Support is essential in the SaaS industry.
SaaS businesses have ongoing relationships with their customers, and often need to provide technical assistance to enable customers to use their software products.
Once a customer buys your SaaS, it’s the beginning of a relationship which will, more often than not, be handled by your support team.
Your SaaS customer support team must be ready to assist your customers whenever they have a question about, or issue with, your product. Fast, easy, helpful support can influence customer retention, satisfaction, and long-term growth.
If your support team is not up to scratch, your business will suffer and customers will start to churn in search of a better experience. It’s better to be proactive in your approach to delivering customer support.
Let’s explore 7 ways to level up SaaS customer support in 2025.
1. Implement Omnichannel Support
An email address is no longer enough. Customers contact your support team on a range of channels, and it’s your business’s job to provide coverage wherever customers are using your software.
For some, it’s more convenient to jump on live chat. Others prefer to pick up the phone to get a complex issue resolved. There will always be those who post on social media in the hopes of a quick reply.
You need a strategy for omnichannel support that will cover all the channels customers might use to get in touch with your business with regards to SaaS issues. You need to streamline communication so agents can comfortably switch between channels without losing important messages.
Benefits: Customers have their preferred methods of communication, and omnichannel support ensures timely and efficient interactions. Your customers will thank you for omnichannel support. If the business takes their needs into account, customers appreciate the opportunity to use their favorite channel to get in touch. Businesses with omnichannel engagement strategies retain 89% of their customers.
Best Practices:
- Ensure seamless integration across channels with unified inbox software
- Track customer interactions so you don’t miss messages when customers switch channels
- Maintain consistent service quality regardless of channel
2. Leverage AI and Automation for Instant Responses
Image: Chatbot example from BetterCommerce
37% of businesses use chatbots for customer support interactions, and 80% of customers report that their interactions with chatbots have generally been positive. With the growth of chatbots and automation, businesses are cashing in on the ability to deliver instant responses to customers regardless of agent coverage.
As well as a well-staffed customer support team, your business can use chatbots as part of a self-service strategy to help customers when agents aren’t available. Chatbots are good for fielding common inquiries that don’t require a human to solve.
Customers are happy interacting with bots as long as they also have access to human support. The rise of AI means that businesses can use chatbots to reduce their staffing needs by up to 68% during peak periods and not experience a drop in service.
Benefits: chatbots have 24/7 support availability, with the ability to provide faster responses to common queries. Automated systems reduce the workload for support agents, meaning more time you can reclaim for other tasks. Customers are generally happy to use chatbots.
Best Practices:
- Use AI to handle frequently asked questions (FAQs)
- Create a comprehensive knowledge base to feed the chatbot
- Route complex issues to human agents if the problem can’t be solved
3. Personalize Customer Support Interactions
In the fast-paced world of SaaS, tickets can be streaming into your inbox faster than you can get through them. Is it too much to hope that an agent will know a customer’s name?
Using the right CRM or help desk software, you can personalize each customer support interaction. You can view history to make sure any agent dealing with a query can offer a uniquely tailored response that takes into account the customer’s past exchanges with the company.
Treating each customer as an individual rather than a number makes your support more effective, and makes it a pleasure for customers to get in touch – rather than a chore. Customers actually get to develop a relationship with your company.
Benefits: Personalized interactions build rapport, improving the quality of the service interaction and taking it beyond being transactional. It also improves customer satisfaction, and increases the likelihood of customer retention when customers feel like you care about who they are.
Best Practices:
- Use CRM tools to store customer data including past interactions and order history
- Review interaction history to customize how you respond to customers in a particular situation
- Tailor responses to their specific needs so customers feel like your business understands them
4. Provide Self-Service Options (Knowledge Base & FAQs)
Empowering customers to help themselves is all part of a good SaaS self-service strategy. Documenting your product with a knowledge base, FAQs, or video tutorials provides customers with instant answers they can then use to troubleshoot your software.
