There are more than 15,529 SaaS companies in the world, based on data from Crunchbase, in 2020. You can surely imagine the spike in those numbers with every other business embracing the SaaS model. With so many businesses for each vertical, you can safely say that using a customer loyalty program would be on the minds of SaaS business owners to keep getting recurring revenue.
When it comes to SaaS businesses, customer retention is everything. We all know that customer acquisition is costlier than customer retention; therefore, for SaaS businesses, it is the right and only strategy that will keep their business floating. Building customer loyalty for businesses where most products are charged at $9.99 is quite an uphill task as customers can easily switch to a competitor. But you can strike gold with customer loyalty programs like 99minds that knows how to keep the spark in the customer-business relationship alive and kicking.
If you run a SaaS business, here are seven tips for you to build customer loyalty:
1. Always keep giving:
It is such a great feeling for customers when they get more than what they bargained for. They will always remember the brand that made them happy. One way to give more for your customers is to reward them with the help of customizable customer loyalty program systems like that of 99minds. It could also be offering an upgrade, a handwritten note, extended warranty, and more.
2. Easy onboarding process:
The onboarding process is always fraught with a lot of surprises, most of which can be irritating for the average customer. Your customers will love you if you make it a simple affair that takes as little time as possible. Ensure that your customers are up to speed on how to use your product/service. Do not get into the technicalities of what makes your product work; instead, tell them how it works.
3. Respond immediately:
No matter how good a product you have, there are always chances for something to go wrong. Your customers will want a resolution for it, and that too immediately. When you go out of your way to solve your customer’s problems, it will help them trust you more and build credibility for you. Ensure that your team is well trained in handling customers. They might feel as if they have been cheated, but it’s your employee’s duty to help them understand how they can use the product better. Responding immediately to queries will reflect in the number of customers who become a part of your customer loyalty programs.
4. Nurture your customers:
Most of the advice on nurturing is about prospective customers and not the paying ones. But if you want to gain your customer’s loyalty, then you need to go a step higher and follow best practices when it comes to nurturing them. Make sure that each and every customer gets the most value from your business. Even if a single customer’s dashboard says that they have not used your product as much as you would have wanted them to, then call them to see that they are helped in any way possible. Having customizable customer loyalty program systems ensures that you nurture them in the right way with rewards that makes sense to their business.
5. Improve features that matter:
As your business grows and with the passage of time, you will begin to realize that some features are more valuable to your users than others. Once you are aware of that, ensure that you sit with your technology team to find out ways to make it better. Your customers wouldn’t leave a business that is bent on improving its existing features, right? The point is to give them more and more reasons to stay put with you. The most used features would be the ones that customers go back to over and over as it is highly helpful for their business.
6. Offer rewards:
When you have customers who have completed a certain period of time with you, reward them with something that will make them happy. You can also offer something that is completely unexpected by the customer. Delight them just for the sake of doing so. Everybody loves surprises, and your customers wouldn’t mind getting up to a message that says they have got an upgrade and an addition of a few hundred miles to their frequent flyer miles.
7 Be transparent:
Values like transparency, integrity, and straightforwardness will never go out of style. Customers will love it if you own up to your mistake and promise to rectify it and not repeat them in the future. Be so transparent that nothing can hurt you. It might be scary in the beginning to be open with your customers, but they will see this as a sign of a company that cares and has the right values. It will never go wrong. In fact, you can expect your customers to stand up for you during times of trouble.
Some of the most popular loyalty and referral programs for SaaS businesses are as follows:
- Trello, a list-making application, offers a free upgrade to premium for a month if someone who you referred joins.
- Evernote, a note-taking app, also had referral plans similar to Trello’s in 2013. You can check out its current plan, here
- Amazon’s Prime Members get free shipping, live streaming music, movies, TV shows, storage for digital photos, etc.
- PayPal paid its customers to refer their friends.
Conclusion:
In every business, it is always about the customer and in SaaS businesses, especially so as they are used to short-term arrangements with businesses like yours. Your customers love the convenience and always expect flawless customer service, even though it might seem unreasonable at times. But that is how you retain customers, isn’t it? Loyalty is a great gift for a customer to give you, but you should demonstrate if you are worthy of it by going above and beyond what you possibly can.
If you are a SaaS business owner looking to reduce customer churn, you couldn’t have been at a better place. Try 99minds’ customer loyalty program software to make your customers stay with you for years together while enjoying your product to the hilt.
