How to maintain steady cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis using Zoho Subscriptions

How to maintain steady cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis using Zoho Subscriptions

Dear customers,

I hope this finds you and your loved ones in good health.

We're all witnessing the effect that COVID-19 is having on businesses throughout the world. As consumers try to conserve their own resources, businesses can expect to receive more cancellation requests than usual. 

Here are some useful tips to help you be flexible and keep your customer base:

1. Communicate candidly and clearly with your customers:
During this period, transparent communication with customers is a necessity. A lot of businesses have started displaying messages on their home pages, explaining their BCP (Business Continuity Process) and other important announcements they want to convey to their customers.

As an additional means of communication, you can use the banner message in the customer portal of Zoho Subscriptions. The banner message is visible in the home page of the portal, so it can help get the customer's attention quickly. You can set up this message under Settings > Preferences > Branding > Portal settings.

2. Put renewals on a temporary hold:
      i) Pause and resume subscriptions
It's a good idea to provide your customers the option to freeze their subscriptions temporarily, rather than canceling them altogether. By giving them an option to pause their subscriptions, you are letting your customers know that they can rely on you when it's time to resume. It's also a good way to encourage customers to stick with you for their next purchase instead of switching vendors. 

Here's how you can pause a subscription in Zoho Subscriptions:



You can still perform automatic actions while a subscription is paused, through Zapier.

      ii) Extend the billing date:
Even customers who love your service may have difficulty paying for it on time right now. One way to keep these customers from canceling is to push back the date for their next subscription payment. By offering uninterrupted service and a little more time to pay, you're giving them a good reason to remain loyal. To do this, just update the subscription's Next Billing Date in Zoho Subscriptions and they won't be charged until the new date.



3. Be approachable:
As a standard business practice, you might have set up automatic payment reminders in Zoho Subscriptions to go out on specific days before or after the invoice due date. However, given the current circumstances, you can definitely expect delays in payment.

Since you have control over the content that goes out in these reminder emails, think about rephrasing it to let your customers know that if they need any assistance, they can reach out to you by phone or email. This way, your finance team doesn't have to wait and wonder whether the customer will make their payment or not, or spend time sending extra emails. You can tweak your reminder email content under Settings > Reminders.

By making it easy for your customers to approach you and treating them on a case-by-case basis, you can actually bring down the number of unpaid transactions.

4. Offer credits:
Another way to earn the customer's goodwill is to create special offers to assist them. For instance, Zoho's Emergency Subscription Assistance Program (ESAP) offers subscription credits to businesses in need. If you want to adopt a similar practice for your business, you can create credit notes in Zoho Subscriptions and enable the Redeem Credit Notes option so that it is automatically applied for the upcoming renewal.

5. Don't auto-cancel services upon non-payment:
Most subscription businesses have automated their billing process in such a way that if the customer doesn't pay, the subscription is automatically canceled. While this is a good practice most of the time, you might want to adopt a flexible approach during this crisis. 

Instead of letting the subscriptions be canceled automatically, you can monitor the Under Risk report in Zoho Subscriptions, and contact those customers to suggest alternate payment arrangements for your services.

6. Know why your customers leave:
During difficult times, businesses and customers alike aim to cut costs and reduce their spending.  If your customers are canceling right now, make sure you give them a chance to say why they're leaving. You might be able to retain them by offering some flexibility, or it may be best to reach out to them later and see if they're ready to come back. Even if you can't keep them as a customer, knowing why they left still helps you improve your service going forward. 

In Zoho Subscriptions, you have the option to make the Cancelation Reason field mandatory. You can configure this under Settings > Preferences > Subscription > Cancellation Preferences.
​


Though some of these tips might have a negative effect on your finances temporarily, they can gain you long-term benefits like customer loyalty and customer retention, which will help your business recover more easily. 

Did you find these tips useful? Can you think of some other best practices that businesses can use to get through difficult times? Let us know in the comments. 

Note from Zoho: If you need any assistance regarding Zoho Subscriptions, our support team is available 24 hours a day, Monday-Friday. You can also reach out to us through email (support@zohosubscriptions.com) or phone.

