Pause Subscription: An Ultimate Solution to Increase Retention Rate

Today, statistics indicate the number of subscribers and customers is increasing who are cancelling their subscriptions. Also, experts say that the customer churn rate and retention rate depend on the satisfaction of the customer base.

So, what can be the reason that the customers are leaving and cancelling subscriptions?

Is it ‘Dissatisfaction’?

Probably no! You just need to find some other ways to increase customer satisfaction, for instance, the pause subscription option. And before we delve into the deals of the pause subscriptions, it is important to have a cursory glance over the reasons for the subscription cancellations.

Also Read: Retention Management with SubscriptionFlow – A Platform Where You Get Modified Features for Your SaaS

Why do Customers Cancel Subscriptions

The most probable reasons for the cancellation of the subscription cancellations include:

• Increase in the prices
• Bad customer experience
• Payment issues (at the payment gateway side etc)
• Technical issues in the SaaS product
• No in-time customer care services
• Immature SaaS product

Though there can be a lot more reasons, the most significant ones are enlisted above. However, the most prominent reason that most businesses tell for customer churn rate is the increase in prices. So, here we are with the panacea to retain the customers who intend to leave because of such reasons.

Pause Membership Option

You need to offer your customers the option to pause the subscriptions rather than cancel them. Also, you can attach some benefits with the renewal of the subscription. For example, discounts etc. Pause membership or subscription option will not only help you reduce the churn rate but also stop those customers from leaving who need to cancel subscriptions for some time for varying reasons. For instance, if a subscriber is having magazine subscriptions or subscriptions for an OTT platform, but there are exams, plans of travelling, or even some office work that will keep the subscriber too busy to use subscriptions, then if you are not offering the option to pause subscriptions, he will cancel subscription plan. Such customers when need to have similar services or products, they prefer trying something new.

However, if you offer a pause subscription option, the chances are high to make them stop.

Also Read: Customer Retention Report 2022 with SubscriptionFlow

What Should be Your Pause Subscription Strategy

Now that you know paused subscriptions are better than the cancellation of subscriptions because customer retention increases. Though you need to put in the effort to strategize to reactivate the paused subscriptions, customers are retained and that can benefit you in many ways.

Targeted Customers

Coming towards your pause subscription strategy, first, you need to track the customer data so that you may know the customers and their activities. Subscription management platforms like SubscriptionFlow allow you to track customer data when the customer was not even onboarded. When you have this track, it is easier to track the customers whose activity is decreased with time. And that’s what you need. These are the targeted customers for your pause subscription option strategy.

Offering Paused Subscription Option

When inactive customers are identified, reach out to these customers through emails or customer support persons to offer the option of pausing subscriptions. You can market the option to pause subscriptions, however, even without marketing, you can make it work. All that is needed is to communicate with customers who are now not so active. Ask them the reason. If they are leaving, offer pause subscriptions as the counteroffer.

Track of Paused Subscriptions

Now that you have paused the subscriptions, it is important to track these paused subscriptions just like you do for the active subscriptions. The track of the paused subscriptions will show you the ways to turn paused subscriptions into active ones. It is not compulsory that all customers pause because of the same reasons. So, the reasons for pausing subscriptions differ so do the strategies to reactivate subscriptions.

SubscriptionFlow allows its users to track the activities of all subscribers no matter if they are active or not. If you onboard SubscriptionFlow, it will be a lot easier for your to strategize for pause subscriptions and bring your paused subscribers back to life.

Pause Vs Cancel Subscriptions

If you think that offering a pause subscription is not going to help because there remains a chance that whether the customer is going to be active once again or not, then you are wrong. Because even if the customer is not reactivating subscriptions, you will be able to enjoy the following benefits:

• The increase in retention is attractive for the incoming potential customers. When they see that your customer retention rate is good, they feel safe investing money with you.
• Also, the increase in the retention rate means that your brand position improves in the market and you can compete better in the market.
• For sustainable SaaS business growth, customer retention plays a significant role.
• It becomes clear to you which add-ons you need to work on.

So whenever it comes to pause subscription vs cancellation, the pause option wins.

Also Read: What Is The Relationship Between Customer Retention And CLV: A North Star Metric For Your Business

If you are planning to offer your customers the pause subscription option, then first, you will need to track the customer data to find the customers on the verge of cancelling subscriptions. And SubscriptionFlow can help you with that.

So, schedule a demo with SubscriptionFlow!