Renewal automation
An automated renewal process reduces churn for lower-value orders, while simultaneously lowering costs. If your sales team has been manually managing your subscription renewals, you can shift this responsibility to Cleverbridge so that your sales team can tackle higher-value selling opportunities. To learn more about renewal automation, watch the following video:
Not in the mood to watch a video? Here is the same content that you can follow:
What is renewal automation?
Instead of having your sales representatives or a partner reach out to customers about product renewals every year, you’ll use a data-driven automated renewal process for low-value orders. The Cleverbridge subscription commerce platform can be integrated seamlessly with your system of record, for example, Salesforce, to identify orders that are up for renewal and do not exceed a certain value. It can then send an email to the customer with a link to a branded digital shopping cart, all without a sales representative. Once there, your customer can interact with the options you’ve set for them, such as cross-sells, upsells, and even the opportunity to auto-renew. To complete the purchase and the renewal, your customer will only need to add their payment details. With a click of Buy Now not only do you get paid, but you gain the stability of knowing their commitment to your business will renew automatically.
After years of successfully utilizing Cleverbridge commerce solutions to drive online sales, SmartBear looked to Cleverbridge to help increase its product renewal business. In the past, SmartBear renewal business was managed through a manual purchase order process. Leveraging cleverbridge Salesforce integration, they were able to automatically push transaction data from the commerce platform to their Salesforce instance. Rather than having to email back and forth with customers at renewal time, their account reps were able to simply set up the renewal product and pricing, generate a link through the Cleverbridge Salesforce integration and send it to the customer for easy renewal. They’ve commented that their Sales team loves this renewal automation feature because it has drastically streamlined the renewal process and allowed reps to spend more time connecting with customers instead of doing administrative work.
To make your renewal campaigns even more effective, we also offer:
- Email Marketing – Our team of renewal experts will tailor email campaigns on your behalf to maximize and automate renewals. For more information, see Email Marketing Services.
- Revenue Retention Tools – They reduce involuntary churn due to outdated customer payment details or payment failures, improve the customer renewal experience, and maximize revenue. For more information, see Collect Failed Online Payments Automatically.
How renewal automation works:
To automate your subscription renewal process, move your existing subscriptions to the Cleverbridge platform using the following flow:
Step 1: Create a purchase link
Create a link and add the following parameters for mapping and customer experience purposes:
internalcustomer: Assign your unique customer identifier (UUID) to the parameter so that you can map the individual within your system.dp: Add a unique renewal date for the customer using the dynamic product parameter.languageid: Assign the language code to the parameter. This corresponds to the customer's preferred language (ISO 639-1).currencyid: Assign the currency code to the parameter. This corresponds to the customer's preferred currency (ISO 4217). You should also add the customer's existing billing profile to make the renewal as seamless as possible.
https://www.cleverbridge.com/864/purl-checkout
?internalcustomer=UUID-YOUR-UNIQUE-ID-1234-5678
&dp_97771=__RENEWALDATE:20201015__CHECKSUM:71B696A71870AF93636EDD23E88B7789
¤cy=EUR
&language=de
&billingCity=Bonn
&billingCompany=Acme%20Inc.
&billingCountryId=DE
&billingEmail=han.solo%40cleverbridge.com
&billingFirstname=Han
&billingLastname=Solo
&billingPostalcode=53123
&billingStreet1=123%20Falcon%20Way
&deliveryCity=Bonn
&deliveryCompany=Acme%20Inc.
