What exactly does Merchant of Record mean and why should your business use such a service? Let’s summarize how it works and review its benefits with a real example of the partnership between the Survio and cleverbridge platforms.

What’s the Benefit of Merchant of Record?

Merchant of Record is a third-party platform authorized to take over full financial responsibility for processing any credit and debit card transactions made by consumers. This includes declined payments, user refund requests, attempted frauds, and a myriad of other complications that can arise when trading with your products online.

Simply put, Merchant of Record outsources a complete service, including billing, invoicing, and all other sales support concerning payment processing. Your product is being sold, but you do not have to keep up with all the frustrations around payments – the money goes to your account without any mistakes or complications.

Merchant of Record also manages other administrative duties for you, regardless of the final destination of the transaction. Merchant of Records always acts in accordance with the region’s current laws, ensures proper compliance with the PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) regulations, manages local VAT, and charges. That way, there’s no need for you to worry about whether the local standards and regulations are met. The name of the respective Merchant of Record will also be displayed on the customer’s account statement.

Is the Merchant of Record Model Worth it?

At a glance, the involvement of an external Merchant of Record may appear to be a more costly option than the use of one’s own resources, or compared to a Payment Only platform for instance. These other options may seem more financially affordable and ensure a secure payment process for your bank account, but all other financial responsibilities and administrative tasks will remain for you to address.

Needless to say, the more customers you have, the more intensively you have to face the payment issues, and even a small deficiency can lead to enormous losses and encumbrances for your business.

Ultimately, using Merchant of Record not only saves you total costs, but also a lot of time that can be used for other, no less important aspects of running a successful company, such as development or customer service. Properly secured Merchant of Record services also lead to a much better customer experience (CX).

Use Case: Survio and cleverbridge

Survio, a Czech platform for building online surveys located in Brno, Czech Republic, provides not only unpaid free services, but also premium accounts with an expanded range of useful features. The entire platform is translated into 15 languages and has users in 190 countries. With the rapid increase in the number of users and the expansion into many countries around the globe, plenty of new problems and queries have emerged. “Initially, our accountant had to process thousands of new invoices, and customer service was suddenly swarmed with questions. All the new tasks had to be delegated to other departments of the company,” says Survio CEO Ondřej Coufalík.

In 2017, Survio established a partnership with subscription commerce provider cleverbridge to act as its merchant of record. Because cleverbridge is a full-service ecommerce provider – offering everything from recurring billing to global payments to an optimized customer experience – they’re ideal for mid-size to large enterprise companies looking to scale globally.

“In order to open a dialogue with [cleverbridge], you can not be at the very beginning. It is necessary to have a turnover of at least 1 million Euro per year, which Survio managed,” added Coufalík. “The fundamental differences in work efficiency and the overall, versatile benefits did not allow for a long wait.”

How has it proved useful?
● Thousands of service invoices per month were concentrated into only two.
● The customer care team are dealing with more than 30 percent fewer tickets (specific payment issues to solve) related to the payment process, refunds, and similar issues, and has thus more time to support the service itself and for technical queries.
● Currently, Survio covers 48 types of payment methods, including novelties such as Swedish Real-Time Banking or Malaysian Ringgit, anywhere in the world without having to deal with some of them not working properly.
● The fewer costs and human capacity are now being used to develop and improve the product which is pushing Survio forward and increasing its competitiveness.
● All of the mentioned benefits together have led to a considerable increase in sales.

Forging a partnership with a Merchant of Record is a significant strategic step for every business and needs to be considered carefully in advance. Approached properly, however, it can definitely bear fruit.

Learn how cleverbridge can help manage, monetize and optimize your digital business as you continue to grow. We take responsiblity for recurring billing, global payment processing, compliance, customer service, and more. Contact our sales team today.

Hana Molíková is the content manager for Survio. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
Originally published on tyinternety.cz.

The post Merchant of Record: How to Sail Through Global Payments appeared first on cleverbridge.

When taken in aggregate, however, low-dollar contracts are not only profitable, but in some cases eclipse the total value of those higher-value contracts in the long term. And with finite resources at your disposal, how do you ensure these low-dollar deals are receiving enough attention to renew?

In this 30-minute, on-demand webinar, Julia Stegman, TSIA’s VP of Research for the Service Revenue Generation practice, and Doug Caviness, cleverbridge’s VP of B2B Strategy and Partnerships, explore the benefits of automating your low-dollar support contracts and subscription plans in an efficient, cost-effective way. They discuss:

• What are the three pillars to reduce friction with lower dollar contracts and subscription plans?
• What role can technology play to automate self-serve renewals?
• What is the impact of renewal automation on the role of channel partners?
• What else can be done to fight churn and increase renewal rates?

