SaaS depends on customer retention, which means enticing customers to stay for the long-haul. In order to recoup customer acquisition costs, SaaS businesses need to persuade customers to renew their subscription for the long-term.
With so many options out there, it can be hard to convince customers to remain loyal. Along with continuing to provide value, SaaS businesses must execute customer retention strategies to delight their existing customers.
SaaS companies need to be inventive and creative when it comes to retaining customers, offering an experience that differentiates them from their competitors. We’ll look at nine unorthodox customer retention strategies for building loyal customers now.
1. Launch a surprise and delight program
If you surprise and delight customers, you create a unique experience that has them coming back for more. Rewarding customers with unexpected perks such as a handwritten thank-you note, or surprise discounts, shows that your business cares.
Surprise and delight tells your customers that your company values their business beyond simply the sale. It gives them opportunities to remember you, and incentives to renew if you give them a one-time discount on your product.
It’s all about appreciating existing customers. Why should they stick around? Moments of delight set your business apart and give customers a reason to stay. Too many businesses focus on attracting new customers at the expense of rewarding their existing customers.
Why it works: Surprise and delight builds goodwill and strengthens the emotional connection with the brand. It humanizes your SaaS brand in the eyes of your customers and gives them a reason to renew.
How to implement: It’s all about the surprise. Randomly select loyal customers to receive a small, personalized gift or gesture.
2. Launch a customer advocacy program
Appreciate loyal customers by turning them into brand advocates who share good things about your business. With a customer advocacy program, you incentivize loyal customers to share positive experiences and win new business for your SaaS company.
In the program, you reward your loyal customers for promoting your brand online. Advocates are a powerful source of word-of-mouth referrals that can’t be replicated with traditional marketing initiatives.
Value your loyal advocates as your own personal army of fans willing to promote your business. They have unique insights into what it’s like to use your product and can tell others about it.
Why it works: Highly engaged customers who promote your brand are likely to stay loyal while attracting new customers. They feel a part of your team and invested in the success of your product.
How to implement: Make it worthwhile to become a customer advocate. Offer rewards such as exclusive events or discounts in exchange for social media posts, reviews, or word-of-mouth recommendations. Help your loyal customer advocates feel like winners.
3. Use the fail fast, fix faster approach
SaaS products are constantly developing, but are your iterations based on customer feedback? Fail fast, fix faster is an approach to product development that involves rapidly addressing negative feedback and fixing issues as soon as they arise.
This approach requires a close relationship between all your teams, but particularly Product, Development, and support. You need to closely understand customer pain points and quickly address them in the product for a better experience.
Investing in the product and fixing known bugs or issues generates loyalty in your customers, who know their views will be heard. This can result in powerfully positive customer reviews.
Why it works: Customers appreciate responsiveness and feel valued when their problems are promptly resolved. They feel that they are evolving along with the product, they feel a sense of ownership, and know it is headed in a direction that will benefit them.
How to implement: Open up the channels of communication between customers and the Dev team. Set up a system to quickly identify issues and ensure swift, transparent fixes, often with public updates to show customers you’ve heard their feedback.
5. Gamify customer engagement
The product itself is an effective way to retain customers when you make it more engaging to participate. Utilize the power of gamification to engage customers with your product and encourage usage.
Add game-like elements such as challenges, badges and leaderboards to the customer experience to encourage customers to complete tasks with your product. Customers who feel like champions have a reason to engage with your product and track their progress.
Gamification helps customers feel committed to using your product and motivates them to keep coming back. It gives customers an outside incentive to keep using your SaaS and rewards participation.
Gamification example from Facebook | Image source
Why it works: Products can be more than just software – you can offer customers a fun experience when using your SaaS. People are naturally motivated by competition and achievement, making this a good way to keep customers engaged.
How to implement: Turn customers into participants in your game. Create customer challenges like reward milestones, gamify product usage, or launch a referral leaderboard.
6. Implement hyper-personalization
SaaS customer relationships should be highly personalized. Improve retention by delivering tailored experiences, products, or communications based on detailed customer data. You have access to the data, so you may as well use it to personalize.
Personalization means that SaaS experiences are targeted as a unique individual. Segmenting your customers is a powerful way to improve the customer experience and offer relevant products or communications at the right time.
You can use personalization to re-engage a customer that has fallen out of love with your product. High-risk customers can be sent re-engagement campaigns before they have a chance to churn.
Why it works: Customers are more likely to stay loyal when they feel truly understood and valued. Personalization treats customers as more than just a number, and offers a unique experience depending on their needs.
How to implement: Use customer data to send personalized product recommendations, birthday offers, or even exclusive content.
7. Adopt proactive customer support
A powerful way to retain customers is offering proactive customer support. This is support that helps customers before they even realize they have a problem. Proactive support shows that your company cares.
If you detect a customer issue in the app, reach out to offer a helping hand. Proactive support improves the customer experience and product adoption by nipping potential issues in the bud.
Proactive customer support shows you’re aware of and you understand the customer’s needs. If a customer receives a message from your support team asking if they can help, this shows your business cares about their experience with the product.
Why it works: Proactive, instead of reactive, support is good for customer retention because it enhances the customer’s experience with the product. It prevents them from having to reach out to support and avoids disrupting their usage of the product.
How to implement: Monitor customer usage metrics and reach out if you see that a customer is experiencing problems with the product.
8. Build a product community
Communities offer exclusive benefits to a group of loyal customers who participate in the product community. The community is a chance to share ideas, experiences and best practices, welcome new users, and feel part of a group. It’s a user group that is highly engaged with your SaaS product and willing to talk to others about it.
SaaS communities engage users in the time that they are not using the product. They offer membership to users who are willing to participate in the community and talk about the product.
The growth of a community can parallel the growth of your SaaS. Communities need to be nurtured and actively managed by your company in order to encourage users to participate. A strong community can become an asset to your company that attracts more customers.
Liskit community example | Image source
Why it works: Communities give customers another way to engage with your business. They make customers feel valued and fosters a sense of belonging through participation in a group.
How to implement: Use a platform such as LinkedIn or other community software to build your group. Encourage users to participate with special events, product launches, or content available only to VIP members of the community.
9. Give early access to new features
When you roll out new features, you can give an exclusive group of customers a chance to beta test and access the new feature before everyone else. This gives customers a behind-the-scenes look at your product ahead of schedule.
Exclusive access to new features rewards them for their loyalty to your product. They get to experience a new part of your product that has just been developed, giving them another reason to stick around.
Involving customers in the development of new features reminds them that your product is always evolving. Customers can have a chance to road test your new feature and unlock value.
Why it works: Customers appreciate transparency and feel more connected when they understand the inner workings of your brand. Being the first to access new features makes them feel special and a worthwhile customer of your business.
How to implement: Share live product development updates, or give customers behind-the-scenes coverage about how you developed the new feature.
Conclusion
While acquisition is important, retention helps your business to grow more. SaaS businesses need to be inventive when it comes to customer retention. They need to launch programs that make them stand out from the herd and let customers feel special.
Give customers extra reasons to renew their subscription and keep using your software. Experiment with at least one of these unorthodox strategies to distinguish yourself, help customers feel exclusive, and reward them for being loyal to your brand.
Whatever you’re doing for customer retention already, try something new to boost customer loyalty.
