Payment solution providers vs. subscription solutions

The difference between general payment solutions and subscription platforms is that the former are merely transactional, while the latter are also instrumental in relationship building. These mechanisms need to not only facilitate recurring payments but also manage the logic for billing customers, especially during subscription activities such as contract upgrades, downgrades, co-terming, or prorations. This ensures that every transaction is an easy, reassuring, and positive experience, incentivizing customers to retain their subscription going forward.

The essentials for a successful payment strategy

There are lots of things that go into creating a seamless payment process that is effective for the company, reliable over time and that supports the customer. These are our top five things to look out for:

Payment methods for global coverage

Make sure your payment provider has the capacity to offer a diverse range of payment methods that enables global coverage. Different payment services have different capabilities but only some offer global gateways that facilitate cross-border transactions. Most subscription businesses grow by expanding into different global territories at some stage, where different payment types, from credit cards to Apple Pay or direct debit are the preference. Equally, different industries might prefer specific payment solutions designed for certain transaction volumes and fees. It's important not to limit your market by not being able to accommodate certain payment methods.

Account reminders

Credit cards expire and payment methods often need reauthorizing for the purposes of security. To maintain a seamless, positive and up-to-date relationship between you and the customer, and to help prevent any involuntary churn, anticipating those updates and authorisations is imperative. That's why a payment service provider that holds information, knowing when a card is about to expire and with the capacity to send a reminder email to the account holder, is a powerful asset for your subscription business.

Logic to define how failed payments should be retried

Sometimes payments do fail. Perhaps there weren't enough funds in the required account at that moment. Perhaps the account holder forgot to update the payment method. For lots of reasons, payments can fail unintentionally, so it's important to have a subscription system with payment logic that allow your business to define how many times and when failed payments should be retried.

Recurring payment reminders

When you have recurring payments, especially when they're long distances apart, payment reminders (such as subscription payment reminder emails) are an important part of the customer experience. They are also important for ensuring that payments go through, perhaps because a payment method needs updating or re-approving for example. This is part of a wider communications flow between the company, the system and the customer surrounding invoices and payments. Those communications need to be streamlined in order to provide a supportive, connected service, helping customers to feel secure, knowing they will be reminded if or when they need to take action. At keylight we don't just enable emails, but other helpful resources, including SMS reminders to enable better customer relationships and experience.

Payment reconciliation 

Some payments may experience delays in processing, but this does not imply that they have not been completed. It is crucial to stay informed about payment statuses to ensure customer and business user experience. To achieve this, a subscription platform that integrates seamlessly with payment solutions comes into play. Such a platform should provide real-time updates on payment statuses and automate tasks such as marking invoices as paid or initiating payment retries and dunning procedures if initial attempts are unsuccessful. By implementing such a system, you not only enhance the customer experience but also improve internal efficiency and mitigate revenue loss resulting from manual errors.