Caviness then takes us through three cleverbridge use cases, showing how the company has leveraged auto-renew (channel and direct), quote-to-cart and the self-service storefront concept to reduce churn, boost renewal rates and decrease total cost of sales for clients.

The full webinar is available on demand at this link.

Want more? Head to the cleverbridge blog:

• 7 Key Differences Between B2C and B2B Ecommerce Models
• Bring Consumerization to the B2B Buying Experience
• Leverage CPQ for a Shorter Sales Cycle, Increased Revenue
• Renewal Automation: Grow Your Digital B2B Business
• Navigating the B2B Sales Role in the Face of Growing Ecommerce

Learn how cleverbridge can help manage, monetize and optimize your digital business as you continue to grow. We take responsiblity for recurring billing, global payment processing, compliance, customer service, and more. Contact our sales team today.

Kyle Shamorian is the content marketer for cleverbridge. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

The post On-demand Webinar: Automating Your Low-dollar, Long Tail Renewals appeared first on cleverbridge.

As we look back on 2018, let’s explore the top 10 most-read items from our blog, decided by you, the readers.

1. Losing Money With Your Volume Pricing Model?

In the digital goods world, volume pricing is made all the more compelling because the cost of selling one additional unit is very low compared to physical goods. Producing and selling another license key for a piece of software or another virtual gift in an online community results in very little additional cost. Because of this high profit margin, digital goods companies frequently offer their products in volume. Here, we’ve identified three different volume pricing models for digital goods to help you evaluate your current strategy and make sure it is working for you. Read more.

2. The Difficulty of Being a Merchant of Record

Billing your global online customers is complex. To effectively and securely collect payments, you must, among many other things, open up merchant accounts, put payment gateways in place, manage contracts with global payment service providers, comply with PCI DSS, and abide by global taxation requirements. When you handle all these things on your own, you are acting as your own merchant of record (MoR). There are cases where it’s to your advantage to act as your own merchant of record. But there are also cases where accepting the responsibility of being the merchant of record has many disadvantages. Read more.

3. Customer Service KPIs: Reducing Contact Rates

There are two primary concerns with resolving customer inquiries: speed and quality. You can’t waste your customer’s time, and you must solve their problem. These two concerns are commonly at odds with each other, but there are ways to synthesize speedy and high-quality responses into a world class customer experience that also saves your business money. And it all begins with measuring key performance indicators (KPIs). Read more.

4. 7 Key Differences Between B2C and B2B Ecommerce Models

Much has been said in recent years of the digital business-to-business model (B2B) versus the digital business-to-consumer model (B2C), in terms of scope, customer acquisition and retention, pricing, product variety, and most importantly, profitability. Many companies choose to focus their full efforts on one model or the other, while others attempt to hedge their bets by supporting a hybrid of both. Here, we’ll dive into some of the main differences between the B2B and B2C ecommerce spaces, and the key concepts necessary to support a thriving digital business, regardless of your end user profile. Read more.

5. Five Features of Effective Ecommerce Sites

To keep potential customers on your ecommerce site, it should include features and functionality that consumers now consider essential. Here are five features every effective ecommerce site should have, along with the reasons why they are so critical to converting online customers. Read more.

6. How Artificial Intelligence is Disrupting the SaaS Market

The fervent push from enterprise to software-as-a-service within the last decade has enabled end users to sidestep some of the key hurdles associated with software maintenance and implementation. Chief among them include ease of installation and upgrades, streamlined testing and training, and minimizing an otherwise large upfront cost. As SaaS trends evolve further still, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning have staked their claim among the topics dominating the SaaS conversation, as many analysts peg AI as the next big shift in the market. Read more.

7. Subscription Billing Models Defined

As more companies apply subscriptions to their businesses, they explore different ways to bill their subscribers. But which model is really best to use? And what are the pros and cons of the model you choose? In order to understand the complexity of subscription billing, we must first break it down into its parts. Here, we explore the basic combination of factors that define the various subscription billing models. Read more.

8. Vertical SaaS Segment on the Rise

Rapid growth in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry shows no sign of slowing down, with research firm OpenView Labs forecasting a 21.5 percent increase to $71.2 billion by the end of 2018, and the cloud market overall to hit $187.3 billion. The vertical SaaS segment in particular remains a significant driver of that growth, powered by an influx of digital businesses that focus on a specific industry. Unlike their horizontal counterparts – whose software suites are available to a much broader audience to maximize revenue and support scale – vertical SaaS companies maintain a narrower focus. Read more.

