Subscription-based businesses may have little to no trouble attracting new subscribers and aggressively expanding their client base. But as we all know, the key to healthy profits with each billing period doesn’t just rely on how many subscribers one has, but also how long they stick with the subscription service.
In fact, one could say that the ability to retain your subscribers may be more important than being able to attract new ones—as the former reflects more on your capacity to take care of your subscribers and to keep them loyal to you, while the latter can be chalked up to good marketing and general consumer curiosity. Ideally, you want your business to succeed in both.
To help you with your customer retention, we’ve compiled a few tips that you can take into consideration when coming up with strategies to convince your customers to keep subscribed.
Use a recurring billing solution
One of the bigger reasons for subscriber attrition—also known as customer churn—is the fact that sometimes, even though the subscriber is completely satisfied with their subscription, keeping the subscription itself becomes impossible or inconvenient. For instance, customers could have issues with updating their credit card information because the billing system is complicated, or maybe they aren’t offered a diversity of payment methods, so they are unable to pay even when they want to. As such, they end up dropping their subscription altogether. By using a proper recurring billing and payment solution, subscription-based companies can not only mitigate such potential challenges but also streamline the entire process—making it frictionless for their subscribers.
Focus on delivering the best product or service you can
Your subscribers are more than just your customers, especially those who have stuck with you for longer than just one trial period. Not only have they chosen you among your many competitors, but they’ve also voluntarily signed off a part of their monthly income to go towards supporting you and your business. It’s only fair for you to return that support and loyalty with the best products and services you can deliver for them. Always strive to be better—to push yourself to consistently deliver quality and to never rest on your laurels. The hard work will pay off massively, not just in keeping your subscribers but also attracting new ones.
Listen to subscriber feedback
Besides keeping you afloat financially, your subscribers can also help your business grow by telling you what you’re doing right and wrong. By listening to their feedback and fixing their pain points—as well as resolving any complaints they may have about your service or product—you can ensure their loyalty while at the same time giving yourself a more positive image among your subscribers. This will have a net effect of attracting even more subscribers to join your fold.
With that said, if your subscriber base is a quiet one, try to engage with them betterby replying to their comments and interacting with them on your social media pages. You can also conduct surveys and polls to get a better idea of what you’re doing right and wrong.
Reward long-time subscribers
It stands to reason that those who have stuck with you the longest deserve just a bit more than the freshly subscribed customer. After all, it takes a considerable amount of money to be subscribed to a business for so long, and chances are, they’ve had to be patient and understanding with you, as every business does have its pitfalls and slip ups every now and then. Reward that loyalty with something special like a personalized callout, a gift, or even just an occasional extra surprise with their subscription that you know they’ll appreciate. By rewarding your long-time supporters, not only will you be able to motivate them to keep their subscriptions longer, but you’ll also encourage newer subscribers to stay on as well.
These are just some of the ways that you can convince your customers to remain subscribed to your service. Having said that, keeping these four tips in mind and acting upon them as soon as you can is a great start towards increasing your customer retention.
