Metered billing is gathering a lot of attention in the business community, especially among enterprises with digital profiles. Today, B2C and B2B operators are exploring the possibilities and opportunities offered by metered billing systems. This craze is influenced by the desire of the modern consumer to get maximum value for their money, and who will blame them? Issues of oversubscription are not new; however, many see metered billing as the way to not only ensure transparency but also to build customer confidence and relationships.
If your business provides a particular service and you want to ensure that your pricing model fits perfectly with your customers’ needs, you should consider deploying a usage-based billing software that has one or more metered billing features. Read on to know more about what a metered billing platform does.
What is Metered Billing?
To explain this concept in lay terms, we will use a very simple example. Imagine for a moment that you intend to charge for your services based on the consumer’s level of consumption. If the billing cycle you operate is pre-fixed, you cannot use a subscription-based billing strategy because it will not work. The problem with billing by subscription is that you don’t earn money if people don’t pay a subscription fee. And some consumers don’t like the idea of subscribing for a service they are not so sure they will like. However, with a metered billing system in place, consumers can use your service and only pay for what they use. So you see, this is a highly attractive proposition for any consumer requiring your service.
A metered billing system or platform allows you to charge customers based on their level of consumption, and the businesses that use this type of platform are numerous. Some common businesses that come to mind include internet service providers, mobile communication service providers, and various utility providers, to mention a few. Businesses under the categories mentioned using a billing API to charge for their service. There are stages of using metered billing for your business. These stages are highlighted below.
The Stages of Metered Billing Adoption:
Choosing a Preferable Pricing Model
The first thing to consider when deciding on a billing platform is to first decide on the pricing model you wish to adopt. Do you go for a metered billing model, a subscription billing model, or a combination of the two? If you want to charge your customers based on business cycles, you will have to use a Saas billing software, as this will serve you better.
Creating a Personalized Offer
The next stage will be to create a set of personalized offers for each customer. Taking this approach should be done under the impression that every customer is unique, and their uniqueness warrants the need to create an offer that satisfies that need. For instance, many businesses today offer customers a lot of discounts and special offers in a bid to boost sales. If you decide to follow suit, you need to make sure that you cater to the need of every individual customer without disrupting service delivery or effecting indiscriminate billing. Creating an offer will also ensure that the invoice you send to each customer is generated based on what they consume and the discounts they enjoy (if any). A metered billing platform can help you achieve this aim through the same platform.
Billing the Client
After you must have adopted a metered billing model, created specialized offers and enjoyed consumer patronage, the next stage to the metered billing process is to send out invoices to all your customers. This will normally be a cumbersome process, but with the aid of an innovative Saas billing software, you can repeatedly churn out invoices using accurate data. In the long run, this will save your team a lot of time rather than indulge in the compiling of repetitive invoicing at the end of every billing cycle.
Track Consumer Activities
In conclusion, your metered billing Software will keep track of the usage of every consumer. Data will be compiled and forwarded to an assigned platform such as a dashboard to help you keep track of what each customer is consuming and their service preference(if you offer more than one service). Analyzing consumer data offers you a long term benefit since you can assess the behavior of all your customers so as to predict with a great deal of certainty the type of service they like. With this information, you can offer more of what they like and less of what they don’t like. You can also use the same information to create and launch effective marketing campaigns in the future.
woman using data -DepositPhotos
