What is Subscription Management for SaaS?

This includes handling things like:

• User account creation
• Subscription billing and billing automation
• Accounting and tax configuration
• Managing subscription upgrades, discounts, and cancellations
• International accounting and subscription localization

Beyond these core capacities, an essential aspect of subscription management is ensuring that subscribers remain happy and satisfied with their service. Without happy customers, there is no need for them to continue paying for the service. This is a core difference between traditional one-time payments and recurring business models: the risk of lower lifetime value is higher in subscriptions, but the chance of higher lifetime value is concurrently higher. Subscriptions are a perfect example of a customer-centric business model. 

Offering high levels of customer service can be done by giving customers a streamlined and simple purchase process. This involves providing accurate billing and invoicing and giving subscribers the ability to easily manage their own accounts online. When managed correctly, good subscription management can help to increase customer satisfaction, reduce churn and boost revenue. It’s an essential part of any successful SaaS business.

How to get started with Subscription Management for SaaS

If you’re looking to get started with subscription management for your business, there are a few things you’ll need to do.

1. First, you’ll need to choose a subscription management platform that fits your needs.
   There are a variety of options out there, so be sure to do your research before making a decision. Moreover, there are small business tools, tools for enterprises, tools for startups, and everything in between.
2. Secondly, once you’ve chosen a platform, you’ll need to configure your subscription plans and pricing. This is where you’ll need to finalize how much to charge for your service, and what features and benefits each subscription level will include. Next, be sure to offer a variety of options so that your customers can find the perfect plan for their needs. This is an excellent opportunity to differentiate. By offering different features in more affordable tiers, you can test which features customers are more or less willing to pay for, as well as earn new customers that you may not have before.

3. Finally, marketing. You’ll need to promote your subscription plans and features to your potential customers. Be sure to let them know about all the great features and benefits they’ll receive by signing up. What’s more…you can promote your plans through your website, social media, email marketing, and more.

SaaS subscription management tips:

1. Make it easy for users to sign up for your service as well as cancel your service. This means having a clear and simple sign-up and cancellation process, as well as providing users with an easy way to upgrade or cancel their subscription if they need to. In Germany, it is now a legal requirement to enable a cancellation button for all subscriptions or online services.
2. Keep track of all your users. This includes their contact information, billing information, and subscription status. It also includes in which countries they use your product, what currencies they pay in, and their payment behaviors. Data is your competitive advantage.
3. Make sure you have a scalable billing platform in place. This will ensure that you can properly bill your subscribers and avoid any billing issues down the line.
4. Be prepared to handle the ever-increasing volume of customer support issues. This means having a team and dedicated customer support tools available to help users with any problems they may have with your service.
5. Stay on top of subscription changes, missed payments, and pricing. This includes keeping track of when users upgrade or cancel their subscription, change plans, use a discount code or any other changes that may occur (such as changes in contact information).

In any case, by following these tips, you can ensure that you have a solid, scalable subscription management system in place for your SaaS product. As your business grows, you’ll need to keep track of an ever-increasing number of subscriptions, markets, currencies, and regulations. It’s essential to find a proper tool for any business that relies on recurring payments. The sheer volume of contracts and transactions isn’t something classic ERP systems (or Excel spreadsheets) can manage. Therefore, it’s essential to have a subscription management and billing system for SaaS that can handle scaling and sophisticated business models.

If you’re already well past your introductory steps, and are looking for a scalable subscription management solution, give Nitrobox a try. We offer a 30-Day Free Trial (no credit card required).