Is a pay-as-you-go pricing model and billing strategy the next big industry trend?
As subscription and IoT service providers, you can’t afford to fall behind your competition or ignore key changes in the market. That’s why we’ve decided to take a closer look at consumption-based pricing and what it takes to successfully support a usage-based service.
Subscription-based billing models have become the go-to strategy for many industries. In 2000, Salesforce.com was among the first in the software industry to charge a per-user, per-month price. Today, industry leaders are looking further than a simple subscription model to adopting consumption-based offerings instead. In fact, a growing number of subscription and IoT companies are shifting from flat-rate monthly fees to pay-as-you-go pricing.If you’re looking to disrupt your market with a usage-based pricing service, take a look at our 4 “gotchas” and avoid some of the potential pitfalls.
1. managing usage
One key element to offering a pay-per-use model is advanced billing capabilities. In order to successfully create a consumption-based business, you’ll need to be an expert in managing customers, calculating usage, and billing operations. Rather than throwing people at a broken problem, look for a usage-based billing system that can take your back-office to the next level. Carefully evaluate each vendor’s ease of integration, existing carrier provisioning, and development roadmap for enhancements. It’s important to find a partner that will evolve with your business.
2. forecasting revenue
Subscription services are predictable – making it easy to forecast long-term revenue. When offering a pay-per-use service, one thing to consider is standardizing your revenue with a monthly minimum charge. Even a small monthly minimum fee will help you forecast and provide a baseline for the financial health of your organization.
3. avoiding bill shock
Alleviate the possibility of higher-than-anticipated bills by providing your end-customers with a self-service portal for viewing usage, creating support tickets, and monitoring new orders. The best types of customer portals come with built-in reports and the ability to create custom reports. In addition to avoiding bill shock, customer-facing portals increase satisfaction and retention.
4. consumption based technologies
Your success hinges on your technologies. Consumption-based pricing solutions require different technologies and processes than traditional flat-rate pricing models. When you’re looking for new or improved billing and back-office software, be sure your platform has functionality for real-time usage reporting, automated rating, built-in tax calculation, improving customer visibility, and billing flexibility. An intelligent usage-based billing system will complement your service offering – and make it easier for you to monetize any pricing model.
Don’t let a flat-rate flat-line your revenue, check out our full eBook – Capturing Recurring Revenue with Usage-Based Pricing for more information!
Don’t leave your success to chance. Partner with the right technology providers to ensure successful pay-as-you-go pricing adoption. Rev.io’s all-in-one-solution can tackle billing, customer management, tax calculation, reporting, order and service tracking, and more. We would love to help you disrupt your market! Our usage-based billing platform is perfect for subscription and IoT service providers looking to scale – let Rev.io take your team to the next level! Contact Rev.io by filling out a quick form or giving us a call at 866-470-5502 and learn more today!