Are you fascinated by the idea of selling products or services on a subscription-based model? Does customer engagement excite you? Do you have a limited but centralized product line? If the answer to one or all of these questions is yes, you should look for a subscription payment gateway. The next thing you ask is how to find the one. We suggest knowing the benefits of recurring billing to its fullest. Begin with knowing your merchant account service provider and what features they offer.
Merchants should stay prepared to be called high-risk even if they don’t belong to it. Banks deem the subscription model high risk due to the chargeback ratio. It may baffle you but don’t sweat it. Focus on building excellent products. Keep investing in customer acquisition and retention campaigns. These are two aspects you have in control to make your subscription business a success.
Subscription payment processing charges customers on selected days. The billing could be monthly, weekly, or yearly. Subscription payment processors store data for recurring billing purposes. Do you find any link broken in the system for anything more than occasional chargebacks to occur? It all sounds like a cakewalk till now. It has its challenges, though. Management teams have chargebacks and cancellations as two massive mountains to climb. Both seem interlinked but have different fates to serve.
Subscription Payment Gateway: How to Build a Futuristic Business Model
You have a great product. Customers have shown interest and subscribed to it. As a business owner, you should know how things work in between. Every detail would help to find the best subscription payment gateway. Learn the basics of how subscription billing works.
- Customers sign up for a subscription
- Shares payment information, Agrees to repeated charges
- Subscription payment gateway stores information
- Transaction processes and cycle goes on
Before you focus on the subscription billing capabilities of the service provider, tick all the must-have boxes a top credit card processor possesses.
What Factor to Look for in a Subscription Payment Processor
Pricing: Business owners should inquire about subscription payment processing fees. You blink your eyes and have several unknown fees eating up your profits. Check from monthly fees and transaction fees to set-up costs. Calculate the expenses and count the profit. The idea is to have a fair exchange of value on both sides.
Types of Payments: The subscription business is about convenience, preference, and likeability. You should check if the service provider offers different types of payments or not. You don’t want to tell customers you have a great product, but payment options are limited. It says a lot about corporate culture and how you treat customers. Make your customers feel special.
Total Transaction Costs and Holding Time: Merchants should know how many transactions they process each month and their volume. You want to check if the subscription payment processor has the infrastructure to manage and scale operations with time. The standard payment holding time is from one day to six days. Don’t miss taking it with the team and how soon they can release the funds.
What you look for in a merchant account service provider remains the same in a subscription merchant account. You should focus on exclusive features and expertise they bring to stabilize the subscription business- From selling to after-sales.
Subscription Payment Gateway: Overcome Chargebacks, Cancellations
How does the best subscription payment gateway help improve customer engagement? It is time to invest in a technology-first merchant service. Gather crucial insights, draft them into a marketing strategy, and execute them through compassionate customer service. Top services provide an in-depth analysis of customer behavior.
The focus should be on education and awareness levels. Your audience should know what they stand to gain from their subscriptions. Highlight the cancellation process and the lost benefits, and display them prominently.
The expectations run high in a subscription business. Brands and customers push each other to get the best out of the deal. The human connection holds the fortress as cancellations throw things off balance. Narrow it down to what leads to chargebacks. Address those areas first.
Communication and Trust
Make no assumptions. The subscription business is still evolving. You should set the expectations from the beginning. Tell them about the subscription model, how it works, the payment cycle, and how to cancel. Exchange the information through emails or other communication channels. There is no point in leaving the questions unanswered. Follow a proactive approach. Educate them, and they’ll follow the right path. The chargebacks underline a critical problem.
Cancellations As Easy As Signing up
One trouble business owners ran into with little intention of causing damage than good is the subscription cancellation process. Extremely painful. Customers feel cheated or tricked, and when they walk hopelessly trying to cancel a subscription, it is at this time they decide to push for a chargeback. Why irk your customers? Make cancellations as easy as the signing-up process is. Leave the decision to the customers. Think about your brand’s reputation.
Customer Service (The Beacon of Hope)
The customer support team is the brand voice, face, and mascot. The marketing teams bring the customers in through the door. What makes their stay memorable and prolonged is the customer support staff. The retention part remains an unresolved territory. Entrepreneurs should run training sessions on how to design customer experiences when they’re signing up for subscriptions.
- Pick early signs of hesitancy or showing doubts
- Clear and jargon-free refund policy guidelines
The best subscription payment gateway offers top features for credit card processing and subscription-based businesses. You don’t have to compromise as you pick a single service provider to manage all aspects. Build your subscription business upon the robust merchant account. Business owners should adopt a cultural shift. It is where most of the things get done. An awareness-led customer service approach is crucial for new-age businesses. Your Merchant Services Rep (YMSR) finds exciting new possibilities emerging in subscription-based business models. The golden rule is to stay customer-focused and innovation-centric.
Conclusion:
Finding a top subscription payment gateway is about getting the merchant account basics right. You don’t want two services to manage credit card processing and subscription-based business. Shop for a top merchant account service provider offering exclusive subscription features to stay on the top.
