These days, if you’re not subscribed to a particular service, you get told you’re ‘missing o...
These days, if you’re not subscribed to a particular service, you get told you’re ‘missing out’.
Now, that might not bother some people at all – but to the 165 million paying for Spotify Premium, or the 200 million signed up for Amazon prime, there’s a clear demand for consistent, delivered services.
Meanwhile, the days of picking up records, or even buying DVDs, seem to be dwindling.
This massive shift in consumer behaviour also brings some huge change to the world of CRM.
So what does subscription mean when it comes to keeping customers engaged?
And how should you, as a CRM professional, approach it?
These subscription services have surged in popularity by allowing for a seamless flow of products to the consumer.
By virtue of using being subscribed, the customer has basically entered a contract with the business – which might sound a bit sinister, but it simply reduces the need for one-time purchases.
While this might have been commonplace for a while in areas like digital media, the consumer goods industry has also seen massive shifts through food subscription services like HelloFresh and Gousto, transforming how we cook at home.
Something else these services enable is a direct line of communication between both parties in the transaction.
Where you might’ve popped into a store for one item and never had any rapport again, the digitising of businesses means that subscriptions allow a great way to engage with customers.
Let’s face it – E-mails get lost to the spam inbox. It happens.
And often, a customer might not even notice.
But through subscription to a service, these emails effectively become part of an ongoing transaction – meaning they’re more likely to increase retention.
This spells a massive change for how CRM can be used to make sure a customer is engaged with the business.
It goes without saying that subscriptions can play an exciting role in CRM.
Well, on the flipside, the latter virtually relies on the former.
Subscriptions, especially to big companies, are a sprawling affair that require lots of management, something that CRM solutions can assist with massively.
As subscription becomes part of the customer lifecycle, automated solutions become very useful in managing its logistics.
This ranges from customer preferences, mass e-Mail campaigns (which might have promotions, service info, etc.) and the cancellation process.
As a CRM buff, then, subscription is something that should sit at the front of your mind.
It’s been steadily growing 435% in the last nine years, but time spent in lockdown has only sent it higher.
So, our advice?
Hit the ground running and become as familiar with subscription as possible. While there are lots of vacancies, there’s a shortage of proper candidates to fill them.
At 3Search, we can help make that connection. We’re experts in recruiting for marketing roles – and CRM falls well under that skill.
So if you’re looking to maximise on this subscription trend in a fresh new role, get in touch with me at andylarkin@3search.co.uk, or Suzannah at suzannah@3search.co.uk.
