Waterloo: Enhancing Subscription’s Customer Service and Billing Since 1815

The man never imagined when he sat down with strawberries for breakfast that the world was going to break apart.  

It was June 1815. He was Marshal Grouchy, and he and his troops were supposed to have picked off the Prussians. But he didn’t, and now his ally Napoleon was 20 miles away, fighting for his life against the armies of the Seventh Coalition, at Wavre.  

And though Napoleon was at first successful at defending attacks, as we all know, he eventually failed against Wellington soon after at Waterloo.  

The thing is, he didn’t have to fail.   

Because of a series of vague or incorrect intel and misunderstood orders between Napoleon’s unit and Grouchy’s, Marshal Grouchy and his supporting forces were delayed.  

So they had no idea that Napoleon’s forces were forced to fight without backup. In fact, Grouchy didn’t even know there was a battle that day – until he heard the actual battle going on.  

Disaster.  

This mistake allowed the Prussians to join up with Wellington’s British forces and start the beginning of the end for the French Army.  

The point is that success requires excellent communication between collaborators.  

And the same thing goes with subscription management.  

Okay, you probably just raised your eyebrow. You’re thinking there’s a chasm of difference between 19th century continental military disasters and SaaS subscription businesses.  

But hear us out.  

If your teams don’t communicate well, your business can blow up spectacularly. So this history lesson serves as a warning for subscription management. (We’re sure that’s what Grouchy had in mind all along).  

In a lot of subscription businesses, billing and customer service information and teams are siloed. This risks all the pitfalls of disjointed billing and customer service.  

And there are many pitfalls. Incorrect invoices. Billing disputes. Customer service reps who don’t understand the billing process. A billing team that might not be up on discounts, renewals, upsells and cross-sells. And maybe a sales team that’s way too busy to keep up with everything as well. 

But if there’s one thing that subscription customers don’t like in a provider, it’s mistake after mistake. That’s the basis of customer churn.  

High churn rates not only decimate your revenue but also damage your company’s reputation, making it hard, if not impossible, to bring new customers.  

And teams are stuck dealing with recurring issues instead of innovating and taking the company forward. 

Whether failure comes slow or fast, it’s hard to stop or recover.   

So why put your business in that position a second longer than you have to? 

Strategies for Victory

To tear those silos down and make sure that info flows between teams again, companies must take a strategic approach.  

Here are some things that can help:  

1. Clear and Concise Billing Information: Easy-to-understand invoices that include info like subscription plans, billing cycles, and payment methods can prevent billing disputes and reduce the burden on both customer service teams and accounts.
2. Training: Arm customer service staff, sales, and billing with the know-how of subscription billing and management processes. This means that all teams will know what is expected of them and what to expect from the others. This means more efficient subscriber query and problem resolution. No more putting a customer on hold hoping to find the answer! 
3. Proactive Support: When teams openly communicate, they can anticipate and address potential customer pain points before they escalate or even begin. For example, send reminder emails before subscription renewals or offer assistance with account changes. 

Best Practices for Killer Results

A coordinated approach for billing, sales and customer service teams includes these practices: 

1. Regularly review and update billing processes using feedback and insight from all teams to make sure they stay accurate and user-friendly.
2. Keep clear channels between billing and customer service departments, relying on continual collaboration and information-sharing.
3. Implement a centralized subscription management system to streamline processes and provide real-time data access to both teams. 

The easiest way to put this into action?  

Enter the LISA Solution: A United Front for Subscription Management

You might feel overwhelmed by the very idea of these suggestions. But you might have also felt exactly like Grouchy and watched with horror at the consequence of missed communication.  

The good news is that you don’t have to make these changes alone. Not at all.  

Bluefort’s LISA product suite is here to align your billing and customer service teams, transforming the subscription experience for them and your customers.  

LISA’s platform not only automates subscription billing and management processes (which is a revelation in itself), but it’s specifically designed to make it easy for teams to collaborate.  

Key features of LISA include: 

1. End-to-End Automation: LISA automates your entire-end-to-end process from invoicing to renewals which reduces mistakes AND keeps up with subscription sales and offerings. 
2. Digital Capabilities: Your billing, sales, and customer service teams can access real-time data and analytics when they need it. This means they can make informed decisions and handle any customer issues fast.
3. Ease of Use: LISA simplifies the subscription management process, freeing up your teams’ time so they can coordinate their efforts and provide a seamless customer experience. 

By learning from Grouchy and Napoleon, we can recognize the importance of coordination and communication in achieving success.  

Uniting billing and customer service teams will change your subscription management experience. It will make your teams far more happy and far less stressed.   

It will increase your customer satisfaction, and foster long-term loyalty.  

With these strategies in place, you’ll never have to watch your world crumble at breakfast over a bowl of strawberries.