When I was at Shopify, every single merchant got their own dedicated MSM. We had an amazing support team that fine-tuned programs for true success.
Over the last five years, Shopify has moved away from that model and has placed more customer support tasks in the hands of chatbots.
This has only motivated us to take several steps forward to ensure brands receive the level of support they need to grow and sustain a subscription program.
This is an advantage for all brands. Let me show you what I mean by that…
What makes Stay’s customer support unique?
If you’ve ever tried to optimize anything (truly anything), you know that all of the interconnected pieces play a role in the outcome.
If you struggle to obtain a key ingredient for your product, it will be a challenge to fulfill orders, which will impact delivery times and customer satisfaction.
Having a support team that understands the challenges of each part of your operation, rather than just the subscription side, is beneficial and essential to success.
Giving you the subscription partner you deserve
Merchants need someone who understands all of the connected pieces and how they intermingle, and I’m not just talking about subscriptions. I’m talking about e-commerce as a whole.
You have logistical challenges, shipping hassles, a complicated supply chain…
Even a merchant with a 100% domestically sourced ingredient list might get their packaging overseas. A good customer service partner understands what the brand needs to do from a forecasting perspective with their subscription program, to mitigate any disruptions (like those caused by COVID).
This might mean doubling down on acquisition or altering how we handle retention. If we make those adjustments, how will they impact the rest of the program?
All Stay merchants get a dedicated customer success manager who can provide expertise and guidance while working with them on any project. This includes auditing their program, reviewing their analytics, and facilitating the strategy side of their subscription program.
Let me just paint an example of what this partnership looks like…
Have you ever heard of Noonbrew?
No?
That’s because it was completely rebranded to Moonbrew.
One of our CS managers, Sophie, worked with them throughout the entire rebranding process—changing all of their products, getting customers to resign, updating all communication methods and messaging, and rebranding the website.
With most customer service teams across other subscription management platforms, you’re not going to get this level of partnership. They’re focused on the subscription side of the equation, and that’s it.
We understand that subscription success comes when all parts of the business work together.
Your marketing, product, website, messaging… all of them will drive acquisition. But it’s the product, rewards, subscriber experience, and more that retain them.
Success plans and executive business reviews
In the example I gave just above, with Moonbrew, an executive business review was really essential to that process.
We audited their subscription program, all of their analytics, and presented them with very specific recommendations to improve their program (AKA a success plan)—all done through the lens of acquisition, retention, and AOV.
Success plans include things we have on the horizon, like new features or functionality, but partnerships as well.
Defining what your subscription program should even look like
One of the more significant problems that I see merchants having is defining what their subscription program should be and making it a healthy, encouraging environment.
For example, Amazon focuses quite heavily on discounts to drive subscriptions. We see a lot of other merchants following that model. They see discounts as a method of encouraging customers to purchase or subscribe.
But if your subscription program is only driven by how much you can cut your price, then you’re training your customers to only purchase when the price is low. It’s a race to the bottom.
If you step back and consider your subscription program as a way to make your customers feel like VIPs, you will have a much healthier program.
We feed that with surprise and delight features, gifts along the buyer journey, and with other rewards through Digital Punch Cards.
We can design these things within the subscription program to make it grow sustainably and retain those subscribers instead of just acquiring them.
Connecting you to the right partners
Partnerships are important because it was one of the biggest things that Shopify’s CS team was going—connecting people with the right partners to improve their program.
Shopping their list of partners doesn’t work very well alone. You need communication with all moving parts to make it work.
We consider your issues, find the right partner, and build that relationship for you.
Making iterations to your subscription program
If we offer a free gift with a new subscription, how many customers did that offer acquire? What can we do next? How can we improve those acquisition numbers? Incorporate more retention efforts?
We understand your analytics and the moves you can make to impact results, whether it’s for a big promotion, a subscription overhaul, or your regular subscription health.
So, it’s really important to be able to provide information on those partners, as well as understand analytics, what they mean, and how they can move that needle.
Providing inspiration where and when you need it
Another helpful instrument we like to throw into our success plans is curated inspiration that we’ve gathered from our merchants.
Many brands struggle with knowing what to do, especially when they suddenly have a new functionality (like customizable banner ads in the customer portal).
So we provide examples that we know have worked for other brands, helping to improve the customer experience or increase upsells and cross-sells. We curate these examples based on your KPIs, struggles, and goals.
Keeping you continuously informed of your subscription KPIs with Stay Signals
Yeah, you’ll always have access to your metrics dashboard, but we recently developed another way to keep your entire team informed about the health of your subscription program every week:
We’ve invested so heavily in creating tools that streamline the customer experience and remove obstacles to positive actions around their subscription.
But Stay Signals is how we’re removing an obstacle around subscription management on the merchant side.
A white-glove customer support team like ours is always there to talk with you and shine a light on what’s working and what needs help across your entire program (and business at large).
Stay Signals is another shard of light that can illuminate the program.
