Subscriptions and Packs Overview
Subscriptions and packs allow your customers to book into classes or appointments using pre-paid credits. Here are some differences between the two options.
Similarities
Both give your customers prepaid credits. These credits can be used on classes or appointments.
By default, both subscriptions and packs will allow customers to use those credits on all classes you have scheduled or will schedule going forward. Appointments will not be included by default, but can be if you update the 'what's included section'.
Reasons to go with one over the other
Subscriptions
The most common form of a subscription is to have an auto-renewing subscription.
For example, once a month, maybe once a fortnight, your customers on this subscription are automatically charged. This is done with 'Duration Settings: Absolute Interval: 1 month/fortnight; and the 'Auto-renewal' setting toggled on.
Unlimited vs Limited
Subscriptions can be unlimited, meaning the customer can book as many classes as they want. They can also be limited, where the customer gets, say, five classes per month. This is called a limited-use subscription. To learn more about how to set these up, search our knowledge base for 'limited-use subscription'.
Less manual work
In general auto-renewing subscriptions are less manual work over time for a business. They require little to no interaction with the customer after they've been initially sold.
Fixed Start Dates / End Dates
Subscriptions also allow you to create fixed start and end dates. One use case for this might be a seasonal thing (think New Years).
To create a sense of urgency among your customers you might offer a discounted limited time subscription that runs from January 1 - April 1. This can be achieved under 'Duration Settings' with 'fixed start dates and end dates'. By comparison, an auto-renewing subscription would require Durations Settings of, say, 1 month & and the 'Auto-renewal' setting turned on.
Packs
Packs are great for catering to those that like to go at their own pace.
Maybe you have a customer that makes it in a lot one month and then the following month can't really make it in due to work or something else. A class pack appeals to this customer because it allows them to use the pack's credits at their own pace. Packs can also be set to auto-fill when they run out of credits if your customers prefer this.
To learn more about Packs and Subscriptions, see the video above.
Whichever option you choose, make sure you've doublechecked its 'What's included' section to ensure it includes access to only the things it should.
What the customer receives with packs (credit types)
When creating a new pack you'll find a section near the bottom of the form, where you'll be prompted to choose:
how many credits the customer receives
what kind of credits they are (dollar or class/appointment credits)
and what these credits can be used for
This last section will default to including all existing classes, so make sure to uncheck any that should not be included. It will also default to not including any appointment services, so make sure to include any that need to be added to the list.
Edit a customer's package (exp date / credits left) from their profile
To edit a customer's pack credits or expiration date from their profile, click Customers > customer list > search and select the customer
Under Overview, you'll see existing Subscriptions and Packs listed. Click the dropdown menu to the right of the pack > the Edit.
From here, update the expiration date or credits remaining.
Intro-offers with Packages
Intro offers allow you to give your potential customers a taste of what you have to offer.
When creating a package you'll see a toggle to make the package an intro offer. This allows you to:
pull reports on intro offer sales, conversions, and upcoming expirations
increase the chance of conversions by using Marketing Sequences to target customers on this intro offer and others like it (ex. when an customer's intro offer expires, that's an opportune time to have an automated message sent their way with an offer to purchase a subscription)
One thing to note: Intro offers cannot be auto-filling packs.
Duration settings with packs
Packs allow you to set expiration dates. This can help create a sense of urgency to use the credits before they're lost. A common duration setting for a pack might be 6 months, 1 year, or even infinite.
Terminology to be familiar with:
In the duration settings you'll find toggles for:
Activate on First Use: a setting that waits to start the expiration clock until the customer uses their first credit from the pack
Purchasable only once: ensures it can't be bought again by the same customer
Purchasable only as first pack: ensures the customer purchasing this pack has not purchased any other packs in the past
Payment settings with packs (pricing options)
When creating a new pack, you'll find several payment settings to choose from. Here's a quick explanation of how these work.
Price
The price is what the customer pays for the whole pack.
Counts as non-paid for teacher payroll
Use this setting if you're creating a staff pack (ie. if this is a pack only staff members will have access to, you'll want to consider whether their attendance of a class or appt will result in the teacher getting paid. If the answer is no, toggle this setting on.)
Allow customers to use a payment plan
This is a setting that you'd want to consider turning on if the price of the pack was high. Dividing it into smaller payments can help customers afford the package.
Reorder your subscriptions and packages
To change the order of the memberships your customers see, click Memberships > Subscriptions & Packs > Edit Order.
Then drag the memberships up or down.
To preview how customers will see the new order, click your logo in the top left, then Your Page.
If you're sharing your checkout page with customers, here's what they'll see: a list of Purchase Options. To view memberships that display on checkout pages for classes, scroll further down to view the schedule and click Book Now next to any class.
To see just subscriptions or packs that apply to appointments, click Book Appointments at the top, follow the prompts to a checkout page.
If you're using a Plugin on your website, and want to preview how this will look to customers, note that customers won't see the Purchase Options list like they do above, but will still see applicable memberships on each checkout page.
To preview this customer experience, click Studio Setup > Add to website > in the preview pain (bottom right) click on 'Book Now' next to a class to see the list of memberships presented at checkout.
To check on the customer experience on the customer facing mobile app, open the app, log in as a customer, select your studio and choose memberships.
Or, run through a checkout to purchase a class or appointment to see the order of applicable memberships.
How to create a auto-refilling package (why this might be handy/how it works)
Packs can be made to auto-refill their credits when a customer runs out. This results in:
• an auto-charge to the customers account when it depletes; and
• eliminates the need for the customer to repurchase it
To enable this setting within a specific class pack click Memberships > Subscriptions & Packs > select Packages > edit the pack in question.
Scroll to 'Auto-renewal settings' and toggle this on 'This pack auto-refills' > then Save.
To make it publicly discoverable, make sure the pack is enabled at checkout on the pack index page.
Customers that consider purchasing this pack will now see this message before they buy it.
