The advantages of investing in a robust subscription billing system

Finding the right billing system

Forward-thinking businesses know that there's a better way to manage subscription revenue than doing it manually, and that investing in a robust subscription billing system has a wide variety of commercial and logistical advantages.

However, you can only access those benefits with a system that has been purposefully designed to meet the unique needs of a subscription business. That includes automating recurring payment processing, enabling customer self-service or order-to-cash user journeys, and helping you to streamline your subscription revenue.

In this article we look at the advantages of investing in a robust subscription billing system as part of your holistic approach to subscription management.

Four advantages of dedicated subscription billing systems

There are lots of benefits to using a purpose-built platform for a subscription business. All of those benefits will enable a better customer experience and a better user experience, both of which are at the heart of your business success. Billing is one of the most important aspects of a dedicated system. Getting the billing system right is not only essential for profitability and cash flow in a business that hinges on repeat revenue, but it's also vital for building the consumer trust that's needed for long-term customer relationships. Here are four ways a robust subscription billing system will benefit your business.

Easy subscription management

Robust subscription billing systems help you streamline your subscription revenue and make it easier to manage subscriptions . For example, it enables customers, partners, and business users to set up one-time and subscription payment plans, accept one-time payments and automate recurring payments quickly and efficiently.

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Customer subscription management benefits

From a customer perspective, dedicated subscription billing systems allow them to not only update payment information, pay and manage their invoices, but also purchase add-on products, upgrade, downgrade, pause, and cancel subscriptions conveniently through facilities like our customer portal. This not only gives customers an important sense of autonomy, but it eliminates the need for manual customer service or client support calls in unnecessary parts of the customer journey. You can choose to automate select elements of the customer experience, facilitate self-service where it is most beneficial, and reallocate human resources upmarket.

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Team subscription management benefits

Internally, subscription billing systems allow you to gain a comprehensive view of income and client data, which makes it easier to measure success and identify areas for improvement in your subscription management processes. The dedicated billing system allows you to assign sub-accounts with different payment terms and manage each customer’s subscription details effectively. For example, automated payment retry processes and email reminders can be sent to reduce missed or overdue payments, leading to a higher rate of successful transactions and greater levels of customer satisfaction. As a result, robust subscription billing systems enable businesses to offer premium features, improve customer retention rates/reduce churn, and increase profitability.

Choosing the right subscription billing platform is crucial for enhancing business efficiency and strengthening customer relationships. It should not only generate accurate invoices, but also provide the flexibility your business needs for evolving customer expectations.

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Subscription management for increased customer acquisition and retention

Subscription billing systems help you acquire and retain more customers through improved subscription management and customer journey.

The added convenience of a purposefully designed billing system makes the customer experience easier, faster, and more secure. In turn, this simplifies the purchase process, reducing the likelihood that buyers will abandon their carts during checkout. In addition, by aligning customer needs with pricing expectations in an automated flow, you can deliver an exceptional customer experience and boost retention rates over time.

With a subscription billing system comes the ability to create or add to an automated and personalized customer experience based on individual customer preferences like payment methods and payment frequency. Also, recurring payments can be organized into customizable, segmented subscription price plans that meet each customer's unique needs through tools such as an intelligent CPQ system and guided selling to navigate complex product catalogs.

Furthermore, you can use subscription billing systems to measure important metrics like retention and acquisition rates, which are essential in helping you to determine the best strategies for better revenue strategies.

Managing subscriptions for improved security and compliance regulation adherence

Investing in robust subscription billing systems provides extra security protocols for all your transactions as well as for customer data. This includes using the most up-to-date authentication techniques to protect both your business and customers. Again, this is essential for consumer trust as well as the reputation of your business. Furthermore, you get peace of mind knowing that your billing solution is up-to-date with regards to legal regulations, not just in your home territory but in any nation where your customers are transacting with you.

Additionally, the subscription billing system can help reduce liabilities such as failed credit card charges. keylight software’s automated payment and renewal features keep accurate records so that customers can update their account and billing information with ease. As such, you’ll receive fewer chargeback notifications due to outdated or incorrect customer information and through improved subscription management you have the opportunity to increase your customer retention by providing flexible billing and payment options. This also decreases operational costs as you don’t need to manually process every transaction or contact your customers to source for updated credit card details.

Managing subscriptions with automated and cost-effective billing and payment cycle management

Billing and payment cycle management is one of the most important aspects of any subscription billing system. Implementing rule-based policies, such as scheduling specific days for customer charges, setting automatic update reminders, and ensuring timely invoicing for payments, can significantly enhance efficiency and cost savings for subscription-based companies.

Automating subscription billing also provides competitive advantages with pre-built commerce capabilities, accurate pricing, and powerful data analytics to monitor customer upgrades, downgrades, subscription charges, billing cycles, payments and more on custom dashboards. The result is an efficient approach that ensures accurate data and actionable reporting insights so that you can act ahead of time if intervention is needed, and so that revenue runs smoothly for the ultimate growth and profitability of your business.

In the vast landscape of technological choices, the ideal subscription management and billing system should have a rule-based, no-code/low-code, and event-driven approach. These key attributes are essential for businesses seeking effortless growth and expansion.

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A robust subscription billing system

A robust subscription billing system like keylight automatically enables you to manage and streamline your billing process, whether you’re focused on one-time transactions or recurring charges. This minimizes errors and reduces customer complaints (and therefore customer churn) by automating price decisions and payment processing. Our subscription billing system also helps reduce the costs associated with manual subscription revenue processing through automation. Users can freely perform subscription activities without worrying about deferred revenue and journal entry corrections. Together these benefits translate to a seamless subscription revenue management process.

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