Effective Ways to Get Customers Renew Their Subscriptions
Gaining brand new, paying customers is always a nice feeling. However, it costs five times as much to reel in new customers than it does to retain existing ones. By that statistic alone, any organization should focus on keeping their current clientele around.
Various industries have various ways of making this work, but a common method for ensuring repeat business is a subscription. So, how can you encourage your subscribers to stick around? Check out these effective ways to get customers to renew their subscriptions.
Make Your Offerings and Pricing Flexible
One of the main reasons consumers ditch subscription services is that they’re paying too much for aspects they don’t use. By making your services flexible, you can allow customers to select only the aspects of your service that they need.
In doing so, you’re also bringing down the cost of the subscription. Take an internet safety app, like malware protection, for instance. Some customers only need coverage for one device while others would prefer more. Some might prefer real-time protection while browsing the web, others might only want regular checkups.
Making your subscription flexible allows customers to choose the features they want while saving cost on the ones they don’t. This simple method is an ideal way to keep your customers around despite their changing needs. If you’re unsure of how to split up your services in the most appealing way, a high-quality customer value management tool can help you identify what your consumers want most.
Automatic Renewals
People love the ability to “set it and forget it,” making automatic renewals a tempting offer. You can sweeten the deal by offering a slight discount on your services when someone signs up. Cricket Wireless, for instance, knocks $5 off a user’s monthly phone bill when they sign up for digital automatic renewals.
You can also keep your customers on their automatic selection with the same method. Should they decide to switch to manual, offer a steeper discount if they stay on the automatic option. While it might not seem like much, renewal rates for automatic subscribers is four times higher on average than manual.
Notifications and Grace Periods
Customers like to be kept in the loop, which makes renewal notifications ideal. A simple reminder that their credit card is about to be charged for your service is all it takes. Otherwise, you run the risk of your service being a surprise drain on their account and a soon-to-be ditched subscription.
For those manually renewing, an email is your chance to lure them over to automatic renewals with discounts. For those whose subscriptions have expired, offer a tempting win-back discount they can’t ignore.
Speaking of lapsed subscriptions, it’s worthwhile to offer a grace period in which a user can update their payment information, make any changes to the items in their account, and back up any data they may need. During the grace period, levy no penalties and provide them full access to their account.
Make Things Simple
Finally, make sure the features of your service and the renewal process are as simple as possible. You might be surprised at how many businesses experience high churn rates due to minor difficulties in their subscription process. Performing A/B tests with the entire process will guarantee your consumers can easily navigate your system and stick around for a long time to come.