9. 7 SEO Best Practices for Ecommerce Companies in 2018

For any business with a digital presence – especially ecommerce companies that market and sell exclusively online – driving organic traffic to your website remains a constant challenge and a more integral part of the customer conversion process than ever before. Developing a product or solution that has value and fulfills a consumer need is obviously a significant part of the success equation. But how do you reach your audience in the first place? Ensuring your website is optimized for search engines will increase organic, relevant traffic, and ultimately broaden the top of your sales funnel – a key step in the evolving and competitive ecommerce market. Read more.

10. Factors Powering the Move Toward a Subscription Model

“By 2020, all new entrants and 80% of historical vendors will offer subscription-based business models, regardless of where the software resides. What began as a trickle a few years ago has become a stampede of vendors wanting to make a move to a subscription business model.” This statistic from research firm Gartner forecasts the subscription business model as not just an option, but a necessity when considering the acquisition and retention of customers, and ultimately the long-haul growth of your business. Read more.

Learn how cleverbridge can help manage, monetize and optimize your digital business as you continue to grow. We take responsiblity for recurring billing, global payment processing, compliance, customer service, and more. Contact our sales team today.

Kyle Shamorian is the content marketer for cleverbridge. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

The post cleverbridge’s Top 10 Most-read Blogs of 2018 appeared first on cleverbridge.

Onboarding new customers and implementing your product throughout their organization is the obvious goal that your company’s strategy should support. But long gone are the days of the one-and-done sales approach. The key to a successful ecommerce business is to maintain long-term relationships with your
customers, in which reminding them of your value through a quality product and consistent support over time is paramount.

In this ebook, we’ll explore some key solutions that your business can implement to not only survive, but thrive in the competitive B2B ecommerce space:

• Understanding 7 Key Differences Between B2C and B2B Ecommerce Models
• Bringing Consumerization to the B2B Buying Experience
• Leveraging CPQ for a Shorter Sales Cycle and Increased Revenue
• Growing Your Digital Business Using Renewal Automation
• A case study exploring how SmartBear Software leverages cleverbridge ecommerce solutions to increase customer renewals

Click the image below to receive your free ebook:

Like what you read? cleverbridge offers a bevy of ebooks, case studies, white papers, videos and other resources in the ecommerce, subscription and B2B space. We explore key topics to ensure your digital business is positioned for success:

• Growing globally using a subscription billing model
• Global compliance risks and solutions
• Key questions to ask when selecting a new payment provider
• Managing the complexities of payment processing
• Acquiring, converting and retaining customers
• Optimizing conversion rate
• Localizing the buyer’s journey for other countries
• Implementing an effective SEO strategy for your web platform
• And much more

The cleverbridge platform can help manage, monetize and optimize your digital business as you continue to grow globally. We take responsibility for recurring billing, global payment processing, compliance, customer service, and more. Contact our sales team today.

Kyle Shamorian is the content marketer for cleverbridge. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

The post Ebook: Position Your B2B Ecommerce Business for Long-term Growth appeared first on cleverbridge.

Well, there are a couple of big ways you can really screw up your ecommerce integration. From not incorporating your CRM and ERP systems to ignoring impacts on your company’s tax nexus, there is a list of mistakes you can avoid by being prepared.

We’re here to help remind you of some of the top concerns to address before you move to a new ecommerce provider. Bring this check list to the next meeting with potential vendors and walk through these points with them to ensure a seamless transition.

Integration Points

Address all possible connection points between your internal systems and your new ecommerce platform to make sure everything aligns. Otherwise, minor issues like foreign currencies, orders delays or entitlement allocation could turn into major problems.

1. Guarantee complete integration of your CRM/ERP systems
   This is a big one! Your new ecommerce platform should work effortlessly to notify your master customer database of each transaction, or else your database is worthless. Be sure to map ERP-listed SKUs to SKUs in your ecommerce platform to avoid selling products that do not appear in your accounting system.
2. Confirm entitlement allocation and validation
   Make sure entitlement is granted to customers when they buy your product. Discuss options for customer validation in situations where only certain customers are qualified to buy specific products like upgrades.
3. Have a single sign-on
   Customers should never know they are logged into any system except yours. Should customers need to log into an account on your site to check for information hosted by your ecommerce provider, they should be able to access any information pertaining to their orders without leaving your site.
4. Determine who will host data files
   Determine which Content Delivery Network (CDN) to use, and explore any impact on your company’s tax nexus. Any reputable ecommerce company will offer an extensive list of APIs to address these typical, but sometimes complex issues. So make sure these items are on the table for discussion.

