In the recently published report on subscriber experience, we examined a number of topics including the factors that are important in making a subscription purchase decision. The report is based on a survey conducted in May of 2022 (N=394) and focused on business to business (B2B) subscriptions. There were two questions related to the selection and purchase, one looked at influence on the purchase decision and the other at selection of the service provider. In a previous post we looked at the first question, so I won’t go back through the detailed analysis, but it might be useful to take a look at the data for the top 6 responses.

It may seem surprising that “free trial” topped the list, but it’s consistent with the strategy of getting prospects to use the product as a way to show value and that the solution would actually work in their specific business context. “Free version”, which you might expect to top the list, was a close second, which again seems reasonable since many free versions have some limitations to the functionality and / or some other metered factor like storage or number of users. The limitation possibly provides somewhat less of a chance to demonstrate the full capabilities and might miss the mark for some prospects.

The other question, “How important are the following to your selection of a subscription service?”, is more focused on the actual provider selection process. Here is the full list of responses ranked by “important” plus “very important” responses.

By far the number one response is “pricing transparency”, specifically an online posting of a clear view of the available packages, the list of features included in each package and the price. This level of transparency has moved beyond a “nice to have”, to a key driver of trust. The second response, “online reviews”, is also connected to trust and independence validation. In several previous buyer behavior surveys “recommendation from a colleague” scored higher than online reviews, although reviews moved up each year. The last two and a half years most likely plays into this change as well. The massive increase of online commerce has accelerated the reliance on reviews in making purchase decisions, which spills over from consumer to business purchase decisions.

Online purchase capabilities, or maybe more correctly self-service, is another expectation that likely spills over from the increase of eCommerce use. Across several questions throughout the survey self-service scored consistently high as an important factor, not just for purchase but also for ongoing subscription management. The leading subscription management SaaS solutions include a wide variety of self-service capabilities.

The difference in “free trial” and “free version” comes through even more in these responses. The 15 point difference is much more pronounced and reinforces the value to subscribers of getting to go hands on to a full featured version of the product. With “Free version” ranking last on this list, it’s possible that many providers are not getting the balance of features correct in the free tier. If the value doesn’t come through clearly in that version it’s as easy to try another provider as it is to move to a paid tier. It also doesn’t seem like online demo provides a rich enough experience compared to the free trial.

“Multiple pricing tiers”, fifth on the list, facilitates the ability for the subscriber to balance value, needed features and budget more effectively. Paired with pricing transparency the two offer a lot of choice and control to the buyer, something that improves the overall experience. It might also contribute to the trust factor that is very important in the provider selection process.

There are many elements to delivering a positive subscriber experience from pre-purchase to post-purchase service. The subscription business model creates the need to build and maintain an ongoing relationship with the customer. This is very different from the transaction based model, and is a key part of overall business health.