8 Ways to Toggle SaaS Customer Retention

The B2B SaaS companies are those who handle business to business operations. Like, they provide services to another businesses, they don't directly deal with the end consumer. If you are running or planning to start a B2B SaaS company, then you need to understand the churn out rate and importance of customer retention.

Like every other business in B2B SaaS, it is very important to have happy and satisfied customers for the successful business. To manage the customers it is very important for B2B SaaS companies to have a proper knowledge of the churn out rate. The churn rate basically means those customers who had left the business or have canceled the order. For a successful business, it is ideal to maintain zero churn rate, which very impossible to achieve.

Challenges faced by SaaS Startups

The SaaS [/tag/saas/] business model has been making a lot of traction over thelast few years. Stratospheric success of many companies built around SaaS (like Dropbox [/tag/dropbox/] or Slack) and seemingly effortless disruption of theexisting market landscapes they managed to achieve made this m…

StartupTalkyRishabh Rathi

The companies are well aware of the importance of the b2b SaaS customer retention, but still, they won’t pay attention to it rather put more focus on the new customer acquisition. According to a study, only 40% of companies give equal focus on acquisition and retention. While this may  be the case, more companies need to give retention the value that it deserves. In another research, they found out that an increase of 5% in SaaS customer retention can lead to a 25% to 100% increase in profit for companies. Now that’s one of the best reasons for why we should value customer retention more. The customer’s retention will boost the business as compared to acquiring new customers. So, guys pay attention to your already available customers and make them happy, and in return, they will make you happy.

Saas Customer Retention Techniques

Customer retention for SaaS is no rocket science, to have one satisfied and loyal customer you need to pay attention to few things. To have one loyal customer follow these points to the core:

1. Offer The Best

The customers are bound to you for the product you are offering, do offer them the best features in the product and provide them the unique quality feature product which no other leading business offers. For example, Apple is the leading smartphone company, and their customers are more loyal as compared to their competitors, Samsung or LG. That’s because they offer the iOS operating software and other offers basic Android operating software. Also, they offer a more secure system and thus by working against the league make their customers loyal.

2. Offer Discount

The customers love to get unexpected random discounts and rebates on the sale. This will boost the customer’s interest and retention in the business and they buy more from you in search of discount. Provide your customers a timely discount, like when they order in bulk then give them some basic rebate and also offer seasonal clearance sales to attract the customers into buying more service from you.

3. After Sales Service

After a sale, services must be prompt and if the customer has any complaint then it should be immediately addressed by the team. Keep in touch with the customers until the problem is solved and your customer will be satisfied. The needs and demands of the customers must be fulfilled for them to spread a positive word of mouth. In the current scenario, positive word of mouth plays an important role in promoting brands and products. After sales service makes sure products and services meet or surpass the expectations of the customers. It also includes various activities to find out whether the customer is happy with the products or not? After sales service is a crucial aspect of sales management and must not be ignored.

4. Keep Transparency

In order for your customers to overcome their skepticism about your product and to gain their trust, you need to be transparent. Companies must achieve full transparency at every level of their business. Transparency is a way to give back the trust that your customers give to your company. But building trust through transparency isn’t just about attracting new business. More than that, transparency is about growing customer relationships capable of withstanding difficult challenges. If you’ve been open and honest with your customers from day one, then they’ll be much more likely to keep working with you after setbacks. Rather than interpret a setback as a lack of concern on your part, they’ll be more likely to accept it as unfortunate but understandable and listen to your plan for the future.

5. Use of Social Media

Connect with your customers by using the social media. Send messages to your customers on the Facebook and provide the latest features of your products. Listen to your customers to get a better idea of their preferences. This will help you to satisfy them by providing them with what they are looking for. Identify customers that are actively promoting your brand, products, and services and reward them with incentives to strengthen your bond with them. Moreover, dish out personalized content through social media. This will force customers to think that you value them and understand their problems. Engage with them at a personal level. Nothing can force your customers to stay with your brand more than an irresistible offer. Even if they do not like your brand, they will think twice before switching. Rope in some social media influencer in the niche that appeals to your target audience and let them promote your products and services on social media. Timing plays a very important role in social media success.

6. Send Thank You Note

The age-old adage, “good manners never goes out of style,” is more than an adage, it’s a universal truth. Saying “thank you” is incredibly important in sales because the first thing you must sell is yourself. You can’t sell your product or service until you’ve demonstrated that you are someone the prospect wants to do business with.

Sending thank-you notes can have a huge impact on how others think of you because it shows that you not only appreciated what that person did, you also took the time to tell them so. A thank you note doesn’t have to be elaborate or written on pricey letterpress paper. Usually, two or three sentences is good enough and can be sent electronically or, thoughtfully, sent by mail, which, today, will make it stand out. Because saying thank you should be a standard practice for you, you’ll save time if you set up a few basic templates to address different situations and keep them handy.

7. Account Management

One of the best ways to show that you’ve made great progress in a client’s account is to prove it with cold, hard numbers. Damon Gochneaur urges agencies to think of themselves as profit centers, rather than vendors. Take ownership of leads and revenue that you generate through reporting. Of course, providing some form of reporting is a no-brainer for most agencies. In fact, you probably have this baked into the contract for your services. The problem is - far too many miss the mark with their reports.

Maintain a clean record of the customer’s account and manage it properly for the customer’s satisfaction. A good report should be both easily consumable and relevant to the client. It’s crucial to understand the KPIs that matter to the client first. Then, you can provide reports that show how you are impacting those measurements. Remember, your clients are not likely to be well-versed in PPC terminology. Even if they’ve picked up the basic lingo, they may not understand how each metric interacts with one another. So, your reports should help them to connect the dots.

It’s very important to maintain the balance between the retention and acquisition of the customers for a healthy B2B SaaS company. Both the aspects are equally important, so while making new customers, keep one eye on your already existing customers.