After you’ve tackled the integration pitfalls, walk through these trouble spots with your new provider to work out any issues ahead of time:

5. Create a flawless user experience
   Your web page branding should be consistent across your hosted pages and your ecommerce providers. Don’t forget to confirm your custom domains, and make sure customer specific data is passed to pre-filled carts.
6. Prepare your systems for any new data
   Orders that come from countries such as Japan and China include double-byte characters, which require more data storage than Western character sets like ASCII. If your internal systems are not prepared, your database may not capture this information properly, or at all, causing discrepancies later.
7. Plan for order delays
   Discuss your strategy to handle orders that are not received, which could be due to a variety of reasons, including:
   • Temporary Internet outages
   • An unfamiliar format
   • Planned maintenance
8. Don’t forget about resellers and affiliates
   Whether you heavily rely on resellers and affiliates or you are looking to do so in the future, it’s important that you have a system in place for these partners to use. A great ecommerce provider will be able to support and improve communication with your partners. Do not forget to ask your new provider to explain how this process works in their system.
9. Integrate the full-range of analytics
   To gather a 360-degree view of your ecommerce you need to track customers’ complete purchase cycle. Make sure your provider tracks customers when they leave your hosted pages and are transferred to the ecommerce platform pages.
10. Adjust accounting for new currencies
    You want customers from across the globe to buy your products in their native currency. If your new ecommerce provider offers new currencies, make sure you adjust your accounting system to reflect the additions. Stay on top of this topic as your provider updates their platform to include more and more currencies.
11. Ensure great customer service
    Make your ecommerce provider aware of your particular customer service policies and procedures, such as handling refunds and chargebacks. World-class customer service is so important! To provide the best, have a mutual agreement on how you communicate with your customers.

This list should help you ask the right questions before implementation, so hopefully you spend less time on unexpected issues and more time optimizing your ecommerce – which is why you got a new provider to begin with, right? Good luck going live!

Keystone

Integration with a new ecommerce provider goes more smoothly if you address your concerns in advance.

The post Eleven Ways to NOT Botch Your Ecommerce Integration appeared first on cleverbridge.

In fact, your renewal rate is a key metric indicating both the current level of customer loyalty as well as the overall quality of your product or service.

Let’s explore some best practices to ensure your company is implementing the necessary strategies to maximize renewal opportunities and reduce churn.

Automate Your Renewals

Whether you’re speaking to a B2C or B2B audience, one of the most effective ways to renew your customer’s subscription is to automate it, preventing the customer from having to reconsider their buying decision and manually re-enter their payment information.

We’ve discussed the whys and hows of renewal automation in a previous blog post, which explores better customer organization, segmenting high- and low-value customers, understanding the “long tail” concept, as well as the Land-Adopt-Expand-Renew process. You can find that blog here.

Optimize Your Touchpoint Timeline

Whether your business takes an automated or manual approach with regard to renewals, you should carefully consider the timeline of your customer outreach, including emails, phone calls and every other means.

Imagine a business whose customer base operates on a year-long contract. Sending renewal messaging to a customer who’s used the product for only a month may deter them from renewing – given that their experience with the product is still in its infancy and they likely haven’t made any long-term decisions.

But sending a notice to a customer who’s used the product for 11 months may be too late in the game after they’ve considered other options, including a similiar offering from one of your competitors. This may cause them to churn.

There’s an opportunity here to segment your current customers based upon how long they’ve used your product within the yearly cycle, and deploy an A/B test email campaign to identify the “sweet spot” during which time renewal communication should be sent – not too early, and not too late.

First-time Subscribers Versus Long-term Subscribers

Not unlike the above example, there’s also a difference between customers who’ve never renewed and customers who’ve renewed multiple times already. It’s important to note that neither are equal in terms of their likelihood to renew, or why they renew.

For newer (and not yet loyal) customers, it may be helpful to provide discounts or other offers – three months free if they renew for a second year, for example – to entice the re-upped subscription. These customers may not yet be completely sold on your offering and need that extra push.

Longer-term users, on the other hand, are likely satisfied with the current price point (or else you wouldn’t have retained them for the time you have). To keep the more committed customers in the fold, consider offering free add-ons and functionality to continually extol the long-term benefits of using your product.

Develop a Data-driven Early Warning System

This idea pairs nicely with the previous two. Maximizing renewals all comes down to understanding where you customer is in their journey, what they’re doing and why, and responding appropriately.

Whether they’re early or later in the yearly usage timeline, a first-time or multiple-subscriber, it’s vital to keep tabs on the behavior of your customer base across the board in an effort to identify early warning signs of churning.

