Guide to Effective Customer Retention

Customer acquisition & retention are equally crucial for SaaS business. However, a well-applied customer retention strategy can bring significantly better results for lower operational costs. For this reason, Saas developers should work hard to retain customers, convincing them to continue trusting their product or service. Here are some simple but highly effective customer retention tactics that will indeed allow you to keep the customers acquired.

To engage customers, new and existing incentives are a great way to achieve your goals. Given its effectiveness, it’s no surprise that rewards are essential to most strategies to retain customers. However, the secret of an impactful SaaS retention strategy is coordinating your incentives based on your customer behavior. Ensure that you will have your customers offer them the rewards they seek. Bonus features, better-priced subscriptions, longer free trials to product version that have just been released, customer support, whatever you believe would be appreciated, based on what customers purchased, use it to your advantage. Remember, your offers must be triggered by data surrounding consumer behavior.

One thing that motivates customers to give up on a product is the complex onboarding process. Your customer’s experience matters more than words can express, and it is the engine that drives customer retention strategies for SaaS. So, to increase customer retention, you need to optimize and streamline onboarding. Reduce customer churn and retain more customers by correctly educating your customers using your product and helping them see it as an indispensable tool. Retention starts from your user’s first interaction with the product. Keep that in mind when optimizing the process.

Customer success is when your user achieves the desired goal. It’s important to mention this because most SaaS developers believe the customer is satisfied when understanding how to use the product. This is the easy way to look at things because, in truth, your most loyal customers are the ones that obtained whatever it is they set out to achieve. Think of how your product helps users explicitly, what it allows them to obtain, and focus on providing users with the support they need to achieve. Connect with your customers, reach out to them and collect customer feedback. Act on that feedback and be personal in your interaction method. Use part of your resources to sustain users in making the most of your product.

One of the most popular tips to retain customers is to fix your SaaS customer service. And it’s true. Poor SaaS customer service is responsible for losing customers. Users won’t stay by your side if you are not providing them with a compelling experience. Your customers come first, and they deserve to be heard. Customer loyalty is gained by offering users the exceptional customer experience SaaS can provide.

SaaS pricing has a far-reaching impact on your business. When it comes to retaining existing customers, pricing needs to be mentioned. Playing with product monetization to boost customer retention metrics is tricky, and here is why. When looking to retain customers, product developers are tempted to offer discounts. It might seem like a smart move, but it’s not actually. Winning customer engagement and loyalty in this manner is short-lived. In fact, we can go as far as to say that it is an illusion. Yes, rewards are welcomed, but not necessarily in the form of discounts. Loyalty is based on product features and experiences that are not found anywhere else, not cheaper service. Pricing your product lower than your competition means lowering its value. Instead of discounts, raise your prices, gain more resources for improvising overall experience and service and turn your product into a dispensable tool. Your customer will pay, as higher prices are generally regarded as an indication of greater value.

Strategies on how to retain a customer come in large numbers. Their effectiveness lies in having a comprehensive approach. Fight on multiple battlefields. Collect feedback and use it to fulfill various goals. Understand your customers, why they came and why they are leaving. Consider their behavior to figure out what’s making them stay. You need to create a plan made up of multiple customer retention tactics instead of one to keep your users close to your business.