Running a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) company is fun. It’s usually created by a couple tech enthusiasts with a great idea and extensive coding knowledge. Getting those first few customers feels amazing, and your core focus is on making them happy. They’ve got your cell number and you’re just a phone call away for anything they need.
However, as you acquire more customers, things change, and before you know it most of your day isn’t spent improving the software. Instead, you’re bogged down with walking customers through simple steps on how to fix minor problems. This can only mean one thing: it’s time to build a SaaS customer service team.
Let’s look at some of the key things to consider when building this team to keep customers happy…
Select customer service software for your industry with screen sharing – If there’s one thing a software company knows, it’s that they can use software to solve problems. By choosing a customer service software solution for your industry (B2B – business-to-business or B2C – business-to-consumer), you can save both time and money by keeping better track of customer conversations. One feature that is a must-have for any customer service team in the SaaS industry is screen sharing. It’s an easy way to share your screen with your customer (and vice versa) that turns hours of describing into minutes of showing.
Don’t assume everyone can “speak tech” fluently – One of the reasons why software founders need to step away from being the main point of contact for customer service is communication. Not that the founder is lacking in this area, but sometimes with more customers comes a greater need to make highly technical dialogue happen in common words. It’s time to transition these conversations and look for agents that are good at conveying simple answers to difficult solutions. Let them take the complex and make it simple.
Encourage collaboration – In the SaaS world, it’s often the responsibility of one agent to make the customer happy. However, it doesn’t need to be this way. Create an environment where it’s OK for an agent to bring in specialists as needed to solve problems. Having a software engineer quickly review a ticket in your customer service software can get to the heart of an issue right away. In addition, agents that know they have people behind them to help are less likely to respond to an issue with “I don’t know” and instead can answer “I can find someone who can help”.
Cross-train agents on different channels – Even with technical products such as software, customer service over the phone remains popular. Having agents that are skilled in phone, email, and chat solutions can go a long way in reducing customer wait times and improve your issue resolution speed. It’s also beneficial as it increases the agility of your team so if email volume is high but call volume is low, agents can focus on the exact source where the issues are arriving.
Follow up and offer additional education – One of the best things about working for a SaaS company is that you can see when and how customers interact with your software. If an agent has provided a resolution but see that the customer hasn’t logged in to try it, follow up and see if there’s anything else that can be done before closing the ticket. This communication goes a long way in keeping customers happy, and it can also be used to promote other educational tools that may help, such as webinars and self-service pages.
In short, keeping customers happy as a SaaS company isn’t all that difficult once you have the right mindset in place. Start off by utilizing technology and communicate in common terms that are easy to understand. From here, work together across multiple channels and use the intelligence gained from your own software to ensure the needs of customers are being met. Keep that fun experience of being a SaaS company alive through excellent customer service!