Best Subscription Management Software

What You Should Know About Subscription Management Software

Subscriptions are an increasingly common sales approach with thousands of mobile apps, online services, and other solutions inviting customers to establish an extended period of consistent service, rather than paying for each interaction. To make these long-term relationships more appealing, businesses often offer additional savings or supplementary items for customers who subscribe. Along with offering subscription packages, businesses must deliver agreed upon products or services while charging predetermined amounts at the correct intervals. Subscription management tools assist with recurring payments—as well as the creation and fulfillment of subscription contracts—so companies can run effective subscription models with minimal legwork.

Subscription services can make customer support, customer retention, and the billing and invoicing process more complicated. The platforms in this category provide various tools that help manage these relationships and create winning subscription plans for a diverse customer base. The data gathered by these platforms can help employees track customers who signed up for subscriptions, the plans they signed up for, and other valuable information related to their accounts. Administrators can quickly reference these platforms if customers have multiple subscriptions, trial periods, or special offers tied to their contracts and use this information to make strategic decisions. Finally, administrators help ensure automated payments are collected, and the appropriate solutions are delivered. These modern platforms enable businesses across diverse industries to adopt a subscription model for their products or services, as well as assist businesses with existing subscription plans to streamline their processes so they can deliver improved results for the organization and its customers.

Key Benefits of Subscription Management Software

• Stores and organizes customer information and data related to subscription services
• Establishes and executes automated payments tied to continuous plans
• Assists with account discounts and upgrades
• Manages customer churn once plans are cancelled or come to an end
• Creates opportunities for upselling and plan renewals

Why Use Subscription Management Software?

If a business runs an app, e-commerce store, delivery service, or other platform that draws loyal customers, a subscription model or a subscriber option can boost revenue numbers and service delivery agents. A subscription manager can turn this idea into a reality, allowing users to easily implement subscription options into their payment gateways. When customers sign up for products or services, they can become subscribers and have their bank card information put on file to avoid entering it again later. Once a preferred pricing plan is selected, subscribers can choose to automate their subscription payments for a set or indefinite period of time. As a subscriber base grows, sales and fulfillment teams can monitor these accounts using the subscription management platform. This ensures companies accurately charge customers and customers receive the correct services.

These platforms generate a new source of revenue and extend the customer lifecycle for many users, but they can also provide actionable data for marketing campaigns. As customers progress through their subscription terms, there are extensive opportunities for follow-ups, upsells, renewals, or offers related to additional products and services. Marketing and outreach teams can easily view information about subscribers and their plans so they can choose the optimal moments to reach out with special offers or product tips and collect feedback in the process. These personalized interactions can help minimize churn rates, while increasing revenue and customer engagement. Along the way, these platforms can minimize the stress of manual processes and ensure the timely, successful delivery of products and services to customers. Recurring revenue models like subscriptions are more prevalent now; this specialized software lets businesses of any size succeed.

Who Uses Subscription Management Software?

Based on user reviews for the platforms in this category, there are a wide range of common use cases. From mapping out the right subscription plan to handling financials related to these accounts, a number of moving parts are involved with modern subscription models. Anyone involved in this process can benefit from accessing and utilizing these tools. The following are common use cases for modern organizations.

Product and IT teams — Before a customer can purchase a subscription online, the option must be available to them. These products typically offer integrations with e-commerce software and payment gateways to create a fully operational customer portals that allow users to easily purchase subscriptions. In many cases, these online stores are moderated by product and IT specialists or web development teams. Subscription management platforms help individuals establish subscription plans and integrate them into websites, online stores, and checkout pages, offering customers an easy way to learn about and choose the plans that work best for them. If there are technical issues or an update to a plan, these experts leverage the platform to make necessary changes and ensure a smooth experience for customers and internal teams.

