How to choose the Best Subscription billing software for your business?
The market is flooded with subscription billing and management software, but each business is unique with its own unique demands and requirements. Every business must do a thorough requirement analysis before choosing a software that can completely complement your subscription billing process’ demands and needs. But as an owner of a subscription business model, you may be in the dark when it comes to selecting the right software. What are the parameters that need to be considered, what are the features available, will it be an investment in the long run or will it be a strain on the finance team, and a host of other queries may riddle your mind. This article will give you exactly the answers that you are looking for. It will help you ask all those questions that you should be asking before rounding on a selection. Is setting up a subscription billing and management software a hassle? Technically speaking, the answer to this query is multi-layered and very subjective. Based on your requirement and the level of customisation you will require, it may be time consuming or could be up and running in less than a few weeks. Will a Subscription billing solution integrate well with the existing legacy tech stack? Generally, no subscription software is built as a stand-alone solution. It is designed to work in tandem with other applications and software. Hence, most subscription management software and billing solutions integrate seamlessly with all legacy tech stack. Some of the important aspects of the integration process are as follows • Sales Imagine your sales team spending oodles of time manually creating customer accounts in a subscription billing solution. Would you want them doing a repetitive mundane activity or have them engaged in customer relationship and rapport building activities? Any business worth its salt will only choose the latter option freeing the sales team off the time-consuming manual processes and leaving the repetitive humdrum tasks for a CRM solution. • Accounting Always ensure that your subscription billing solution will integrate with the accounting solution. Your accounting team will have a bunch of documents and formatted data that will require accurate mapping across various platforms. A well customised subscription billing solution in place will ensure that all these manual works are sorted with minimum human intervention. • Payments It is the era of digital payments and customers who are not tech-savvy also prefer easy, convenient, quick and safe payment options available today. So your subscription billing and management solution must support multiple payment choices. Is a Subscription billing software quick, is it easy to use, and above all will it add value? A subscription billing software comes with a slew of amazing capabilities. But the requirement for each department in your business is different and one-size-fits-all training will not suffice. Such training will not be effective. This is why it is important to ask these questions before choosing a solution. Will there be merchant training support, specifically for each department. Will it be as good as a tailor-made solution meeting all demands of your business? The best subscription management solution will look and feel like it is tailor-made for your business. Top-notch vendors are experienced professionals who will know exactly what each business will require and will provide nuanced capability orchestration capabilities. How many models of subscription solutions exist? As already mentioned, an ideal subscription model that fits all businesses alike doesn't exist. Depending on each business and its needs, products and strategies in place, the solution requirement changes as well. Enlisted below are a few models popular among vendors • Fixed Recurring Model A fixed model is where a subscription vendor will provide a solution at a fixed price and charge you recurrently. • Quantity-based model In this model, based on quantity purchased, a charge is levied. • Usage-based model In this model, customers pay only for whatever they use. The best thing about having multiple models is that large corporations can make use of multiple models depending on the scale of business their customers engage in. In a Subscription billing solution, is it possible to run promotions, pause and resume? A wise man once said “consumers buy a product not because they understand but because they feel understood.” Client acquisitions, new subscriber acquiring, business expansion, upskilling etc are some of the biggest challenges a subscription-model business faces. Businesses try to attract new subscribers with various incentives like free trials, discount coupons, etc. Similarly, pause, postpone, resume functionalities shift the power of control and decision making abilities to customers. These functionalities also help in mitigating churn by letting cash-strapped consumers pause and resume service as and when they can. This makes them comfortable to use the solution and will feel understood. Is Gateway routing inbuilt and what happens in case of gateway failures? It is advised that a business have a solution that offers flexible routing payment options. Choosing the best payment gateway available will ensure greater acceptance among subscribers, mitigated processing costs, easy reconciliations, and reduced risks. Now, what happens in case of an outage? If you have a right technology partner, then he might have thought ahead and already has a backup plan in place which will redirect payments to the preferred option during outages. What is the Anticipated ROI? Recurring billing and management solutions can actually make or break a business. Think that is over-hyped? It is not. The right solution partner will definitely ensure that your business will get the run for its money several times over. This article gives you a round up on all the basic questions you should be asking to your subscription management solution vendor before you choose one. Now, you can take an informed decision before taking the plunge.
