3 Strategies for Retaining Your Software-as-a-Service Clients

When it comes to converting software-as-a-Service users in to customers, another important thing that should be paid attention is- how to retain the converted software-as-a-Service customers? Although it can be a challenging task, but if you research and plan a well thought out strategy, it can easily be done. Mentioned below are three great tips on how to avoid bounce off and retain your software-as-a-Service customers.

1. Measure your Customer Engagement





Engaged customers are those that keep getting value from your service. These are generally happy customers and do not leave your site. On the other hand, those customers who are using your service less often are much more likely to cancel their subscriptions and leave your site.

Considering the above scenario in mind, it is absolutely important to measure an engagement score for each customer and to monitor it on a regular basis. Now in order to put such a system in place that monitors customer engagement, you need to put in some efforts. It should be remembered that it is absolutely essential to systematically keep engagement high and churn low. In fact, it important for every SaaS business to construct this score from three main items. These are

(a) Activity Time: It indicates the total time users spend with your service.

(b) Visit Frequency: It tells you how often they come back.

(c) Core Action: It tells you what they do when they visit.

2. Try to Identify the Risk Stages





Whenever customers enter “risk stages” in their life cycle, they are more likely to cancel (or opt not to renew) their subscriptions. Now one of the most obvious risks involved here is- when the subscription expires, and the customer must decide whether to renew. From a business owner’s point of view, it is imperative to ensure that customers reach that decision point when they are happy with the value and experience they are receiving.

Every SaaS business gets to have many such stages. However, it depends on the nature of their offerings and sales model. What is important here is to ensure that business owners think through these life cycle stages, identify risk points and provide extra care to customers at those times.

3. Always be Proactive





More often than not, it is observed that customer support, advocacy and success teams spend all their time reacting to customer needs. This is to say that they are waiting for tickets or training requests to come to them. There is no doubt that it absolutely imperative to be reactive and responsive, but it should not come at the expense of being proactive as well.

For a good customer success team, it is necessary to devotes at least 30% of its time to proactive work that includes identifying customers with low engagement and then reaching out to them to remove roadblocks. This ensures that customers at risk stages are highly engaged and in good condition.