From fresh flowers to coffee machines and yes – even cars, recurring billing has come a long way from its traditional use cases of utilities and rent.

At the heart of it lies a shift in consumer buying habits. Hunting for overall experience, rather than just product. Becoming a user, but not necessarily an owner. 

More and more consumers demand flexibility and customizability, from the way they pay to the way they are able to access the service or product at hand.

So why should you as a Malaysian business owner, give ear to this rising trend in recurring payments?

Let’s talk about why you should be billing your customers on a recurring basis. 

What are included in recurring payments?

In our previous article on recurring vs one-off payments, we defined recurring payments as transactions that are made repeatedly and periodically over a certain schedule. 

These include:

• Subscriptions (Netflix, subscription boxes, mobile plans, gym memberships).
• Instalment plans (loans, mortgage, and services such as MrPayLater or RiiPay, which enable you to split up the price of a purchase into instalments).

Top 5 benefits of recurring payments for businesses

1.   Knowing your due payments helps to better predict revenue

If you won a million dollars, would you prefer to receive it all one go, or split into a hundred thousand over 10 months?

The same analogy can be applied to your business too. A recurring billing model will provide concrete figures you know you can bank on within a certain timeframe. With traditional models, you’re left in the dark for the majority of the time outside of mere forecasts and estimates.

While you’re not receiving the entire sum at a single go, the spread-out payments does give you some reassurance for the months to come – even when you get hit by unexpected dips. This means that you, as the business owner will obtain better cost management over your business operations, as well as a healthier cash flow overall. 

2.   Grow better long-term relationships with customers and watch it flourish

Collecting recurring payments from your customers is a surefire way to foster a more valuable relationship with your customer. Granted, that relationship may or may not be mandated by contract (e.g. instalment payments for a computer), but on your end, you have a fixed term in which you get to “prove yourself” to the customer.

By offering recurring payments, you lower the affordability barrier for customers to try out your service or product. As they come to the end of the term, whether or not they choose to renew depends on how you’ve nurtured the customer relationship (among other things).

Take for example a customer who signs up for a 6-month contract for a software product. 

Throughout that term, all the interactions and engagements the customer experiences both with the software and the company come together to form an enriching and memorable experience for the customer. 

3.   Snip, snip! Cut down on administrative costs and time.

With recurring payments, you can minimise the legwork involved with traditional payments. For your business, that might mean addressing invoices (then following up endlessly) or always having to keep up to date with due payments.

This eats away at everyone’s time and piles unnecessary numbers onto the operation costs. 

Given the right software, the initial set-up can be as simple as a registration form messaged to the customer to fill up on their own accord. The system can then automatically receive the payments, process them and track them all at a glance.

Cutting out the time, costs and energy associated with debt collection ultimately frees up more time to do work that matters. 

4.   Consumers prioritise flexibility. Give them that!

One of the strongest pros synonymous with recurring billing is its customizability. The power of personalisation is more prominent than ever, yet not something many businesses are able to provide. 

Recurring billing doesn’t always have to be so rigid. If need be and customers request, payment softwares like Curlec enable you to customise the billing amount, date and frequency to a T.  Sounds messy? The system keeps track of it so you don’t have to. 

5.   Expand your reach by opening up more payment opportunities

From the standpoint of customer reach, do you think lowering your service/product’s price point could be beneficial?

By offering recurring billing as an option, you open up more avenues for customers to access what you’re offering. On the customers’ end, the promise of flexibility, affordability and less upfront commitment are attractive regardless of what the product/service is.

Appealing to a wider audience doesn’t mean you have to switch up your billing processes completely. Of course, bombarding your customers with every payment option under the sun makes no sense for both you and the customers, but you would benefit from a payment software which enables you to do more than just one thing.

Make recurring payments work for you with Curlec

At Curlec, we like to think we’re a payment software built for recurring payments – minus the rigidity, plus all the customisability you need.

Curlec enables businesses to collect payments from customers’ bank accounts and debit/credit cards – either on a recurring basis or one-off.

After the initial set-up, the entire process is hands off, both for you and the customer. 

Interested to explore recurring billing for your business? Get in touch with us via the form below to find out more!