28 Feb What happens to your customer relationships when you build a successful subscription model?
Your customers are the lifeblood of your business, and their continued sales and loyalty are vital to its growth and future.
A regular income stream – a guaranteed, predictable income and cashflow – alongside better, stronger customer relationships, results in a stronger, future-proof business.
This is not a pipe dream. With a little bit of time, effort and planning, this can be your reality if you tap into the lucrative and successful subscription business model.
Whether you like the idea or not, you are competing in a subscription economy.
A Royal Mail report suggests that nearly a third of consumers are now signed up to at least one subscription service and that almost three-quarters of these are signed up to more than one, while the number signed up to four or more is up to 56%, (from 37% in 2017).
UBS, one of the world’s largest banks, issued a report detailing how the subscription economy is on track to become a $1.5 trillion market in 2025, up from £650 billion in 2020.
You can build a much healthier business, create a stronger strategic advantage and accelerate your growth if you re-imagine your customers as subscribers.
A successful subscription business model would enable you to enter into a continuous agreement with your customers (subscribers) and would enable them to feel like they have access, and even ownership, over the goods and services they buy. For instance, Spotify subscribers aren’t interested in owning CDs or records; they want access to stream their favourite music anytime and anywhere. They want choice, ownership and a reliable product and service at the touch of a button.
Direct, ongoing relationships with your customers are very different to one-off, often anonymous, product or service transactions.
As John Warrillow says in his book The Automatic Customer:
“Shifting from selling a one-shot product or service to selling a subscription is like the difference between a one-night stand and getting married.”
How can you create this type of winning customer service in your business and take your customers’ expectations and relationships to the next level?