Ava was founded to bridge the communication gap between the deaf and hearing worlds. Inspired by CEO Thibault Duchemin’s experience growing up in a deaf family, Ava delivers real-time captioning for everyday life, empowering people who are deaf or hard of hearing to fully participate in conversations – whether in daily interactions, workplaces, classrooms, events, or more. Ava supports individuals and organizations in making communication more accessible with the best instant captions, in any situation, at the click of a button.
The Challenge: Keeping Subscription Management from Getting Lost in Translation
Prior to partnering with Chargebee, Ava relied on Stripe Billing as its subscription management solution, which failed to meet their evolving needs as the business expanded. According to Ava, Stripe Billing was designed primarily with B2C and individual subscribers in mind, which made it poorly suited for Ava’s B2B clients, where one organization often has multiple licenses under one account. For instance, one of Ava's global clients, a major airline, had six separate subscriptions for different uses of Ava's services across various departments.
The existing system wasn’t equipped to manage this structure effectively, leading to administrative inefficiencies and confusion when tracking different users within the same organization. It not only consumed valuable time but also led to oversight gaps, allowing some clients to use Ava's services without being billed, resulting in a loss of valuable revenue.
Ava’s team also spent a significant amount of time on manual tasks. It could take as long as five minutes just to add a simple purchase order number to an invoice – a small task that quickly added up and drained valuable time across the team. If they were handling dozens of transactions daily, this could easily add up to more than 10 hours of manual work per week. With Chargebee, it takes a fraction of that time - potentially reducing that time to 30 minutes or less per week.
Reporting posed a significant challenge, as spreadsheets required manual preparation and frequent corrections, leading to persistent doubts about the numbers' accuracy.
The tipping point occurred when Ava's Business Operations Manager discovered that 50-70% of the sales team's efforts were spent on administrative tasks rather than on strategic activities such as cross-selling and up-selling.
The Solution: Smarter Subscription Management That Speaks Ava’s Language
To address Ava's challenges with managing more complex B2B subscriptions, Chargebee introduced a seamless, scalable solution that significantly transformed day-to-day operations. Prior to Chargebee, handling multiple subscriptions for a single client was time-consuming and left room for potential oversights. Now, Ava can easily manage multiple subscriptions within a single client account, streamlining the process and reducing administrative complexity.
Duchemin says, "A key feature that impressed our sales team was the ability to edit purchase orders in just two clicks. What used to be a 5-minute task now takes less than 10 seconds. This simple yet powerful function, among many other new capabilities, streamlined our workflow. Such features sparked genuine enthusiasm in our team to learn and fully embrace Chargebee."
Chargebee’s intuitive reporting capabilities have also been a game-changer for Ava. It automates the entire process of generating reports, eliminating the need for manual data entry. With customizable templates, Ava is able to transform raw data into valuable insights. This not only saves time and reduces human error but also provides the team with more relevant and detailed analysis.
At the end of the day, it’s all about the reporting. We wanted a system that would give us clear and confident insights into our operations. If we report churn as 103%, we need to be sure that number is accurate. With Chargebee, we can trust the data we’re seeing.
Thibault Duchemin, Founder & CEO, Ava
The results: Powering productivity with efficiency that speaks volumes
Since switching to Chargebee for its subscription billing, Ava has seen a significant increase in operational efficiency. Prior to Chargebee, Ava's Customer Success team spent 7-10 days per month on administrative tasks. Chargebee has cut that time in half, allowing the team to focus more on customer interactions and strategic work. The efficiency gains have empowered Ava to operate more effectively and with greater confidence in its subscription management processes.
“Before Chargebee, if someone needed to cancel a subscription, the process was convoluted. Our finance team was often left in the dark, hunting for missing invoices. Now, those small but critical tasks are handled effortlessly, allowing for smoother operations across the board,” said Duchemin.
One of the most valuable aspects of Chargebee is that our team no longer questions whether they can accomplish a task. They have the confidence to know that the tool works seamlessly for them.
Thibault Duchemin, Founder & CEO, Ava
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Tech Stack
Finance
Chargebee Billing