Software customer expectations have changed over the last decade. Your customers are looking for good software such as a video editor and more, of course, but customer experience (CX) has become an almost equally important factor in how satisfied a customer is with a product.
In an age of options, customers want their brand interactions to be quick, effective, and personal.
One way to achieve this is by incorporating innovative technologies like QR codes into your CX strategy.
SaaS businesses that want to thrive, rather than merely survive, can’t get by on product features alone. To be truly competitive, they must establish CX as a core element of their brand identity.
It’s a good idea to back your customer relationship management strategy up with research. By taking a look at industry leaders’ thoughts and statistics, it becomes easier to form a customer support strategy that bolsters your brand image, reduces churn, and keeps customers happy.
TL;DR
- Take a data-driven approach to improving your customer experience, and allow that data to help shape your products and brand, as well.
- Use automation thoughtfully to enhance your team’s efficiency and make personalization efforts scalable. Never lose the human touch, though.
- Provide your customers with a host of options for service, including self-service.
The customer experience is a key part of your marketing strategy
A good customer experience does more than just keep your existing clients happy. Brands that truly excel at providing a positive customer experience can use it as a marketing strategy to attract new clients.
As Slack’s CEO, Stewart Butterfield puts it:
“Every customer interaction is a marketing opportunity. If you go above and beyond on the customer service side, people are much more likely to recommend you.”
60% of marketers say their referral programs generate a significant number of new leads. Often, these referral-generated leads are converted into sales. Recent surveys have revealed that people are four times more likely to do business with a company when it has been recommended by someone they know.
Businesses that view customer satisfaction as part of an overall marketing strategy are naturally more likely to provide superior service. And if you can consistently provide superior service, it’s more likely to result in organic referrals. As you craft your customer experience strategy, ask yourself, “What would the outcome be if this customer told their friend about this interaction?”
The goal should always be to craft customer experiences that you would proudly broadcast to the world.
Understanding SaaS Customer Support: Definition and Importance
SaaS customer support refers to the assistance and guidance provided to customers who use software as a service (SaaS) products. This support encompasses a range of activities, including answering questions, troubleshooting issues, and providing training and documentation to help customers get the most out of the product. Effective SaaS customer support is crucial for building trust, ensuring customer satisfaction, and driving long-term success.
In today’s competitive market, customers expect prompt, personalized, and effective support from the companies they do business with. A well-designed customer support strategy can help SaaS companies differentiate themselves from their competitors, build strong relationships with their customers, and ultimately drive revenue growth. By prioritizing customer satisfaction and investing in a robust SaaS customer support system, companies can create a loyal customer base that advocates for their brand.
Data-driven CX can help you improve the customer journey
Mistakes are a great way to learn and improve your customer experience strategy. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates once said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
There’s an almost hokey simplicity to this statement, and one can imagine similar advice coming from the lips of a mother as she applies a bandage to the skinned knee of a young child. “Well, you won’t be trying that again, will you?”
And yet in the age of information, Gates’s statement has never rung truer. Businesses are now empowered to use their analytics technology to receive granular insights into the customer lifecycle. With this information, your help desk and customer service teams have insight into the pain points customers complain about the most, their product-related struggles, and even at what point people are churning out.
With this data, you can improve your customer journey, and constantly smooth out the rough spots that are causing the most churn. You can even improve customer acquisition.
Personalization is the new standard
Thanks to companies like Amazon that have massive swaths of consumer data to aid in the CX efforts, the public tolerance for impersonal CX interactions has dropped dramatically. Penny Wilson, CMO of Hootsuite says, “No longer will people accept viral marketing. What customers are expecting and craving is a more personalized, curated experience.”
A recent survey revealed that 80% of customers expect a degree of personalization in their interactions with a brand. While personalization used to mean data-backed product recommendations, expectations have advanced considerably in recent years.
Nearly 3 out of 4 customers expect the customer service agents they speak with to know at least basic information, like their name, buying history, and contact information.
Having this information serves a practical purpose. With data at the ready, your customers won’t have to spend an hour bouncing around departments relaying their information to each new agent. The info will be where it’s needed and the customer will feel appreciated as a result.
Having this information serves a practical purpose. With data at the ready, your customers won’t have to spend an hour bouncing around departments and relaying their information to each new agent. The info will be where it’s needed and the customer will feel appreciated as a result, showcasing great customer service that meets their expectations and enhances their overall experience.