A self-service strategy is crucial for SaaS companies that want to improve user experience and satisfaction. No one wants to fire off a support ticket when documentation will do, and help documentation can help thousands more customers than a single agent.
Taking the time to document shaves time off customer support, and gives customers the answer without requiring them to get in touch. Customers are happier when they can resolve an issue themselves with self-service.
Benefits: Self-service support empowers customers to find solutions on their own, reducing dependency on support agents and improving efficiency. Agents can simply send a help article to customers if they get in touch regarding a known issue. Articles will be surfaced in the search engine results page, making your product more visible to new and existing customers.
Best Practices:
- As your product changes, regularly edit resources to reflect the latest updates
- Use information architecture to make content easy to navigate
- Ensure documentation is available in various formats to cater for different learning styles
5. Develop a Proactive Support Strategy
Customers expect you to anticipate their needs before they have to reach out and open a support ticket. By the time customers contact support, it may already be too late to salvage that customer.
This kind of support is known as proactive. Shift from reactive to proactive support, where customer issues are anticipated and addressed before they arise. For example, if you see that a customer’s product usage is low that month, you can reach out and see if they need a hand.
Customer experiences are better when the business takes initiative to proactively solve problems with the software. Make the effort to offer support before it is needed, and customers will appreciate your SaaS business even more.
Benefits: Proactive support prevents customer frustration from reaching a peak. It increases customer loyalty as customers appreciate the effort your business puts into offering proactive support. Potential issues are nipped in the bud as SaaS businesses intervene before problems reach a critical point.
Best Practices:
- Monitor user behavior and watch for drop-offs in product usage or users reaching near-capacity with their software tier
- Identify potential pain points that customers need to overcome to be successful
- Proactively reach out with helpful tips or guides, utilizing the documentation you have prepared for self-service
6. Offer In-App Support for Seamless Assistance
Where’s the best place to offer customer support? Right where customers are using the app.
If you require customers to switch channels instead of providing in-app support for SaaS products, you run the risk of losing their attention. Customers may start to check their emails instead of using your app, which is a poor user experience.
Nothing beats the convenience of accessing support right when users run into trouble. This keeps their focus on your software, and makes customer support an integrated part of using it. Support issues are resolved quickly and efficiently, allowing customers to continue with their task.
Benefits: Allows users to get help without leaving the app, creating a more seamless experience. Customer support becomes part of the user experience, instead of an external tool customers must use to access assistance.
Best Practices:
- Embed live chat in your app so customers can contact an agent in real-time
- Provide tooltips that popup when customers are using particular features
- Use interactive guides within the app to assist users as they learn your software
7. Invest in Ongoing Training and Development for Support Agents
As your software changes, so does your support team. There’s always something new to learn in customer support. Investing in your customer support team is investing in your customers, and helps with agent retention.
Continuously improving the skills and knowledge of your customer support team ensures your support remains high quality. Customer support agents are equipped to handle new challenges, and can refresh old skills.
Team-building and knowledge-sharing results in a highly efficient support team that works together to find solutions.
Benefits: Training and development increases agent competency as you invest in your existing staff. It improves problem resolution as agents share best practices, and enhances customer satisfaction when agents can bring their collective knowledge to resolve any support situation.
Best Practices:
- Provide regular training to invest in your support staff
- Encourage cross-departmental learning to share knowledge between members
- Offer performance feedback to help with continuous development
Final remarks
Customers appreciate high-level SaaS customer support in their journey with using your software product. From automating certain interactions, providing self-service, and investing in the skills of your support staff, there are many ways to level up SaaS customer support.
Using your software is an ongoing process, and customers will inevitably run into issues. Offering proactive, timely support is the best way to enhance the customer experience, improve customer retention and ultimately boost revenue for your SaaS business.
Exceptional customer support can set your business apart and assure the ongoing success of your company. Customers have a better time with your product and know they can always get help if they need it, leading to positive reviews and recommendations for your software.