Yet another A/B test opportunity is to separate your customer base by retention/churn metrics to better understand your customers’ experience with your product.

For customers who’ve stayed with you for the long haul, look at their interactions with your product in terms of usage level, engagement with your customer dashboard, add-ons, and outreach to your customer service or customer success teams, and identify common trends.

Likewise, do the same for those customers who have churned.

Once you’ve identified these patterns based on segment, you can develop a richer outreach program to reduce churn and support retention.

Real-time Answers to Real-time Questions

A fairly easy way to support renewals is by providing real-time answers to customer inquiries, and a community within which customers can engage in conversations about their experience with your product.

A clearly displayed contact phone number and email address is key, as well as creating a customer community or online user group where customers will discuss user benefits, frustrations, bugs and potential solutions to the product experience.

You can also develop an email campaign in which you directly survey your most satisfied and least satisfied customers on these very issues.

This is free intel that you can use to identify exactly how best to optimize both your offering and the overall customer experience, and maintain and grow your renewals.

Underscore New Features and Use Them to Upsell

In lieu of sending an overt communication designed to continue a subscription, a potentially more effective email is one that communicates the continued benefits of the product, a new release announcement, new or forthcoming features, and opportunities for your customers to take advantage of them.

These may be features that your customer didn’t even know they needed, and may trigger not only a subscription renewal, but an opportunity for your team to upsell or cross-sell for increased revenue.

Keystone

In the software space, customer acquisition is no doubt an integral part of the success of your business, but retention through subscription renewal is even more so.

Taking advantage of these six key strategies can be the frontline of defense to keep your customers satisfied with your company and your product.

The cleverbridge platform can help manage, monetize and optimize your digital business as you continue to grow globally. We take responsibility for recurring billing, global payment processing, compliance, customer service, and more. Contact our sales team today.

Kyle Shamorian is the content marketer for cleverbridge. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

The post 6 Ways to Increase Your Company’s Software Subscription Renewals appeared first on cleverbridge.

Managing the complexity and cost of this process is a daunting endeavor, and one that many growing companies may not have the manpower and financial bandwidth to manage on their own.

In this downloadable cleverbridge ebook series, we explore the decisions you should consider if you feel you’ve outgrown your current payment provider, and the step-by-step process you should take as you position your company for success.

Calculating the Total Cost of Going Global

Nearly all successful digital businesses go through a similar lifecycle.

First, you need to start selling your product or service online. You look at payment service providers (PSPs) such as PayPal, Stripe or Braintree to begin accepting payments, and you’re off and running. If you’re a subscription business, you are also taking advantage of your payment provider’s simple recurring billing features. However, just like every digital business that grows above the $50,000 monthly recurring revenue (MRR) threshold, you’re starting to experience the limitations and pains of your start-up phase payment provider. Here are some of the common signs that indicate you could be outgrowing your PSP:

• Don’t support the payment methods and currencies of all your target markets
• Payment decline rate continues to be high or even increases with greater customer volume
• Specific countries have higher failed transactions rates than most
• Cart/check-out abandonment rate continues to be high
• Experience billing errors such as duplicate and/or missed customer billing events
• Lack of visibility into subscriber activity and optimization opportunities

Download the ebook to learn more:

10 Questions to Ask a New Payment Service Provider

When it’s time to explore new options, you not only want to resolve today’s challenges, but also drive growth for tomorrow. Knowing the cost of ownership of each option is another important factor.

A full-stack ecommerce provider that offers all-in-one global ecommerce, billing and payments solutions can wow your customers with features that extend beyond simple transaction processing – and increase revenue. More comprehensive solutions can also save precious time and resources. To the unfamiliar, how to maximize profits and make life easier with a full-featured ecommerce solution may not be obvious. But don’t worry; just ask these questions when evaluating potential solutions to uncover opportunities – and costs – that are often overlooked.

Download the ebook to learn more:

Convincing Internal Stakeholders You’ve Outgrown Your Payment Service Provider

Your online business for your digital good/service is losing steam. Your reporting shows that steady churn and stagnant trial-to-paid conversion rates are impeding your ability to grow recurring revenues. Across the board, your finance, technology and marketing teams are looking to innovate.

You know that upgrading your payment service provider is a critical strategy for accelerating your slow growth, and you are equipped with the most important questions for evaluating new providers.

But you need executive and cross-department buy-in for this project — and your colleagues are resistant to change. So what do you do?

Download the ebook to learn more.

