How Subscription Management Software Can Improve Your Business

The rise of software as a service (SaaS) has lead to an industry populated by products and services that require regular payments. The customers who use these (and similar) services don’t follow the routine of the one-time-buyer client. In its place, they adopt a recurring purchase routine. As such, more and more businesses are adopting subscription models. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2020 over 80% of software vendors will change their business model from traditional license and maintenance to subscription.

Returning customers are the closest to a “sure thing” that most businesses can hope for. According to a study by OrderGroove, 41% of US revenue comes from returning or repeat customers, despite the fact that they represent less than 10% of the total numbers of visitors. And, given that it is generally accepted among businesses that it costs significantly less to keep current customers than it does to attract new ones, businesses large and small are looking for ways to ensure that their best clients stick around for as long as possible.

Subscription-model businesses are able to provide their clients with an ongoing service in exchange for a reliably constant revenue source. Customers see this as a convenience; they don’t have to reenter a lengthy sales process for products or services that they plan to regularly buy. They also don’t have to endure being constantly solicited by sales teams hoping to lock them into ongoing purchases.

On the other end, businesses are able to build better relationships with their clients, and gain access to better analytics data. They also benefit from having access to a population of interested, committed clients, where they can showcase new offers and get reliable feedback.

However, there are some disadvantages to consider as well. Subscription billing errors can go a long time without being noticed, making them all the more costly to identify and correct — possibly damaging your company reputation in the process. Likewise, billing and keeping track of a wide-spread subscription base requires resources of both time and money. The solution to these and other issues is technology, in the form of subscription billing software.

Subscription billing software (also called subscription management software) is software that makes it possible to automate the collection of subscription payments. Subscription billing software also gives you the ability to manage the operational side of your subscriptions. With superior subscription management software, your business can effectively eliminate the problems associated with subscription-based business models, and enjoy additional benefits that you might not have considered. Here’s how:

• Automation
  Your customers don’t want to have to contact you personally every time they need to renew their subscriptions, and chances are that you feel the same way. Having to reach out to large numbers of paying clients for recurring payments is a headache — one that that can end up costing you valuable time. Subscription billing software uses automation technology to automatically create and send out bills at the appropriate times, making it easy not only for you, but for your customer as well.
• Personalisation
  Your business should be built around your customer, not the other way around. This means that your billing should be flexible enough to accommodate each client. The best subscription billing software allows you to set personalised billing terms for individual customers, as well as establish a billing frequency that works for everyone.
• Accuracy
  Customers who are interested enough to subscribe are some of the most valuable customers you have. Unfortunately, all it takes is one billing error, and you could lose those customers forever. Subscription billing software automatically draws from reliable data sources, auto populating fields with accurate information, for reliable, error-free billing.
• Analytics
  Subscription management software that is built upon a CRM foundation provides certain analytics benefits as well. By capturing client data for analysis, you can get a better idea of who your customers are and what they want.
• Adjustments
  Freemium offers, free trials, setup charges, one-off transactions, discounts, refunds, late fees, and renewals all have an effect on subscription billing. Subscription billing software automatically factors these adjustments into the billing process, so that you can be sure that your clients are getting not only the right charges, but the right versions of those charges.

With subscription billing software, you can put yourself in total control of the billing process. Finding an effective subscription management solution that perfectly fits the needs of your business is the first step. Salesforce, the world’s number-one CRM platform has created a quote-to-cash solution for all of you subscription automation needs, in the form of Salesforce Quote-to-Cash.

Powered by the Salesforce Platform, Salesforce Quote-to-Cash is cloud-based and 100% mobile compatible, meaning that you can access it from any device, anywhere in the world. With intuitive controls and an easy-to-use dashboard, you can manage all of your subscriptions at once in real time. Simply put, Salesforce Quote-to-Cash makes subscription billing simple.

Returning customers may be the most valuable resource you have. Show them how much they mean to you, by investing in a superior subscription billing software solution. Salesforce Quote-to-Cash gives you and your customers the convenience you crave, the accuracy you need, and the dependability that will ensure a profitable business relationship for years to come. After all, subscription business is the future, and with Salesforce subscription management software, the future is yours.