Here’s a short summary of what we offer:
Cloudmore:
- is a single platform that gives you a unified view of your customers, billing, transactions, products and services.
- includes a E-store and customer self-service as integral features.
- supports a range of different pricing plans and billing methods (as detailed above)
- also supports one-off transactions and free trials
- is expert at managing upgrades, downgrades, renewals and add-ons.
- incorporates a variety of reporting capabilities that provide useful intelligence for internal teams and the customer.