Learn how cleverbridge can help manage, monetize and optimize your digital business as you continue to grow. We take responsiblity for recurring billing, global payment processing, compliance, customer service, and more. Contact our sales team today.

Kyle Shamorian is the content marketer for cleverbridge. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.

The post Ebook Series: Have you Outgrown Your Payment Service Provider? appeared first on cleverbridge.

As much as 67 percent of the buying cycle occurs online without human interaction, according to Cisco Systems, with projections forecasting that number to increase to 85 percent by 2020. As ecommerce competition grows, automation driven by data within the buying cycle – particularly for renewals – has become a large part of the success equation.

Low-dollar / High-volume and the ‘Long Tail’

Every one of your customers is important to your business, but as a digital company, manually moving a large volume of low-dollar customers through the buying cycle and renewing their business can require significant time, money and manpower.

Every department in your company is a finite resource. This is particularly true for your marketing and sales teams, as well as other client-facing departments. Because of this, you want to make sure you’re focusing your resources toward the most high-value goals.

For example, if your company has 50 clients, 10 of which bring in significantly more revenue than the lower 40, you can auto-renew the smaller-value clients, and enable your sales and customer success teams to give your higher-value clients a more personal touch.

3D Robotics’ Chris Anderson coined the term “long tail,” meaning that often times ecommerce companies will sell thousands of popular items, and possibly hundreds of thousands of more unique or niche items. Over time, the larger volume of unique or niche sales may eclipse the higher-value business.

In short, automating your long tail can significantly impact your revenue over time and help to grow your revenue stream.

Keep Track of Your Customer Renewals

Though you may have a notification process in place when it’s time to renew a customer contract, it’s still difficult to organize all the necessary information to do so. This includes navigating your sales database to identify customer contact points, the customer’s product configuration, prior promotions and discounts, and other important elements of the original deal or previous renewal.

Implementing a data-driven auto-renewal process triggers a campaign that harnesses your sales team with the most up-to-date and accurate customer information, so they can focus on the sales relationship rather than chasing down data. This can be accomplished by using a full slate of APIs and a quick and effective Integration Services process that can organize your disparate systems into a single efficient unit.

Land-Adopt-Expand-Renew

“Purchases are no longer the large up-front investments they once were, but are instead made up of lower-cost subscriptions and value-add services,” according to the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA), an organization that has pioneered the Land-Adopt-Expand-Renew (LAER) model adopted by digital businesses worldwide.

Due to the growth of the subscription-as-a-service model, once you’ve landed new business, your profitability and success is determined largely by your customer adding new seats, usage, services or features, and overall expanding the use of the product throughout their business over time. And of course, you want them to re-up their contract when the time comes.

TSIA outlines the LAER model in which Land refers to the closing of a prospect into a customer, and Adopt includes the resources necessary to help the customer effectively implement the technology, usually a customer success team or a series of education services.

Following the adoption phase, Renew entails the process of re-upping a customer contract by “communicating the value proposition of your technology the customer.” And the final stage is to Expand that technology throughout that organization through upsells, cross-sells and adding additional features and functionality.

This is an effective process to grow your revenue, but can certainly require costly manpower when it’s done manually. This is where an automation system becomes extremely valuable.

SmartBear Success

Companies like SmartBear have leveraged cleverbridge to increase its product renewal business, which was previously managed through a manual purchase order process. Using cleverbridge’s Salesforce integration, transaction data from the ecommerce platform is automatically pushed to SmartBear’s Salesforce instance, enabling effective transaction and opportunity management for the company’s sales team.

“Rather than having to email back and forth with customers at renewal time, our account reps can simply setup the renewal product and pricing, generate a link through the cleverbridge Salesforce integration, and send to the customer for easy renewal,” said Jim Schuchart, Vice President, SmartBear Software. “Our sales team loves it because it has drastically streamlined the renewal process and allowed reps to spend more time connecting with customers instead of doing administrative work.”

Working closely with the SmartBear team, cleverbridge designed and developed a Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) process, enabling SmartBear’s sales team to generate, issue and process instant customized customer price quotes while incorporating pricing and discounting rules. Seamlessly integrated into the cleverbridge platform and SmartBear’s Salesforce instance, the CPQ process accepts a variety of online and offline payment methods to meet the unique needs of business buyers, and sends notifications to sales representatives when a customer order is processed. Since implementing the quote-to-cart process, SmartBear customers that renewed without sales assistance increased by 20 percent, drastically reducing retention costs and increasing efficiency. On average, SmartBear saves 18 hours per month per sales representative, freeing up sales and renewal teams to focus on higher-margin solution selling and value-added services selling.

