In today’s digital world, now it truly means to say that ‘Customer is the King’. Consumers to have access to vast information with easy internet availability. Customer satisfaction is no longer a traditional word to be used to measure happiness. It is now have become the real deal when it comes to revenues of any sustainability of the business.

There are tons of tactics that a company can try to keep up with customer’s expectations. In this blog, we are going to learn about lessons learned from 2019 to be implemented in 2020 for better customer engagement.

NPS– NPS is known as the ‘Net Promoter Score’. This score is very essential to measure and monitor consistently. Investors have started looking at NPS scores of a product or service very seriously. NPS is the latest way to measure customer happiness index. This has become important as this methodology has the ability to gather feedback about a product or a service from time to time.

How does it work? It works on very simple math. Let’s look at it with a simple example. Say you have 100 customers and have you have asked them to rate your product on the scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the best. The customers will also have an option to write a personalized message if they rate lower than the expected threshold. In this case, let’s take the threshold at 7. Basically, anyone rating the product 7 or below 7 will have to write the reason for the low rating. Depending on their ratings they will be called detractors and promoters. Click here to read about how NPS is calculated in detail. 

Upgrade offers- You can find many cold calling tips for sales but it equally important to keep the customer engaged by providing him various offers to upgrade. Generally, the customer wants to first try the product and then based on experience, they may want to upgrade or downgrade. There are multiple ways to pitch the customer for the upgrade but the best way is to get a local phone number and call them. 

Talking to the customer is by far the best way possible to increase customer engagement. This gives the company and the customer an opportunity to share meaningful information from each other.

Survey- It is observed that 76% of the customers switch the service provider just because no one asked them about their experience of using the service. Due to cut-throat competition in the market in almost every industry, there are companies that offer lucrative offers and discounts to cross-sell. It won’t come as a surprise the customer leaves you in a very short period of time. 

Every business must get a virtual phone number in their customer service department and start calling the customers to gather feedback. You can ask only 2 simple questions. Are you happy using the XYZ product? and Would you recommend XYZ to your friends? Upon making 100 calls you will get mind-boggling results.

The ultimate guide to customer engagement in 2020

Newsletter- It is extremely important to make your customers feel part of the company’s growth. It will add tremendous value for retention and reference. Every company must send at least one newsletter, either a hardcopy or softcopy. The newsletter generally, includes customer experiences, new releases, industry news, employee blogs, etc.

Newsletters provide the best return on investment in a short period of time. It is a must adopt a customer engagement tool.

Notifications- If you are in the software business or you have a website to display your product or service. Then, you must send web notifications to customers to promote your product or service with the best discounts and deals. It will provoke the consumer to upgrade or refer. You can also use pop-ups, push notifications using push APIs in the case of Android and iOS apps.

In fact, it has become very popular to send personalized notifications to the customer directly on their birthday and anniversary. Sending out SMS or email is also one form of notification. This basically means that you should know everything about your customers and delight them with various notifications to keep your brand on their tongue at all times.

Notification increases the visibility of your brand and offers by at least 20% then average. It is one of the most used tools in 2019 and will be more popular in 2020.

The ultimate guide to customer engagement in 2020

Conclusion- Customer engagement is a vital factor in the success of any product or service-oriented business. You may have the best sales automation in place however, it is equally important to keep the customer engaged throughout the journey. All of the above tools and methodologies will help your business grow at a faster speed. Moreover, it will help you analyze your own challenges and struggles that you should work on.

Launching a business is easy, marketing is tough, selling is tougher and retaining is even harder than selling. Therefore, customer engagement becomes a very important practice in the business for consistent grown and sustainability. 

With a global pandemic transforming the way companies operate, fear of slow growth and rising churn rates are valid concerns. And if you think SaaS companies are exempt from experiencing high churn rates in this uncertain business environment, think again. Data claims that around “Two-thirds of companies have experienced churn rates of 5% or more” – with over 30% reporting an increase in churn rates over the past year. 

To put things in perspective, a Report by SaaS Capital claims that a mere “1 percent difference in churn can have a 12 percent impact on company valuation in 5 years.”

So how can companies reduce their churn rate and prevent losing even a single customer? You need to start at the very beginning. We have three words for you: Seamless Customer Onboarding.

