Aligning subscription models with loyalty schemes and customer services

Subscription commerce is much more than just transactional sales. It allows retailers to build long-lasting, positive relationships with their audience base.

We believe that subscription models offer more opportunities than ever to turn your shoppers into brand advocates. With each positive experience, you have more chances of your audiences referring you to their loved ones and growing an active community of core customers.

Customer service is intertwined through each facet of your subscription offering. It begins with your initial sign- up and runs through your promotional deals, referral codes, loyalty points, and self-service subscription management.

We want to encourage retailers to look closer at their customer service opportunities within their subscription model strategies. If you've invested in a platform that allows for self-service management, what else can you do to maximise that channel's impact and provide added value to your customers?

The technical infrastructure allows endless possibilities to encourage engagement with your brand far beyond the subscription box. For example, you could use digital marketing integration to provide hints, tips, or advice on using particular products. You could even implement video tutorials or opportunities to showcase additional usage of specific items.

This technical integration doesn't need to be complex or expensive. Even the publication of a QR code on a subscription box package could be enough to drive your customers back to your website and benefit from your content marketing plans.

This quiet persuasion could be crucial in creating a community between yourself and your audiences, where content and people align to create long-lasting advocacy.

Using loyalty points schemes to boost sales

Today's retail world is full of customer loyalty schemes designed to encourage shoppers to complete their transactions. These loyalty schemes provide retailers with a wide range of data to personalise the shopping experience further, from special discount codes to mark a customer's birthday to tiered loyalty plans recognising long-time subscribers.

Today's current cost of living crisis means that budgets will continue to be tightened. As a result, customers will be looking to benefit from subscription boxes that offer exceptional value for money.

This represents a stronger chance for retailers to look closely at their loyalty programmes to identify how they can continue to offer exceptional customer service and a strong subscription offering.

Within our research, a quarter of respondents told us that they believe the chance to earn loyalty points is an important feature of a subscription service. Currently, this is not a default option among retailers.

With the right platform in place, offering a loyalty programme is a quick and easy way to reward shoppers for their custom. Some retailers have begun offering tiered loyalty schemes that recognise long-term supporters, and we believe this is increasingly important.

However, we know shoppers get frustrated by the sheer volume of discounts and promotional offers available to new customers.

So as part of your customer relations strategy, it's important to look at how you can continuously reward existing subscribers.

Keeping your current audience base happy will not only reduce customer churn but also extend those customers' lifetime value and reduce your acquisition costs.

Remarketing to former subscribers

A final point of consideration is to look at what communication you have with previous subscribers.

We've identified that a customer could choose to cancel their subscription at any time for several reasons. But just because a customer is no longer an active subscriber does not mean they should drop out of your sales funnel altogether.

There are numerous ways you can use technology to reach out to previous customers, encouraging them to sign up again. From emails to push notifications, your approach to former subscribers should focus on why they chose to drop out.

For example, if it were for budgetary reasons, could you highlight your value for money?

Automation is making this easy to manage. The challenge for your digital marketing teams is finding the right message that entices former customers to come back to you.

For more on Subscription Models, our latest Whitepaper, The Future of Subscription Commerce is up for Renewal can be downloaded in full, for FREE, directly from sherwen.com.

We partnered with YouGov to survey thousands of UK consumers to try and discover how retailers can deliver the subscription commerce package that their customers are looking for.