Because Zoho recognizes that our own customers may be facing difficult times right now, we have rolled out an Emergency Subscription Assistance Program (ESAP) to help small businesses through this crisis. Learn more about this program.

Take care and stay safe! We'll get through this storm together.

Regards,
Harikrishna
Customer Relations | Zoho Finance





      • Sticky Posts

      • Introducing Invoice Consolidation for Offline Subscriptions

        Hello Folks, Glad to announce the feature of Invoice Consolidation for Offline Subscriptions. If you are having multiple subscriptions for your customers, now, you can send a single consolidated invoice for all the Offline Subscriptions that are getting renewed on the same date. Advantage?  Customers will be receiving single invoice instead of multiple invoices upon renewal. Also reduces your efforts in follow-up with your customers for payment collections. For Example: If Customer has Subscription

      • New feature: Create back-dated subscriptions

        Hello from the Zoho Subscriptions team. :)   We’re happy to announce that today marks the launch of a much-awaited feature: creating back-dated subscriptions!   From here on out, whenever you create a new subscription with an activation date that is earlier than the present date, you’ll no longer get an error. Instead, you'll be creating a back-dated subscription. This means that the subscription started at that earlier point in time. The next billing date will be calculated automatically based on

      • Announcement Regarding Notification Emails

        Hello Everyone! This announcement is regarding the admin notification emails which you've been receiving from the email address "support@zohosubscriptions.com". From the 1st of October, 06:00 GMT, the emails with the following subjects will be sent from "no-reply@zohosubscriptions.com". Unable to send invoice for the profile - {profile_name} Unable to process auto payments. If you have set up any filters or workflow in your email account, please add "no-reply@zohosubscriptions.com” and  “support@zohosubscriptions.com”

      • Zoho Subscriptions plugin for WordPress

        Zoho Subscriptions plugin for WordPress allows you to easily embed your plan specific checkout page in an iframe with just a few mouse clicks and without a single line of code. How can WordPress Zoho Subscriptions Plugin boost your productivity? It's now easier to embed Zoho Subscriptions checkout page in your WordPress site. Forget the old method of logging in to Zoho Subscriptions, copying a URL and scripting to make adjustments. All this can be done automatically through this plugin. A great time

      • Indian GST organisation Migration Guide

        With respect to the new GST regime releasing on July 1, 2017in India, Zoho Subscriptions Indian edition is also gearing up to make your business GST Ready. This article focuses on how to get your existing organisation in Zoho Subscriptions to migrate to the new GST regime.    Note:  Any organisation created on or after July 1, 2017 will already be GST ready. You wouldn't have to migrate your organisation. Migrating your existing organisation to support GST To migrate your existing organisation to

        • Recent Topics

        • Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

          Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce an important enhancement that will significantly enhance the readability and formatting capabilities of your information: rich text options for multi-line fields. With this update, you can now enjoy a more versatile

        • What do the Image Sizes mean in Zoho CRM Email Templates?

          Below you can see the image options in email templates: Banner, Fit, Small, Medium, Original, Custom. Can someone from Zoho please share with me: What each is/means? How each will look on desktop AND mobile? How to edit "custom"? If I choose "Custom"

        • BIN Locations

          Hi, I’m new to Zoho inventory and unless Im missing something, I cannot find BIN locations anywhere in ‘items’? please tell me it’s there somewhere?!? Thanks

        • Marketing Automation : Adding to existing Lead Score

          I want to be able to add a score to an existing ZMA lead however I can't find the field in the "Fetch Lead" action that contains the existing score. There is an action for Add lead score, but that's not clear if it overwrites the existing value or adds

        • Zoho developer edition does not work for us

          Hi Is anyone else having this problem? I'm signed in with our admin/super user account. When I click on the link on this page: https://www.zoho.com/crm/developer/docs/dev-edition.html I am asked to agree to Terms and Conditions. Clicking Agree to Terms

        • Option to specify or disable "Idle" times in preferences

          It seems strange to me that my Cliq shows me as "Idle" when I'm using the PC and available just because I haven't interacted with Cliq in a while.  I'm far from "Idle" so we're just treating "Idle" and "Available" to mean the same thing.  I'd like to suggest a setting to change the timeout or even disable the automatic "Idle" mode.