Keystone

We’ve discussed some key strategies in previous posts like consumerzing the B2B buying experience and offering a Configure Price Quote model – both of which are important in moving your prospect more seamlessly through the sales funnel.

Implementing renewal automation complements these key strategies and supports long-term relationships with your customers.

Learn how cleverbridge can help manage, monetize and optimize your digital business as you continue to grow. We take responsiblity for recurring billing, global payment processing, compliance, customer service, and more. Contact our sales team today.

Kyle Shamorian is the content marketer for cleverbridge. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.

The post Renewal Automation: Grow Your Digital B2B Business appeared first on cleverbridge.

This statistic from research firm Gartner forecasts the subscription business model as not just an option, but a necessity when considering the acquisition and retention of customers, and ultimately the long-haul growth of your business.

For customers seeking physical goods like Birchbox, Dollar Shave Club or Stitch Fix, or digital goods like content streaming or software-as-a-service, the subscription business model makes significant sense in terms of price, value and security, and continues to power a sea change in the way companies do business and consumers make purchase decisions.

Pricing Suits the End User

Whether a single consumer or a business-to-business decision maker, significant investment and upfront cost tends to connote risk without assured value. The perpetual model requires a monetary and/or contractual commitment upfront without the complete knowledge that the service meets personal needs or the needs of your business. This can cause any number of frustrations for the end user.

A benefit of the subscription model is that it requires a much softer commitment, where the month-to-month experience with the software enables a trial-and-error approach to see what works best for the end user’s needs, without the full upfront cost. From here, the customer can change providers if necessary, or adapt the functions and features of the service with their current provider based on their particular needs.

See the McKinsey & Co. data below indicating the top factors driving consumers to a subscription purchase versus a perpetual offering.

Software Feature Updates and Cyber Security

Quality software maintains a consistent schedule of updates, new versions, bug fixes, etc., but the perpetual license model often places the burden of responsibility on the end user to take the time and effort to trigger those updates. The subscription model enables the software provider to support an update schedule automatically – not to mention deploying new features when they’re ready, not just when the new version is available – ensuring the end user has the best possible customer experience.

And what’s more important than the customer experience? The security of customer data. Cyber attacks represent a significant threat to ecommerce companies, retailers, and just about anyone who’s used a credit card or operated a computer or smartphone.

According to internet software and service provider Protected Trust, operating outdated software is one of the most significant factors enabling criminals to access and exploit customers’ private information, second only to phishing scams. Ensuring your customers are operating up-to-date software gives them the necessary defense to minimize that risk.

Collaborate with Ease with Cloud Storage

The pace of business is moving faster than ever. In turn, a company’s software suite should accommodate the speed of its operations.

One of the key benefits of the subscription model is that it easily supports cloud storage, which offers a level of convenience and flexibility not previously seen with the perpetual license model.

For example, the difference between Microsoft Office 2016 and Microsoft Office 365 is that the 365 offering is connected to Microsoft’s cloud storage system. Therefore, in addition to having access to the full Microsoft office suite, the cloud-based offering supports easier file sharing, group chats, video hosting and screen shares – among many other features – and can be used anywhere in the world.

Keystone

There are a wide variety of reasons to move from perpetual to subscription, both from the company and customer points of view. As a software company, the opportunities for customer personalization, richer communication and revenue retention are vast.

And for the customer or B2B buyer, customization, ease of updates and improvements and low upfront cost makes significant sense when implementing software for personal or professional use. It’s no surprise the market continues its steadfast march toward the subscription billing business model.

Read more about subscription billing in some previous blog posts:

• Subscription Billing Models Defined
• Evaluating Commerce Solutions: Billing and Payment Tools
• Evaluating Commerce Solutions: Subscription Management Tools

cleverbridge can optimize recurring billing, streamline global payment processing and help your company scale globally. Contact us today to learn more.

Kyle Shamorian is the content marketer for cleverbridge. 

The post Factors Powering the Move Toward a Subscription Model appeared first on cleverbridge.

Few companies have the brand strength or large enough market share to assume a purchase or subscription sign-up is the end of the customer lifecycle. And as the savvy consumer builds up a near endless arsenal of resources to find the most satisfying option at the price point they want, a digital business’s set-it-and-forget-it approach simply won’t be effective enough for reducing churn.

We’ve previously discussed the different kinds of churn, churn rate calculation, and best practices for churn reduction. Here, let’s take a deeper dive into some other tactics your business can apply to turn a one-time customer into a lifetime customer.

