How to Keep Customers and earn revenue for your SaaS-based Company

Subscriptions form the basis of every SaaS commercial model.

This seems like an ideal concept. A customer sign-ups for your product, and every month, they have to pay for retain access to the product. Simple, right?

Incorrect payment details can lead to one of the unspoken reasons behind customer losses in the SaaS industry--involuntary churn. Involuntary churn happens when customers are churning and not even realizing or consciously. The involuntary churn accounts for 7.2 percentage of the churns in all industries as well as 7.5 percent of all churns within the SaaS sector.

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Let's look at how you can implement these strategies into your own company.

The reasons for non-voluntary or failed payment customer churn can occur in tandem

One aspect that support each one of these is by providing your customers with a stellar customer experience. If you've put the right processes in place, it is possible to make your customers satisfied and keep generating revenue--at the same time.

Before diving too deeply into the ways to keep your revenue flowing, it's essential to consider what "involuntary churn" means. Imagine a normal payment process that you've set up to your clients

• Sign up for your service.
• The payment date is 28th of March.
• Initial charge to the account was not successful.
• The system sends the customer an email to inform your customer that the purchase they made cannot be valid, and they may lose access to the product If they do not take immediate action.
• The user doesn't accomplish anything on the first try, and their next try at charging their card for payment fails too.
• If you fail on the third time to make payment Your system is then unable to renew their subscription and either switch their subscription to a no-cost version or cancels the account altogether.

But what this report is not able to reveal are the many causes that could have caused the failure in collection of payments.

That's why planning for churn involuntary is essential to revenue recovery. The planning process can be in many different kinds, such as:

• The process of setting up a sequence of "dunning" emails. These sends out a string of reminders to customers to alter their credit card information or their payment processing choices
•       Examine how the card information are updated within the internal system. When a client updates their information, is it transferring the correct information to your payment system?
• Be sure that your payment processing does not have security problems at the gateway and stops fraudulent transactions.

Three steps to use to increase profits and prevent involuntary churn of your customers.

There are three methods to collect revenue

1. Offer your clients a simple method of collecting payment

Just entered 2020 and we are living in a time that people do not expect to receive the money on a regular basis and they expect them to.

When you send invoices and asking customers to pay for their subscriptions by hand, it's not only a method to increase the friction in the process and can result in payment delays. The invoices are lost and even if they're not, customers may not pay them, putting their subscription at risk.

One of the easiest methods to avoid this is to provide your customers a seamless, automatized process for completing their payment. The page for payment you design will not just provide your users with an easy user experience as they sign up for their subscription. The page should also make it easy for them to access when they wish to edit their account details.

There are several options to help you help your customers make their subscription payments a seamless experience:

• Set up a separate website or webpage for clients to edit their personal details: A customer should be able to change their information regarding payment at any time they require, not only in the event of a payment failure. Make sure that this option is available for your customers at all times.
• Security first: When a client enters their details for their credit card, the data should be entered so that it is encrypted. Making sure that your customers' credit card information safe when they input their card information is vital to keeping them around. Why would anyone want to work with a company who doesn't have a secure payment system?
• Make it easy--even when you're on a mobile device: Your customers are active people. Make sure your site or payment processor is responsive, regardless of what type of device they're making use of. If they can update their payment details, whether they're working or traveling, the better likelihood they will complete it.
• Check that everything is working in the right way: As great as technology is, we all are conscious of the times when it's not always operating properly. Examine your payment process and update page to confirm that things are functioning as they should. Otherwise, you might find that your customers are trying to update their data regarding their payment however they aren't successful in doing so.

     By using a payment processor, you will be able to receive the subscription fee via autopilot. It handles subscriptions via multiple payment gateways and supports every major payment method, currencies, and languages.

2. Allow them to breathe if they don't make the first payment.

There is a chance that a payment error can occur. This is a normal aspect of subscription games.

When a customer's credit card has stopped working, they should give them time to figure out why it happened. Thanks to technology such as card updaters coming onto the scene, information about cards are changed automatically. There are however situations where the details on their cards won't stay up to date which is why email dunning comes into play.

The dunning email shouldn't be used to nag clients about not having their payment. It's more likely to keep in touch with customers to assure that all is well as well as give them the opportunity to modify the details on their payment, like this dunning email from Hulu:

• Let your clients be aware that your service deserves their money: Don't demand payment from the beginning. Instead, compose the email in a manner to remind your clients why they signed up to your product in the first place. For example, in the Hulu instance, the email is a reminder to users that they are allowed to watch the programs they like in the event that they decide to renew their subscription.
• Be brief and simple: Don't send a lengthy email in the same way as novels are long. Keep it to just only a few paragraphs and ensure that each serves a specific goal. It could serve to remind the client of the advantages your product provides, and follow up with a brief explanation of the failed payment. Do not make the email just about the failure to pay however, be clear that if the client isn't proactive this will revoke the membership.
• Give a concise CTA Like what Hulu has done in their email mentioned above. Instead of including an "pay immediately" button instead, they've advised the user that it's easy to "reactivate" their subscription. Add a clear CTA for the user is aware what they have to do for maintaining their subscription.

Additionally, you should ensure that the process of updating is easy as possible. The CTA sends clients to a pay update website that will respond to the device the customer is reading the email in question from. Keep in mind that the easier the process for users to change their account information is the more likely they are to do so.

3. Give your clients the chance to be winners.

Offer your customers an opportunity to have a second opinion on the reasons why their transaction bounced, and work together with them to offer other options to their membership.

If, for instance, they don't make their payments, do not immediately cancel their account and take them off your database. Instead, contact them and ask how you can do for the person in need.

You might offer to:

• Be sure that the subscription is in good standing and at the lowest level they are able to pay for.
• Transfer them to an evaluation version of the product you are using for a minimum of a time
• The account should be shut down.

In the case of SaaS, especially if you're selling a costly product that you aren't able to let customers go in the event that their first payment fails. It could be that they've been hit by an economic recession that means they can't keep their subscription in the moment. If that's the case you can offer to transfer their subscription to a lower-cost version of your subscription, or even temporarily suspend the subscription until they're ready.

Naturally, ensuring that you treat your customers well in the event of problems with payments keeps them content. They'd like to know you can handle the fluctuating peaks and troughs associated managing the business. By putting the account on hold instead of taking it off will save you from having to go through the process of getting them onboarded again each time they renew their account.

You'll win, as will your clients.

The process of recovering failed payments is the key for reducing the amount of churn.

In the event that they fail, in the event of failure then it's crucial to put in the right process to not only recover your revenue but to keep your customers as well. It's vital that, if a customer's payment fails to be processed, the first contact they have with them is not seeking to recover their funds. It's important to keep in touch with your customers, inquire if they have any issues or issues, and then seek to fix the issue with them.

Your customers are the foundation of your enterprise If you can get them back on track doesn't mean they're likely to leave. In the opposite direction If you approach it properly, you can create a an impact on your customers and for your business.

Kimberlee Meier Kimberlee Meier is a Content Writer for B2B/SaaS helping start-ups accelerate their expansion by providing quality and evergreen writing. Workshops are available at kimberleemeier.com

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