&deliveryEmail=han.solo%40cleverbridge.com
&deliveryFirstname=Han
&deliveryLastname=Solo
&deliveryPostalcode=53123
&deliveryStreet1=123%20Kessel%20Run%20Way
Step 2: Protect the purchase link
Call the Generate User Session URL API endpoint to protect the parameters in the TargetURL.
curl --request POST \
--url 'https://rest.cleverbridge.com/urlgenerator/generateusersessionurl' \
--header 'accept: application/json' \
--header 'content-type: application/json' \
--header 'authorization: Basic xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' \
--data '{
"TargetUrl": "https%3A%2F%2Fhttps://www.cleverbridge.com%2F864%2Fpurl-checkout%3Finternalcustomer%3DUUID-YOUR-UNIQUE-ID-1234-5678%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3Bdp_97771%3D__RENEWALDATE%3A20201015__CHECKSUM%3A71B696A71870AF93636EDD23E88B7789%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3Bcurrency%3DEUR%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BLanguage%3Dde%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BbillingCity%3DBonn%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BbillingCompany%3DAcme%2520Inc.%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BbillingCountryId%3DDE%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BbillingEmail%3Dhan.solo%2540cleverbridge.com%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BbillingFirstname%3DHan%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BbillingLastname%3DSolo%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BbillingPostalcode%3D53123%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BbillingStreet1%3D123%2520Falcon%2520Way%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BdeliveryCity%3DBonn%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BdeliveryCompany%3DAcme%2520Inc.%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BdeliveryEmail%3Dhan.solo%2540cleverbridge.com%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BdeliveryFirstname%3DHan%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BdeliveryLastname%3DSolo%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BdeliveryPostalcode%3D53123%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BdeliveryStreet1%3D123%2520Kessel%2520Run%2520Way%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3BcopyBillingToLicenseeOut%3Dfalse%0A%09%09%09%09%09%26amp%3Bshowrcl%3Dfals"
}'
Step 3: Forward the customer to checkout process with protected link
In the checkout process, the customer is instructed on how to complete the transaction and submit their payment information. If the payment is successful, the customer receives a payment confirmation, as well as delivery details. If a key generator is configured for your account, a license key is generated in this process, and the license key is displayed in the delivery details.
Step 4: Cleverbridge sends you a PaidOrderNotification
Cleverbridge sends you a PaidOrderNotification, which contains information that allows you to map the payment profile and update your local ecosystem (CRM, ERP, and so on). It includes:
internalCustomer- your unique customer identifier.subscriptionID- the Cleverbridge subscription ID.renewalType- whether the subscription has an automatic or manual renewal type.intervalNumber- the current billing interval, which for initial sign-ups is always 0.nextBillingDate- the next billing date which is calculated based on your product settings.
{
"meta": {
"type": "PaidOrderNotification",
"date": "2019-03-19T14:47:34.857671",
"schemaUrl": "https://www.cleverbridge.com/JsonNotificationSchemas/PaidOrderNotification"
},
"purchaseId": 123456789,
...
"internalCustomer": "UUID-YOUR-UNIQUE-ID-1234-5678",
...
"items": [{
...
"recurringBilling": {
"subscriptionId": "S12345678",
...
"intervalNumber": 0,
...
"nextBillingDate": "2020-03-19T14:47:34.857671",
...
"renewalType": "Automatic"
...
}],
...
}
}
Why should you automate renewals?
There are four main reasons why you should ask Cleverbridge to support you with an automated renewal process:
Eliminate Manual Processes
Manually moving a large volume of low-dollar customers through the buying cycle and renewing their business can require significant time, money, and manpower. With renewal automation, you’ll eliminate those time-wasting manual processes that annoy your channel partners, sales teams, and customers. At the same time, you'll free up your sales teams to focus on higher-value sales opportunities.
Better Customer Experience
Without customer self-service, smaller customers can feel left out. By moving from an offline to an online process, you’ll make your customers happy with an easy buying experience.
Reduce Churn
Many B2B companies experience a high churn on their low-value segment. This is because their sales team and channel partners do not have a strong economic incentive to focus on renewals with low values. An automated renewal process reduces churn for lower-value orders – while simultaneously lowering costs.
One System of Record
Even when selling part of your orders through an automated ecommerce experience, you can continue managing all renewals in a single system of record. the Cleverbridge platform can be integrated seamlessly with CRM systems, such as Salesforce, to consolidate all relevant data in one place.