        • How to query for Deals record based on Pipeline?

          I want to query for Deals records that matches a specified Pipeline using a Deluge function. When I call zoho.crm.searchRecords("Deals","(Pipeline:equals:" + myPipeline + ")"), I get this error: { code: 'INVALID_QUERY' , details: {...} , message: 'Invalid

        • Is there a Kanban view of Tasks across all Projects?

          As the title indicates, I could use a Kanban view of my Tasks across my Projects. If it's there, I don't see it. If it isn't there, I'd like to submit this as a feature request. Thx.

        • Create Invoice and Invoice Items from Sales Order via API

          Currently, when creating an Invoice associated with a Sales Order via the API, it appears that I must manually include all of the items (line_items) even though they are already part of the Sales Order. My question is this: is it possible to raise an Invoice via the API based on all of the information associated with a Sales Order--such as the  items? In other words, do I always have to manually include the items (line_items) when raising an Invoice via the API when the Invoice is associated with

        • Stock Count - Does it really work?

          We have been trying to use the new Zoho Inventory stock count feature. It seems great at first glance.. ..but what we can't get our heads around is if a count doesn't match you can't simply set up a recount of those that are unmatched, which just seems

        • Working with keywords

          Hello everyone, first time here so I will try to be brief. I am working on my company's data set. I have a table with all the images we have on line. For each image we hava a cell tha contains all keywords related to that image. I would like to explore

        • Microsoft Phone Link

          Does anyone know if you can use Microsoft Phone Link to make calls through Zoho?

        • Free user licenses across all Portal user types

          Greetings everyone, We're here with some exciting and extensive changes to the availability of free user licenses in CRM Portals. This update provides users with access to all Portal user types for free to help them diversify their user licenses and explore

        • Zoho Books - France

          L’équipe de Zoho France reçoit régulièrement des questions sur la conformité de ses applications de finances (Zoho Books/ Zoho Invoice) pour le marché français.   Voici quelques points pour clarifier la question :   Zoho Books est un logiciel de comptabilité

        • Need warehouse listed on packing slips

          We ship from several locations, and have a separate warehouse set up for each location in Zoho. I need the warehouse related to each SO to show up on the packing list. How do I make that happen?

        • CRM Calendar Sync Not Working

          I can't get any meetings where I am a participant to sync with either Bookings or Office 365. It syncs fine when I am the host, but as a participant, it just ignores the event. I have clients booking meetings when agents are in training or OOO or any

        • Amazon.in FBA multiple warehouse integration with Zoho Inventory

          My organisation subscribed to Zoho One looking at the opportunity to integrate Amazon.in with Inventory. But during the configuration, we understood the integration has severe limitations when it involves multiple warehouses in the same Organisation.

        • A recap of Zoho Sprints 2024

        • Values in multi pick list are not copied to copied deal

          Hi, After a deal is completed in our sales funnel we copy the deal to an automatically created new deal in our project funnel. All fields are copied properly, but only a Multi Pick List is not copied. How can we copy the selected values in this field

        • Zoho Form linked to an external OneDrive Account

          HI Can you connect to an external users OneDrive account from Zoho forms that is not a user in Zoho? I have a form that is shared externally where a sub contractor needs to receive info (including pictures) to their OneDrive account. When I try to connect

        • Checklist/ save to onedrive/ a group of items invoicing in Zoho FSM

          hi, is there a way to add a specific checklist to any WO without passing eachtime by the model customization? can we save file such picture directly in our sharepoint ak onedrive? is there any way to add a group of item pre defined to make invoicing easier

        • Pushing Data from One CRM account to another.

          We have business partners that want to collaborate through the CRM. Other than pre-planned data migrations what are the options for Zoho Users to transfer data between the accounts. For instance, could I create a webhook that is sent from our CRM and then is picked up in the partner's Flow?

