Do SaaS companies still need customer success?

You have a stellar SaaS product. It’s easy to use, your self-service is impressively in-depth, plus your baked-in onboarding is first-rate. This well-oiled machine can practically run on its own, which may make you wonder … do you really need a SaaS customer success team?

In short: a resounding YES. Here are eight reasons why.

1. Face-to-face time is valuable

Putting a friendly face alongside your SaaS product can make a huge impact. It establishes a personal connection to your product, which means a better experience and more customer loyalty. For example, Intuit’s TurboTax is known for being easy to use. But when Intuit added Glance Guided CX to provide in-app support, they saw an 18% boost in Transactional Net Promotor Score (tNPS), showing that even intuitive products have a lot to gain from customer success.

2. SaaS customer success teams can help reduce churn rates

Your customer success team partners with your users, helping ensure they get maximum value from your product. This tailored experience and hands-on help has a significant impact on customer retention and churn rates.

3. Higher customer lifetime value

Happy customers stick around. New users become existing users, who become veterans that continue to renew their contract. Plus, as their business grows, you have opportunities to upsell and cross-sell. 

4. A better (and faster) onboarding experience

Onboarding a new user is a big darn deal. It’s the first opportunity to provide value, and give your user confidence that they’ve made the right decision. While you might have an awesome self-guided onboarding experience, it can’t replace the value of a customized onboarding that addresses a user’s unique needs. 

5. SaaS customer success teams uncover powerful user insights

SaaS customer success teams know your customers better than anyone else. A big mistake many companies make is that they assume too much. Often, assumptions about your users turn out to be untrue, and if you operate blindly, your product won’t adapt to meet their needs. Leverage your customer success team to identify powerful insights to drive product enhancements and new features.

6. Your users are your best marketers

Word-of-mouth is more effective than paid advertising, resulting in five times more sales. And your users are more likely to recommend your software to friends and colleagues if they feel supported: Consumers who rate a company’s service as “good” are 38% more likely to recommend that company.

7. Customers change jobs, but keep good solutions

When your customers change jobs, if they’re highly satisfied with your SaaS solution, they’re likely to bring your product with them. This second-order revenue can be huge, especially in today’s fast-moving job market.

8. Candid product feedback

Sending an email, filling out a feedback form, or even chatting online is more effort than many customers are willing to put forth for issues that aren’t completely detrimental. However, your users may be more willing to share that feedback in passing during a conversation with a SaaS product success team member, which can help you address and resolve issues faster.

SaaS customer success drives success

When self-service fails, personal support can make all the difference. Through advertising alone, you might be able to succeed at attracting new users. But if they don’t hang around, neither will you.

A strong SaaS customer success program is the foundation to a thriving business. Be intentional about your SaaS customer success efforts. Build the right team, invest in the right tools, and put the right systems in place. 

Read: How to improve SaaS customer success today

4 areas to focus on to improve SaaS customer success

It’s clear that SaaS still needs customer success, even if your self-service is second to none. So, how do you take your SaaS customer support from average to outstanding?

Focus on four major areas:

• Context – Where, why, what, and how
• Assistance – Bugs and missing or confusing features
• Education – Empower customers with knowledge to help them get the most out of your product
• Centralization –  All questions are handled by your customer support team, regardless of the means of contact

We dive into much more detail about these four key areas in the Guided CX for SaaS eBook, which you can download below.

Get your Guided CX for SaaS eBook now

Competition in the SaaS space is fierce, making customer success vital. Download your free eBook, Personal Meets Digital: Guided Experiences for SaaS, to explore key areas to focus on to improve SaaS customer success, and discover how meeting your customers at critical moments can improve results across your whole organization.

Download your free Guided CX for SaaS eBook here.