Summer is here and subscription news is broiling. June was a busy month here at the blog, where we covered strategies for legal compliance in the subscription world, data security in the cloud, key subscription metrics, unlocking the value of CRM data, knowledge management in the cloud, and finding opportunities in the turmoil of the Brexit vote.
Below, find out about the hot June stories you may have missed. We tackle the implications of the Brexit vote for data compliance and taxation. We take a look at customer experience in terms of subscription billing, balancing CX with monetization, and how to maximize your CX ROI. Finally, we look at global compliance through the lens of data protection.
Brexit Roundup
The vote in the U.K. to leave the European Union this month is big news. What the news means, no one really knows yet. But that hasn’t stopped a bevy of writers from chiming in.
83% of UK IT leaders said that their data centers are based in Europe — diginomica
Brexit and Data Compliance — Where to Now? | diginomica
While not much is clear in the wake of the Brexit vote, what is clear is that the next two years will be fraught with U.K./EU trade negotiations. Diginomica asks, where to now?
“At best, Brexit leaves the U.K.’s position on data sovereignty and governance uncertain, and at worst a legislative mess that may take years, even decades, to resolve. The latter is a real possibility: the Leave campaign admits to having no post-Brexit plan.”
A key statistic is that 83 percent of IT leaders in the U.K. said that their data centers are based in Europe. This fact alone is significant. Either those data centers move to the U.K., a data privacy standard is adopted between the U.K. and the EU, or U.K. companies dedicate continental resources to their EU customers while doubling up operations back at home for their U.K. customers. In any case, it means additional expenses that divert resources from innovation.
10 Facts Tax Professionals Need to Know about UK Brexit Vote to Leave the EU | AccountingToday.com
Accounting Today takes a close look at the Brexit’s implications for tax compliance from many angles. Especially relevant are their observations about digital goods:
Since 2015, US companies use the single reporting portal, MOSS. This accepts single, simplified quarterly VAT returns to cover sales and VAT due for all 28 states. A U.K. exit from the EU VAT regime will mean digital service income to U.K. consumers will have to be reported separately to the U.K. tax authorities. This will require a new, separate VAT registration in the U.K. by US providers, and quarterly U.K. VAT returns.
Note: Digital services subject to VAT include a wider net of transactions than the US definition of digital goods. As well as e-books, EU and U.K. VAT is due on service income from consumers for products such as: online membership sites; subscriptions to news websites; hosting services; streaming video, music or games; online education; hosting services; broadcast TV and radio; and telephonic voice and data.
Customer Experience
Subscription Billing and the Era of Customer Experience | cleverbridge
We launched a new video series this month. In case you missed it, cleverbridge co-founder Craig Vodnik gets us thinking about subscription billing that puts customers at the center.
The Balance Between Monetization and User Engagement | Business 2 Community
In the subscription world, monetizing content or customer relationships is the name of the game, but doing it poorly can mean ruining customer experience. As Business 2 Community’s Roee Ganot says, “Adding a bunch of pop-ups and other ads isn’t really conducive to the user experience since they become so annoyed with the ads that they just leave.”
Even if you don’t serve traditional ads, excessive marketing pushes through email or in-app messaging can also spoil customer experience. Ganot outlines some simple steps to take that will provide customers the choices and seamless experiences they demand.
How Marketers Can Improve ROI on Customer Experience | AdAge
AdAge introduces an interesting concept to measure the return on investing in outstanding customer experience. “The secret to maximizing CX ROI is to focus on customer experience value (CXV) — creating the most experience value for those customers that will create the most business value for the company (now and in the future).”
They define four ways to approach measuring CXV, which focus heavily on strong segmentation. They recommend not only segmenting the customers with greater CLV, but also segmenting the moments that matter most to subscribers. Emphasizing the most valuable touchpoints for the most valuable subscribers is the key to maximizing CXV.
Global Compliance
Why Companies Need Pseudonymisation and Data Masking for GDPR Compliance | Information Age
Not every business is responding to new European data privacy regulations by gearing up for total regulatory paralysis. A movement among data managers towards pseudonymisation is turning regulation into innovation. Information Age says, “Pseudonymisation is an umbrella term for approaches like data masking that aim to protect confidential information that directly or indirectly reveals an individual’s identity … The GDPR punishes businesses that fail to protect personal data in keeping with its requirements, and encourages the use of pseudonymisation technologies, as a part of its security requirements. The fine for non-compliance can be harsh, as much as 4% of global turnover, enough to jeopardise ongoing European operations for any business selling in the EU.”