Customer experience should shape the product
Customers may see your product differently than you do—especially as circumstances change and situations develop.
Zoom is a good example of a company that was able to pivot very rapidly into new features and service options in response to consumer needs. Originally framed as a way to communicate with distant family members (CEO Eric Yuan first came up with the idea while in a long-distance relationship), the company was able to shift into business communication features at the start of the pandemic.
It did this by developing business-friendly templates and features that were vital to businesses making the switch to remote work. Simultaneously, it also made its technology freely available to schools and other high-need institutions.
The result? In just ten years, “Zoom” went from being an idea in someone’s head to a verb. On customer experience, Yuan says, “We truly care about our customers. Every day, we think about what we can do differently to bring happiness to the customers, to those users, including K-12 schools, healthcare organizations, telemedicine, telehealth, and also there are so many new things in the pipeline.”
Implementing customer feedback is key to ensuring that your product grows in the right direction. Collaboration between customer support and product and engineering teams is essential for relaying customer feedback on product issues, which informs engineering decisions and future feature developments.
Let customer experience shape your brand identity
CX expert and speaker Stan Phelps says, “Customer experience isn’t an expense. Managing customer experience bolsters your brand.”
Some businesses bake their excellent customer experiences right into their overall identity. Amazon is an obvious example, but many other, smaller businesses build brand loyalty by ensuring they provide a superior customer experience every time.
The cloud support company Rackspace once made headlines for having a pizza delivered to a customer’s house after overhearing her mention that she was hungry during a support call.
Stunts might make headlines, but the real way to establish lasting customer loyalty is to consistently make sure that you make your product users happy with every interaction.
CX as the last competitive battleground
The quality of your product will always be important. However, in a crowded market where multiple brands are competing for the same limited set of customers, CX may be of equal or even greater competitive importance.
A recent survey indicated that 65% of industry disruptors view CX as the primary competitive differentiator—an understanding that many consumers seem to share.
More than half of customers make a point of shopping from brands they feel loyal to. On the other hand, 62% will leave a brand for a competitor after a single poor customer experience—with an additional 15% ready to leave after two bad experiences.
As HP’s Doug Warner says, “In the world of Internet Customer Service, it’s important to remember that your competitor is only one mouse click away.”
Proactive Customer Service to Prevent Issues Before They Arise
SaaS companies can implement proactive service through automated alerts, personalized email check-ins, or live chat pop-ups that offer assistance based on user behavior.
For instance, if a customer’s usage patterns indicate they might be struggling with a particular feature, your system could trigger a tutorial or offer additional support. Similarly, sending out personalized check-ins or reaching out before a subscription renewal can go a long way in addressing concerns before customers even express them.
Proactive customer service reduces frustration, shortens issue resolution times, and makes customers feel like they’re being taken care of, all of which enhances loyalty. A proactive approach sends a clear message: your business isn’t just reactive—it’s invested in the long-term success and happiness of its customers.
Seamless Onboarding: The First Steps Matter
For SaaS companies, the onboarding experience is crucial to customer retention. A poor onboarding experience can leave new customers confused or dissatisfied, significantly increasing the chances of churn. Conversely, a smooth and intuitive onboarding process helps customers feel confident in using your product and sets the stage for a long-term relationship.
Your onboarding process should guide new users through key features of the product in an easy-to-understand way. Consider offering interactive tutorials, in-app guidance, and access to a dedicated support team to assist during the initial setup. It’s essential to ensure that users understand how to extract maximum value from your software as early as possible.
Continual improvement of the onboarding process based on user feedback can also make a difference. Monitoring where new users drop off or struggle provides valuable insights into how to streamline and improve the experience.
Build a Customer Community: Engagement and Support Go Hand-in-Hand
Building a community around your product not only creates brand loyalty but also offers a valuable source of feedback and ideas for product improvement. A customer community can take various forms, from user forums to social media groups to live webinars.
SaaS customer support teams play a crucial role in engaging with the community and gathering valuable feedback.
Creating a space where customers can engage with each other provides them with peer support while giving you additional opportunities to interact directly with your user base. Customers who are part of a community are more likely to remain loyal, as they feel a stronger connection to both the product and the brand.
