The subscription-based business model isn't a new concept—remember deliveries from the milkman? But in the past few years, subscription and membership models have grown hotter than ever. From monthly razor blade delivery clubs to countless software-as-a-service providers, many businesses are shifting towards a subscription model built on recurring revenues to drive growth.
However, as business leaders shift their business model towards paid subscriptions, they aren't guaranteed automatic success. Why? Customers have more choices than ever before and competitors are just one click away. Not only are there new products popping up on the market every day, it’s easier than ever for customers to switch from one company to the next. Reducing customer churn is key to building a healthy subscription-based business.
Here are four secrets to reducing customer churn through successful customer self-service like that provided by AnswerDash:
1. Satisfy customers by empowering them to help themselves.
When customers run into an issue or a question, they get frustrated if they cannot find a solution or answer and may head straight for your unsubscribe link. With a robust 24/7 customer self-service option on your website, you can provide instant answers at every hour of the day.
Your customers will be happy campers and you can spend more time on valuable high-touch conversations. Self-service is also the hidden key to scaling your support efforts as your company grows.
2. Reduce abandonment by providing seamless access to your self-service resources.
Do you want to drive users away from their subscription order form to dig for answers on a "help island" like a knowledge base or FAQ page? No, you don’t, because many users won’t come back. Don’t cross your fingers that users will return to your purchase page.
Choose to keep a self-service Q&A experience seamlessly integrated into every page of your website, right where users have questions and right where you drive revenue!
3. Continually improve your product or website with insights from support queries.
When companies face an issue where the rate of user abandonment exceeds the rate of user adoption, they must track down the signs and symptoms as to why. Identify common problems or issues by investigating what users were searching for and what they were interacting with when questions came up. This will allow you to identify issues in your sign-up page, revise and refine unhelpful answers, uncover hidden product concerns, and much more.
Note that conventional analytics, like Google Analytics, will only reveal where users go on your site, but not why they abandon. Getting insights built on seeing which self-service contextual Q&A your users access, and what they do as a result, will tell you why your users abandon or adopt.
4. Build loyalty by focusing on the entire customer experience.
There is a small window of opportunity when customers begin to lose interest and when they actually abandon you. Providing great customer service is a way to help keep them from falling off the ledge. But simply having a call center or live chat option does not guarantee a happy customer, especially if the service is not always available.
The quality of your customer experience needs to exceed the quality of your customer service. A great customer experience can be unified with great customer service by using contextual self-service where users can get answers, right when and where they need them.