PagerDuty Inc, a global leader in digital operations management, has always been a customer-focused company. But while lots of SaaS companies might claim to be customer-focused, PagerDuty takes it a step further with a dedicated eye to customer empathy.

That’s why it was so important to PagerDuty to create a seamless customer experience, from product-solution fit to the purchase experience to billing. With this comprehensive focus on the customer journey, PagerDuty began to take a closer look at the way they managed subscriptions — and the impact this had on customer acquisition and the customer experience post-acquisition.

PagerDuty started with a homegrown billing system, but, as it experienced rapid growth, the company realized that it would need a solution that was more scalable.

Take something as simple (or seemingly simple!) as co-terming, which is the ability to adjust subscriptions so that they all come up for renewal at the same time. Though co-terming could be done with PagerDuty’s homegrown billing system, it was manual and time consuming.

They needed a system that would be updated automatically when there were changes made to revenue recognition rules. PagerDuty also wanted a way to run more sophisticated accounting reports and make it easier to audit. And, to support a more seamless customer experience, PagerDuty needed a platform that supported both a self-serve and sales assisted model.

Enter Zuora.

As Oriana Lemme, Director of Growth at PagerDuty noted, ‘We’re not in the business of making billing software. You don’t want to have to change your billing system — that’s why you want to get it right from the start. Zuora provides a foundation that you can evolve to.”

Lemme continued, “Our homegrown billing system was manual and delayed the sales cycle, but with Zuora, everything is much more automated so PagerDuty can easily provide self-serve.”

PagerDuty relies on the Zuora platform to automate the order-to-cash process. Says Alisa Liebowitz, Director, Business Applications at PagerDuty, “Automation has saved the finance team a lot of time that they were spending to manually do tasks.”

PagerDuty also uses the Zuora platform to automate and customize messaging — whether about pending charges, renewals, or upcoming credit card expirations. This automation makes it easier for them to provide a tailored experience for their subscribers.

And, says Liebowitz, “When it comes to online renewals or the ability to purchase a 3-year subscription, with the Zuora subscription management platform, now that stuff is really easy for customers to do on our site.”

The Zuora platform also facilitates experimentation with different pricing and packaging combinations. PagerDuty can experiment with new pricing, see how customers respond, and then use the insights gleaned to make adjustments before committing to a full rollout.

Together, all these features bring PagerDuty that much closer to realizing its aim of delivering a frictionless customer experience through the entire customer lifecycle. And this customer focus is paying off. PagerDuty continues to expand within their existing customer base, with approximately one third of enterprise and mid-market customers — including EA, Groupon, Okta, Postmates, and others — expanding within FY21 Q2.