Continuous Education and Resources for Customers
Providing ongoing education and resources for your customers is essential for their long-term success with your SaaS product. Many customers may only use a small percentage of your product’s capabilities, simply because they don’t realize its full potential. Offering continuous learning opportunities ensures customers can maximize their use of your software, leading to greater satisfaction and retention.
This can be achieved through:
- Help Centers and Knowledge Bases
- Webinars and Live Demos
- Video Tutorials
- Regular Newsletters and Product Updates
Use Automation to Enhance, Not Replace, Human Support
Automation is a powerful tool in the SaaS customer experience toolkit, but it’s important to strike the right balance between automated solutions and human interaction. Chatbots, AI-powered self-service options, and automated email follow-ups can be incredibly effective for streamlining support, especially for handling common inquiries or low-level support tasks.
However, while automation can significantly improve efficiency, it should not come at the expense of human interaction from a customer support team. For more complex or sensitive issues, customers still expect human support that is empathetic, knowledgeable, and timely. For instance, automated systems can help route customer queries to the right departments, but humans should handle more nuanced interactions that require problem-solving or a deeper understanding of the customer’s needs.
Successful SaaS customer support know how to use automation to reduce response times and increase scalability while still ensuring customers feel valued and cared for by real people when necessary.
Offer Tiered Support Levels to Match Customer Needs
Not all customers have the same support needs, especially in the SaaS world, where you may have clients ranging from small businesses to large enterprises. Offering tiered support plans allows you to tailor your customer experience offerings to the specific needs of different customer segments.
For example, your basic plan might offer standard email and chat support, while a premium plan could provide dedicated team members or priority phone support. High-value customers—such as enterprise clients—often expect more personalized service, with real-time responses to their support requests, and it’s crucial to meet those expectations to maintain long-term relationships.
Tiered support models not only enhance customer satisfaction by providing more personalized care to high-touch clients, but they can also serve as an additional revenue stream by upselling existing customers to higher service tiers for a different support experience.
Proactively Monitor Customer Health Scores
Customer health scores, net promoter score (NPS), and customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) are useful metrics for assessing the overall happiness and engagement level of your SaaS customers. These scores, which combine factors such as usage patterns, frequency of customer support interactions, and the length of time since the customer last logged in, can help you proactively identify potential churn risks.
By actively monitoring these KPIs, your customer success teams can intervene before dissatisfaction turns into churn. For example, if a once-frequent user has significantly reduced their usage, your team can reach out to offer support or guidance to re-engage them.
Proactive monitoring and action based on customer health scores can reduce your customer churn rate, improve your retention rates, and turn potentially at-risk users into loyal, long-term customers. SaaS companies that excel in customer experience often have a clear understanding of their customers’ health and take steps to strengthen relationships before they become fragile.
Ensure Scalability of Support as You Grow
As your SaaS business scales, it’s crucial that your customer support infrastructure can scale with it. Without a plan for scalable support, your ability to deliver a high-quality customer experience may falter, leading to higher churn and negative customer feedback.
To ensure scalability, consider:
- Investing in a cloud-based customer support system that can handle increasing volumes of queries and tickets without compromising response times.
- Self-service options that empower customers to solve their own issues.
- Plan ahead for the growth of your support team. As your business scales, ensure that you are hiring enough support staff and continuously training them to meet the evolving needs of your customers.
Omnichannel Support: Be There When and Where Customers Need You
In today’s fast-paced world, customers expect to be able to reach your reps through their preferred communication channels, whether that’s email, live chat, phone, or social media. If your SaaS business only offers limited customer service touchpoints, you risk frustrating users who prefer different modes of communication.
An omnichannel approach to SaaS customer service integrates all these channels, creating a cohesive experience that allows customers to switch between platforms without losing context. For example, a customer might initiate contact through live chat and later follow up via email. With omnichannel support, all past interactions and customer data are unified, so customers don’t need to repeat themselves even when working with multiple support agents.
CX is as important for you as it is for the consumer
When properly executed, a good CX strategy can serve as a symbiotic connection between you and the consumer. They get what they want—a smooth, seamless experience—and you get:
- brand loyalty,
- organic marketing, and
- a vital, active feedback loop.
The internet gives consumers a lot of power. In a world where your biggest competitor is only a few keystrokes away, it’s more important than ever to give all your customers the experience they expect and deserve.