Customer success and customer service — When customers purchase a subscription, issues and questions might arise during the customer journey. Depending on the size of the company, customers might upgrade or downgrade their subscription at any time; renewals and cancellations could be a daily occurrence. Customer support professionals might be the first point of contact for customers, through technical support lines, online chat windows, or similar channels. These experts leverage subscription management platforms to discuss account information, subscription details, and make requested changes with customers. Seamless access to information on these platforms allows subscription service teams to handle matters without escalating or redirecting customer interactions. It is important for businesses to consider how customer service and success will be handled, and give employees the right tools to perform these functions. Subscription management platforms help employees perform their jobs and maximize customer satisfaction, retention, and revenue along the way.

Account managers — Depending on the size and scope of a subscriber base, there might be a benefit in assigning account managers to specific accounts to help guide consumers’ experiences and ensure they get the most out of a product or service. Account managers must have access to subscription details and the customers who signed up for different plans, along with the ability to modify accounts. These specialized platforms can quickly become an asset in the daily functions of account managers who handle important subscriber accounts.

Subscription Management Software Features

The following are some common functionalities found within this type of software.

Plan management — When considering a subscription model for products or services, there are countless ways a business might structure them out. Plan management tools allow users to design the options that make the most sense for customers and a business. Each plan has different contract lengths, prices, feature packages, and payment options. Subscription managers help companies construct and edit these plans on the backend before they are added to the product listings or checkout pages on a website. Once plans are created, a company might modify the details, from the names of plans to temporary discounts. Plan management features allow users to update plans at any point based on these strategic decisions. They might also offer tools for trial periods and other plan features that can help market them to the right customers at the right time, and attract new users who are not ready to commit to a full subscription.

Subscription lifecycle management — As customers purchase different subscription plans, companies with subscription-based models encounter a wide range of scenarios related to their success. The subscription lifecycle for an average customer might include changes to payment information, plan upgrades or downgrades, and renewals or cancellations. The employees assigned to handle these matters can leverage platforms to access customer account information and make appropriate updates based on customer inquiries. There are opportunities to upsell on basic plans to premium subscriptions after a trial or discounted subscription. Subscription lifecycle management features enable employees to identify opportunities and engage with customers to make changes to their accounts. These tools help establish automated recurring payments and help customers stop payments.

Software and Services Related to Subscription Management Software

The following solutions relate to subscription management platforms and help businesses create, execute, and improve subscription-based sales models.

Subscription billing software — While a business might handle hundreds or thousands of subscribers, consumers have their hands full as well, with their attention spread across many service providers at one time. It’s helpful to remind customers about upcoming payments or action items related to their account. Subscription billing platforms assist companies with invoicing and other important billing statements. Automated invoicing helps maximize revenue by nudging customers to pay and renew their subscriptions. Many platforms offer capabilities such as notifications about late or incomplete payments with automated changes to customer accounts if complete payments are not received. Some platforms monitor the performance of specific plans or special offers, providing insight that influences decisions including changes to pricing plans or features. These billing solutions can be a natural complement to subscription management platforms.

Subscription analytics software — While some invoicing tools offer reporting features related to subscription plan performance, a company might prefer a dedicated system for measuring the success and failure of these initiatives. Subscription analytics platforms offer diverse data related to customer subscription models. This could include metrics such as the efficiency of free trials, demographics associated with different plans, and renewal rates for each product or service. Customer retention and overall revenue are the two most critical metrics related to subscription-based sales models; these tools help determine the impact of different components on these primary objectives. These platforms help businesses determine the customers most likely to upgrade or renew—and conversely, those most likely to cancel or downgrade—as well as the value and acquisition cost of specific sets of customers. After a subscription model is enacted, it is crucial to measure its performance and be ready to adjust strategies based on these findings. Subscription analytics software can help teams refine their subscription strategy.

These platforms may offer similar functionality to subscription revenue management software, which tracks subscription plans based on their impact on company revenue and KPIs. Based on the data generated on these platforms, users can adjust the pricing of company plans, as well as introduce limited-time offers and discounts to improve revenue numbers. In some cases, businesses can use these analytics to quickly identify the best-performing and worst-performing products and plans, so they can adjust their marketing and pricing strategies as needed. These platforms may integrate with data from corporate performance management (CPM) software to give management teams a clear picture of how subscriptions affect larger company objectives, and what moves could maximize their impact while minimizing losses or other risks.