Prepaid plans and pricing for tiffin subscriptions
Prepaid plans smooth cash flow and lift retention, but only if consumption and balance always agree.
Prepaid plans are the natural model for tiffin. Customers pay for a month, the kitchen gets predictable cash flow, and nobody chases payments daily. The complexity is in what happens when the month does not go to plan.
Consumption must match the balance
A prepaid plan is a promise to deliver a certain number of meals. Every delivery should draw down the balance, and every skip should leave it untouched. When those two drift apart, customers stop trusting the number and support absorbs the difference.
Cut-offs protect the kitchen
A skip requested after prep has started is food already cooked and money already spent. A clear cut-off, enforced by the system rather than by a person, is the difference between flexibility and waste.
Flexibility for the customer and predictability for the kitchen are only compatible if the cut-off is real.
What a workable plan structure looks like
- A defined meal count or validity period
- Skips that credit back within cut-off
- Add-ons billed separately from the plan
- A visible balance the customer can check
Price for the operation, not the competitor
Tiffin margins are thin enough that copying a competitor’s price without their cost base is dangerous. Route density, menu complexity and container recovery all belong in the calculation.