Somebody once said, “I don’t have customers I have friends that like to buy from me!” That may work in a high-value pre-Covid world. Going forward in the emerging digitised automotive ecosystem we will need to do more with less for many.
Providing a SaaS fleet management platform is all about constant onboarding with detailed planning and organisation of all the players in the fleet management process.
The ODO operation model is based on automating as much of the mundane to make customer engagement the priority. With a truly embedded workflow, to support the tactical approach ensures no opportunity is missed to engage with clients. Those opportunities cannot be just a hard sell about your products, they must be empathy-building, newsworthy, issue-resolving, amusing but most importantly, subtle calls to actions from core individuals in your business.
We all know onboarding new subscribers is what drives the ARPU, but what drives UP the ARPU in the Subscription Economy is the customer transacting more of what you offer. So, making it easy to facilitate changes to existing subscriptions: renewals, suspensions, add-ons, upgrades, terminations is important.
Having a fully engaged client with easy access to the system, with a clear renewals process will radically reduce churn, facilitate higher growth in terms of expanding existing accounts and creating upsell potential.
Do you need a renewals specialist?
Not always, just a well-defined process that is presented clearly and the team supporting it are confident on how it works. However, it really depends on the size and demand of the client.
In the SME space, the renewal requirement can be often almost fully automated. Post-Covid having flexibility around extending the contract term, providing competitive cost-effective options, selling additional products, and reducing discounting is all about knowing your client better and critical early engagement in the renewal process.
Renewal specialist or not, the key to success is being proactive. ODO is all about making sure you automate the support of this activity so are not waiting until a few days before the contract expires.
The critical time…
It is not 180 days before the contract is due to expire, it is the day the client sign’s up for their first contract. If your engagement plan has been working well the 180 days mark will begin the actual renewal flow. The churn risk should have been greatly reduced. At this stage, you will be far better placed in understanding how the discussion will evolve around the whole renewal process. The 90 days mark should be all about confirming the contract and structuring the delivery process. 30 days is all about completion and the renewal process starting again…