Educate Customers Early in the Buying Cycle

According to intercom.io, 40-60 percent of customers who sign up for a free software trial log in and never make a purchase. And even ones who do may not trigger the installation process or build a satisfied relationship with your brand. A drop-off this early in the buying cycle may be attributed to a lack of education around product value and product functionality.

When selling to customers of all ages and technical savvy, education is particularly key. Make sure potential customers understand exactly how the product operates, why it’s beneficial to them, and how it differentiates from the competition. Provide a series of video tutorials, an FAQ page addressing users’ most common issues, or launch an email campaign exploring key concerns.

Segment Your SaaS Customer Lists

When it comes to the outbound marketing methodology, it’s vital to send specific messaging to your customers based on buyer persona and position in the buying cycle. A one-size-fits-all email marketing approach will feel impersonal to your base, likely ending in the tempting “unsubscribe” button, and ultimately, a failed retention opportunity.

For example, a customer who has used your software for five years should receive different messaging than the customer who purchased a couple months ago, or is still in the freemium stage. A richer understanding of what your customer needs from your product can reduce the chances of a short- or long-term customer fleeing to a competitor who can offer a more personalized experience.

Market to Current Customers (Not Just Prospects)

Digital businesses tend to invest much of their marketing ad spend in finding and nurturing prospects. This is obviously an important part of the customer acquisition process, but just because someone becomes a customer doesn’t mean they’ll be a customer for life. If a competitor offers a more versatile product or compelling price point, don’t expect a current customer to stick around.

Using email campaigns and social media as a delivery service, offer content that reminds current users why your product provides the greatest value – product updates, new features, or news of your company’s recognition by a respected association or awards program. Or, position yourself as a thought leader in your industry by providing blog content, ebooks and white papers, and other collateral that shows how your company has its finger on the industry’s pulse.

Stop Churn Before it Happens; Identify At-risk Customers

After a customer churns, they’ve ultimately decided that your product no longer meets their needs (if voluntary), or factors not associated with action they’ve taken have derailed their subscription (if involuntary). Either way, once a customer churns, it becomes exponentially difficult to get them back.

So, since the nature of a SaaS business allows a richer understanding of customer behavior, why not use that information proactively to prevent an at-risk customer from churning before it happens?

Free ebook: Three Things You Need to Know About Flexible Subscription Billing

In his blog on churn threat, marketing, sales, and customer success though leader Lincoln Murphy lays out a few red flags indicating that a customer might be ready to churn:

– Downloading data: This may indicate a customer is backing up their data with intent to cancel their service. Have your customer success team reach out.
– Unusual website behavior: Is a customer not utilizing your website, or are they spending some time on the “cancel subscription” page? It may indicate a desire to end their subscription. Use the other tactics we discussed above to prevent them from doing so.
– Widget removal: Many SaaS businesses have a widget with an embed code for users’ sites – for chat, surveys, opt-in forms, pop-overs, analytics/tracking. The removal of any of these tools should be flagged as a significant churn threat.

Read Lincoln’s blog for more churn threats for at-risk customers.

Maintain Competitive Advantage, and Know When it’s Time to Improve

A digital business can take any and all measures to mitigate voluntary churn, but the most effective one remains offering a quality product with a strong competitive advantage. Customers won’t churn when you don’t give them a reason to.

In the SaaS market – or any market for that matter – there’s always a company positioning themselves as of a higher standard for a lower price. So, follow suit. In your messaging, including email campaigns, blogs, promotions, sales collateral, etc., communicate specifically why a customer should choose your product over someone else’s. A case study, price/benefits comparison, or other points of differentiation keep your value top-of-mind.

If your competitive value proposition isn’t immediately clear, it’s time to do some work and find out where you can improve. If your business or merchant of record operates customer success and customer service teams – and it certainly should – survey the most customer-facing groups to identify common frustrations. What are your customers saying? The software is too expensive, no auto-updates, poor user experience? Once you understand end-user complaints, your business can work backwards from there.

According to Divante, 91 percent of unhappy customers will simply leave and never come back, and 96 percent don’t complain at all. So, it’d be wise to heed the call of those that do.

Keystone

Every SaaS company experiences churn, no matter what you might do to avoid or reduce it. But the efforts you take to minimize both voluntary and involuntary churn are fairly straightforward, not to mention more than worth the investment. Deploying these tactics can enable your business to focus on acquiring valuable new customers, instead of playing catch-up with the ones that jump ship.

Interested in learning how cleverbridge can help your business reduce churn? Reach out to us!

Kyle Shamorian is the content marketer for cleverbridge.

The post SaaS Churn Rate Reduction: 5 Ways to Take Action for Your Digital Business appeared first on cleverbridge.