Top-4 Ways in which Companies can Lower Churn Rates

  1. Make your Customers your Priority with Live Chat

If experience is anything to go by, the secret recipe to establishing a successful business requires companies to convert new sign-ups into active users on an ongoing basis. Undoubtedly, one of the best ways to achieve this is by putting your customers at the core of your offering by using live chat services such as the one Acquire offers:

 

Image Source

First off, you’ll notice that the moment one lands on their website, the visitor is greeted by a live chat window that actively asks the user if they have any queries. There are two big learnings here:

One, it offers customers the chance to connect with the brand instantly, should they have any queries. Conversely, this platform also allows companies to educate customers about new offerings, perceived value for users, and deals that may be of interest to the latter. Let’s take another look at Acquire’s live chat tool which asks the user if they have any queries, without being annoying:

Image Source

Two, using a round-the-clock platform like live chat encourages customers to air their concerns over recurring plans they may have subscribed to. As long as the queries get addressed in real-time and as effectively as possible, you can rest assured that your customers are not going anywhere. All thanks to greater convenience and a friction-free experience, courtesy live chat.

  1. Enhance your Customer Experience with Co-Browsing

“9 in 10 customers abandon a business because of poor a experience.” – Oracle Study

Apart from offering true value to your customers, there’s another element in the mix that can lower your churn rates: building quality-driven relationships with users. Say a first-time user is having trouble navigating your website. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could be their eyes, hands, and ears, guiding them visually in the right direction?

That’s literally how the co-browsing feature works. It simple words, you can troubleshoot collaboratively on-screen, anywhere. Plus, by communicating with your users on a more personalized and interactive level, you can start developing real bonds with them so that they turn into loyal customers- and even voluntary brand advocates! Here’s a snapshot of what co-browse feature looks like:

Image Source

  1. Focus on Rolling Out Research-Led Content & Test Key Elements in your Brand Mix

Sure, images and graphics have a big role to play in garnering human attention, but where the image is queen, content is king. Whether it’s an in-app experience or your website, your customers need to be greeted and treated right.

Historically, customers have been known to stop renewing subscriptions because they start viewing their subscriptions as pointless. In such a scenario, it becomes imperative to gather insight into what is driving customer behavior and what their primary pain-points look like. Here are a few ways in which you can get a better pulse of your customer’s likes, dislikes, and problem areas:

      • Roll out surveys and polls to understand what customers need or what’s lacking in your offering so that adjustments can be made based on actionable and authentic feedback.
      • Work on creating a brand personality: It could be more humane, witty, smart, funny, whatever fits with your brand’s overall character and tone. The idea is to create a compelling story with slice-of-life segments so that it resonates with users, and they connect better with your brand.
      • A/B Test different aspects of your communication/platform/offering to see what’s working and what’s not. Do customers prefer live demos over email support? How overwhelming is your onboarding process? Do you have too many notifications, freebies, and webinars on offer that will ultimately drive your customer away? These are just some of the questions you can ask yourself at this point.
      • Integrate your sales management initiatives effortlessly into your existing CRM with Teamgate’s 360-degree inbound sales CRM software. Using this capability, you can get your hands on critical insights, reports, and forecasts required to keep your pipeline flowing smoothly. Additionally, generating leads and closing deals becomes a smooth process. Here’s a snapshot of the various advantages the software provides:

Image Source

  1. Create a Holistic Onboarding Experience for Enhanced User Satisfaction

Onboarding isn’t about sharing everything. It’s about taking the user through the first critical steps to success.

Think of onboarding as a first (blind) date between you and your customer. It can either become a memorable experience or a horrifying one depending on your customer experiences the brand.

Whether you call it the stepping stone to success or the foundation upon which a satisfactory user experience lies, ensuring a seamless, interactive, and engaging onboarding process is key.  How can you achieve this? Follow these simple steps:

  • Streamline your onboarding process: You could pepper your website, social media platforms, etc. with useful and informative “How-to” videos and tutorials so that customers can immediately understand the core benefits they can leverage from your product/service. As mentioned earlier, Monday.com’s onboarding process is quick and effortless. Once the user signs up, they get an educative email explaining various features of the offering:

The Email Clearly Spells Out the Product’s Various Benefits – Image Source

  • Highlight your offering’s value upfront, set the right expectations, and integrate convenient Call-To-Action opportunities by using proactive tools such as live chat. Let’s take a look at how JustGoodFoodBazaar’s integrates all the three elements in a collaborative manner, ensuring the new user feels comfortable using the new platform:

Image Source

Plus, you can also establish a strategic email onboarding campaign like Monday.com does (as shown below) so that the users feel informed, inspired, and motivated to try the product or even renew their subscription:

 

Closing Thoughts

“The total size of the public SaaS market in 2020 is projected to reach $157 billion.” – 99Firms

All things said and done, getting your customers to simply “Sign Up” for your products/services isn’t going to make the cut for creating a loyal and long-term customer base. The trick lies in demonstrating when and how your customers will achieve their first big-win and onboarding users in an effective, effortless, and agile manner. If you achieve both, retaining customers will be a cake-walk. Try these handy tips and optimize your churn journey, the true SaaS way.