What practices can you implement to improve your subscription services and increase customer retention?

Paris, November 22nd, 2018 – By favoring subscription rather than isolated purchases, consumers are surfing on a new trend in the digital age and are opting for more fluidity in their spending. Hence, it seems crucial to apply some practices to manage and positively impact services and subscription process. With this in mind, Nexway, a leading provider of solutions to monetize businesses and connect them to the global digital market, reveals five practices to help this subscription economy thrive and optimize the customer retention process.

1. Offer intuitive and flexible subscription management tools
The user is king! Managing its subscription in a simple and fluid way is a priority for the user and it is a source of spontaneous customer loyalty. Instead of buying a defined and intangible product or service for a given period of time, the user subscribes to an evolving service, automatically renewing itself, but which one can nevertheless adjourn at any time. Transparency in communications, whatever the device used, concerning the pricing model, the invoicing conditions, the possibility of modifying or updating the product at any time, is essential. It is necessary to go in the same direction as the customer to suggest that they choose the communication channel that suits them the best.

2. Provide practical assistance
While it is important to predict customers behaviors, it is also essential to rigorously monitor their use to ensure that their subscriptions are renewed. As a result, it is necessary to choose a customer assistance service and to set up a space dedicated to customers, where they can share their satisfaction and needs via chat, email, satisfaction surveys, etc. This operation allows a continuous support for the customer, throughout the process.

3. Reward loyalty
A customer who is treated with consideration is more likely to remain engaged with the product or service being offered. It is also an opportunity to strengthen their commitment and make it a true ambassador. The introduction of gifts, exceptional discounts, free deliveries, and other loyalty rewards encourages the most regular customers to feel privileged and leads them to renew their subscription. This type of approach, which is an important source of value, can only bring prosperity and loyalty to the company.

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4. Use artificial intelligence to optimize commitment period
The digital world has paved the way for the subscription economy, driven by technologies such as the Cloud, artificial intelligence (or machine learning), and the growing use of Deep Data. It is essential to collect as much data as possible about users – demographics, but also behavioral and usage data – and to process them statistically and anonymously by using machine learning algorithms to identify trends and offer personalized services.

For example, one can imagine identifying upstream the user profiles most likely to stand out and test different levers and scenarios to convince them to stay. The “test & learn” principle,
given the results obtained by each scenario on each user typology, allows the offer to be adjusted continuously, in real time.

5. Count on precise performance indices
It is imperative to have a 360° view of the tools that can evaluate the success of the subscription service. Unsubscribing rate, for example, measures product palatability in relation to quality and price. The renewal rate measures the efficiency of the subscription renewal process. The performance of the subscription is measured both downstream and upstream. Several reflexes can be applied: downstream, depending on the user profile, offering a discount, a free trial or a test of a more suitable product, for example, can encourage renewal.
The performance index considered over the long term as the most relevant for assessing the health of a subscription service is the lifetime value: the income that can be expected from a user throughout their relationship with the company. This indicator is the crossroads of all the others, because it depends both on voluntary subscription cancelation, the efficiency of the renewal process, and the opportunities for cross-selling – offering a product complementary to the one purchased – and up-selling – offering a product or service slightly higher and more expensive than the one in which the prospect is interested – to influence income.

Remaining attentive to its customers, communicating regularly with them, collecting their feelings through studies or chatbots remains the golden rules!

About Nexway
Nexway is a leading provider of solutions to monetize digital businesses and connect companies to the worldwide digital market. Founded in 2002, Nexway has enjoyed rapid growth, thanks to strong and diversified partnerships. Based in Paris – La Défense, France, the company has subsidiaries in the USA, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Poland, and Japan. Leading companies who rely on Nexway include retailers FNAC-Darty™, Yahoo! Japan™, Softwareload™, Amazon™, Medion™; and publishers Kaspersky Lab™, Adobe™, 2K Games™, Big Fish™, ESET™, Avast Software™ and many others around the world.
Follow Nexway on Twitter @nexway and Linkedin.

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