Community Learning Series | Digest #8 - January 2021

Community Learning Series | Digest #8 - January 2021

Dear customers,

We're happy to bring you the next edition of our #CommunityDigest, the first in 2021!



A new year always brings with it hope and excitement, and we'd like to start its first edition with some good news. Zoho Subscriptions won IDC's 2020 SaaS Customer Satisfaction Award! We couldn't have done this without you, our customers, so here's a huge thank you from the entire Zoho Subscriptions family.

If you'd like to know more about the award and the areas that technology buyers consider challenges in the subscription billing space, you can download a free copy of the report.

Subscription bulletin

Loyalty programs are not new. By offering exclusive access to products or services to certain customers and making them feel special, brands cultivate loyalty. More loyal customers talk about the brand that makes them feel special, the brand attracts even more customers, and the cycle goes on. But, in times as unique and unprecedented as 2020, where sales and revenue figures took a plunge across most sectors (no thanks to Covid!), if membership programs could turn the needle even to a certain degree, it does deserve special attention. 

Here's a recent article from Bloomberg that collects success stories from different brands that have made smart use of their membership programs and kept the cash flow stable. What's even more interesting is that these brands belong to the travel and hospitality sector, which took the most brutal hit after the pandemic.


Have you tried loyalty programs for your business already? How have they impacted it? Let us know in the comments. 

Tips and tricks

In the previous edition of our digest, we discussed integrating online web builders with Zoho Subscriptions. 

Here's Tip #8: If you want to bill customers based on the consumption rate of product/service but don't have a back-end server to keep track of their usage, we've got a simpler solution that uses Zoho Subscriptions, Google Sheets, and some Deluge magic!

Customer corner

Meet AAA Band Rentals, a musical instruments rental provider based out of Norwalk, Connecticut. What we liked about this family-owned business is their customer-centric approach to every situation, which has been pivotal to their growth. 

Keeping up with trends and meeting the growing demands of customers, they do everything the customers can ask for: curbside pickup, a self-service method to avoid long queues during the pandemic—you name it. A key element in their equation for "awesome" customer experience is how they leverage Zoho Subscriptions for their billing operations. After using Zoho Subscriptions, they've not just won more customers but also improved their internal operational efficiency by eliminating manual data entry.

Refer a friend

If you know peers or friends who could benefit from a recurring billing application, you can refer Zoho Subscriptions to them, and once they start using it, you will get 15% of their subscription payment to Zoho as your wallet credit. 

Also, your friend will earn $100 in wallet credits for subscribing through referral. You can refer as many friends as you wish. You can learn more about our referral program here.

And that's a wrap for this edition. You can always follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook to stay up to date!

Did you enjoy this month's digest? Is there any other information that would be useful to you? Let us know in the comments, so we can continue to provide you with exactly what you're looking for each month.

NOTE: We're removing Authtoken support for Zoho Subscriptions APIs on March 1, 2021. Wherever you've used Authtokens for authentication with our APIs, make sure you replace them with OAuth. Learn more.

Until next time,
Harikrishna
Customer Relations | Zoho Subscriptions

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