SaaS customer Support Challenges and Best Practices
In recent years, there were several situations where Major companies were seen losing a considerable amount of business due to inadequate support services.
A recent Forbes Article reporting a whopping $75 billion business loss each year, for some of the major companies out there, due to the failure in their support practices.
Customer service is cost-centric rather than revenue-centric. But has a direct impact on the business as a whole.
For a SaaS company, they have to win their customers every month, considering their Subscription-based business model.
The implications of the support services are vital for the same reason.
Challenges of SaaS customer Service
Challenges are definitely on the way once you step in to support services, but you can always look for the best practices to make your process more efficient.
Customer retention is really important for a SaaS business to continue the journey. For a SaaS company, Focusing its activities on building a loyal customer base will be helpful in the long run.
Considering you have to earn back the customer every time, whenever communication is made between a support representative and a customer, it’s a win or loss situation.
If you can please the customer, it’s a great situation and you even have a sales opportunity right there.
But on the other hand, if the situation somehow went out of hand, then you are most likely to lose the customer. Even more, your furious client might spread negative word of mouth, putting you in a situation unlike any other.
These kinds of scenarios indicate the significance of a mindful support system and staff.
Earning customer loyalty is the ultimate mantra for SaaS companies.
Why support services are essential
Support services are extremely important in fact, Multiple acclaimed sources were being vocal about it.
A Hubspot stats study clearly shows the correlation between customer service quality and customer retention rates, and it’s considerably correlated.
A similar American express survey shows 33% of users are likely to switch to other platforms if they receive inadequate services.
Also, every customer interaction is an opportunity to learn customer feedback, and it’s also a sales opportunity. Making it a favorable situation to both parties is possible with the right support team.
Best Practices to Improve your support system
- Structuring the Support Team
Well, structuring support teams is important. Generally, SaaS companies follow a multi-tiered system to handle support requests.
Making sure that Tier 1 team consists of personals capable of handling basic queries and problems so that issues get resolved quickly and won’t get escalated to Tier 2 personals, saving time and effort.
More severe problems need to get escalated to tier 2, where more technically sound troubleshooters are available.
And Tier 3 will get involved in specific unique situations. Tier 3 should consist of experts with hands-on expertise and knowledge.
The thing with handling issues in a Tiered system is all about escalating to the right team at the right moment. It has huge implications on customer experience.
2. Multiple support channels
Another winning strategy is regarding multi-channel support, It is also a must-needed feature these days.
Some users prefer to write an elaborate Email, while certain others prefer a one-to-one phone call, while a vast majority of young users tend to use the live chat option.
As a service provider, it’s best to provide all sorts of connecting points to your customers, and your customers appreciate such convenience.
3.Respect customer Privacy
Whenever an interaction is made between you and your customer, make sure you protect their privacy and let them know about your privacy policy.
Data breaches are a common thing now, privacy should be guaranteed. Make sure you protect customer data and establish a secure connection for support channels.
4.. 360 ° customer view for the support team
To make more informed and mindful decisions, a 360° view of the customer profile, should be provided to your support team.
So that they can look for the customer preferences, see their service history, and more.
Such Profiles help the support team to interact well with customers.
5.Transparency and accountability
When a customer leaves a service request, they should be informed, when they can expect a reply. Also, the company policy related to support services needs to be available to customers.
Customer executives are also expected to follow their support manuals and should comply with the company support policies to ensure complete process transparency.
These are proven strategies to gain back the customers and build loyalty.
Strengthen your support system and your customers will reward you later.
Get Started with Activelobby’s SaaS Support Services
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FAQ Section
1. Why are support services essential?
Support services are essential to ensure that customers remain loyal to the brand, as customers tend to switch brands. Customer service quality and customer retention are correlated.
2. What are the challenges faced by SaaS customer service teams?
The Customer service team should handle the concerns of customers in the apt ways. If the services offered by the support team are rated by the customers as inadequate, you lose out on customers. Acquiring new customers will then become a herculean task if customer retention itself is poor.
3.What are some of the best practices to improve the support system?
Some of the best practices that could be adopted to improve the support system are ensuring multiple support channels, round-the-clock support service, structured support teams in terms of tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 support levels, etc.
4.What are the different tiers within a support team?
There are three levels of support personnel within a support team. Tier 1 personnel deals with general customer concerns. Tier 2 personnel deal with escalated issues that cannot be handled by tier1. Tier 3 personnel have the best practical and hands-on exposure to unique troubleshooting issues.
5. How can Multiple channels facilitate better customer service?
There is a generation gap often seen in customers regarding the communication channels they resort to. The older generation may prefer an in-person call or appointment as opposed to the young generation which prefers social media-based customer support communication. A company should have its doors opened for all these channels.