a better way to measure subscription customer value

A priority strategy for many subscription businesses is to get as close to the customer’s workflow as possible. In doing so, achieving a must-have product that sticks and creating premium enterprise subscriptions.

To understand value, many b2b subscription organisations rely on renewal rates, others on page hits, NPS or word of mouth appraisals from commercial teams. These can be subjective, backward facing, and fail to tell the full story. One measure we’ve been introducing into our research is a Must-Have Score, we refer to it as MHS™

Ask a new and simple question

How would you rate this product/service? 
We then provide a 1-10 scale
1 take it or leave it
5 nice to have
10 must-have

The results have been fascinating. If we just compare with the answers we get on NPS from the same customer group, then the gap can be wide. In a recent piece of research we found the average NPS was 80, which you would normally celebrate. But when you compare with an MHS of 4/10 there’s more much more to dig into. They love what you do and will shout about it but you’re not part of their workflow, which puts pressure on pricing, budget and decision making. We’ve also been asking this question of teams responsible for these products, and we’re getting much higher MHS around 7 to 8/10.

Obviously, the scores could be reversed which also raises a discussion. If your MHS is high, but your NPS is low, then you may have customers who feel like they’re stuck with you – until a better alternative is found.

Combine the best customer sentiment questions

So, what we’re saying here is don’t rely on one metric. We suggest Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES), Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Product Market Fit (PMF) with our Must-Have Score. Use these as your true north to generate valuable sentiment data to discuss and plot your next steps on the path to workflow value.

We combine our survey questions with qualitative customer conversations around their workflow to get a rich view of what really matters – and what doesn’t. That grounds the alignment with the customer. And along with the Must-Have Score provides the foundation measure for your path to workflow.

We’re interested in helping you send this survey to a cohort of your customers where you’ll get our independent analysis and benchmarking. Get in touch to see how you can get involved – steve@substribe.co