        • Difference: Linking Module Record vs. Subform Row with lookup

          In terms of "database relationship structure", is there is difference between a Linking Module Record and a Subform Row with a lookup? Both have the ability to store data related to a specific connection of two modules, right? Do I miss something? When

        • Explication sur comment mettre en place des règles d'affichage ou "layout Rules"

          J'ai passé plus d'une heure hier avec le support et je n'ai rien compris !! Je suis lecteur assidu des guides (je "RTFM") qui ne sont absolument pas orienté "client" chez Zoho, et je tiens à le rappeler ici . Dans la documentation on m'indique un cas

        • Kaizen #96 Automatic Mail-Merge Document Creation Using Zoho CRM APIs

          Efficient communication and personalized document generation are crucial for maintaining strong customer relationships in your business. Manual document generation can be time-consuming, repetitive and error-prone, decreasing productivity and customer

        • Automation#26: Notify Parent Ticket Owner on Child Ticket Status Updates

          Hello Everyone! Ever found yourself juggling multiple service requests that seem like pieces of a larger puzzle? Managing interconnected tickets can be challenging, especially when updates on child tickets need to be tracked. That’s where our custom function

        • Zoho Workplace renforce sa sécurité avec l'intégration Zoho Vault

          Dans un monde où l’information a une valeur inestimable, la protection des données sensibles n’a jamais été aussi essentielle. Une fuite de données peut non seulement compromettre la réputation d’une entreprise, mais également engendrer des pertes financières

        • Can the Product Image on the Quote Template be enlarged

          Hello, I am editing the Quote Template and added ${Products.Product Image} to the line item and the image comes up but it is very tiny. Is there anyway that you can resize this to be larger? Any help would be great! Thanks

        • How to sort a data in summary report with Monthly ?

          Hi Team, Can any one help me out how to sort a data based on monthly, Month was shuffled based on aliphatic order. i want to sort the below data monthy?

        • Directly Edit, Filter, and Sort Subforms on the Details Page

          Hello everyone, As you know, subforms allow you to associate multiple line items with a single record, greatly enhancing your data organization. For example, a sales order subform neatly lists all products, their quantities, amounts, and other relevant

        • Set another Layout as Standard

          We created a few layouts and we want to set another one to standard:

        • Create custom rollup summary fields in Zoho CRM

          Hello everyone, In Zoho CRM, rollup summary fields have been essential tools for summarizing data across related records and enabling users to gain quick insights without having to jump across modules. Previously, only predefined summary functions were

        • How can I create individual records from a subform

          Hi, I am collecting subform data into a Lead record and I need to create individual records for each row associated to the account when it is converted. How can I do this?

        • What is the Desk API?

          I'm trying to fetch a lookup field data from desk to our creator application and it doesn't work. I'm guessing that my search parameter is wrong? On my trial function fetch if I use these: tickets = invokeurl [ url :"https://desk.zoho.com/api/v1/tickets/351081000145244764"

        • How to choose other payment methodes than creditcards

          We have connected stripe as a payment provider in zoho books, booking, commerce and checkout. In stripe we selected al major payment methodes for Belgium (mainly bancontact). However, at checkout customers seems to have only the possibility to pay with

        • Why is Zoho support so terrible?

          I've spent the last week trying to get zoho to fix sudden SSL certificate issues with our desk and project portals. I've raised a ticket and constantly been told the issue is on our side despite it being exceedingly obvious it's not. After finally convincing

        • Custom "Filter By" in Client Portal

          Currently our client portal only shows items for that specific person that is logged on to the portal, we want the current logged user to see all items for that user's company. An example would be invoices, so the current user would see all invoices for

        • Ticket Views: filter criteria -> dynamic date values in relation to the current date

          Hello all, It would be very helpful if you could build custom views in such a way that you do not have to adjust the criteria daily or at whatever interval in order to change the fixed date value as needed. For example, I would like to create a view that,

        • Unlocking New Horizons: A Year in Review

          As we bid farewell to 2024, let's celebrate and revisit the key highlights of the year. From adding a new edition to cross-platform enhancements, here’s a roundup of all the feature updates designed to simplify accounting, optimize financial management,

        • Introducing 'Queries' In Zoho CRM

          Hello everyone! We are here with an exciting feature - Queries in Zoho CRM! A little context before we dive right into the feature specifics :) In today’s fast-paced business environment, immediate access to relevant data is essential for informed decision-making.

        • Next Page