How To Build An Epic Customer Retention Engine

Getting new customers, as hard as it may seem at first, is soon going to become the least of your worries. And that is good news.

The money-making question is - Are you activating, onboarding and most importantly, retaining new customers?

Your “SaaS Retention Engine” is the machine that creates your revenue, that turns new customers into long-term recurring revenue and higher Life Time Value (LTV).

When running smoothly, it will pump in a flood of recurring revenue and referral profits into your business. Not to mention the clout and industry authority you gain when each customer becomes an ambassador for your product.

However, a rusty retention engine will make churn rates slowly creep higher and the customer LTVs go down. If there was a miracle one-stop secret to customer success systems, believe me, I would be personally delivering it to you. 

But the good news is there are 8 key areas of a flawless Customer Success system that can ensure no parts of your customer’s journey let you or your customer down.

If you’re not sure where to start to improve these categories, don’t skim this article. Your churn rate will thank you for it:

1. Adoption Management

Adoption management isn’t just about knowing who your customers are. You need to be aware of where they are in the adoption lifecycle. Did you know that a majority of your new customers won’t reach out to you if they run into onboarding/adoption issues? They’ll simply decide to cancel. 

So it’s crucial that you find a way to keep track of their adoption journey and resolve objections before they fill out that cancellation form.

The three most important things your Customer Success Manager (CSM) needs to track are:

1. What stage of adoption each new customer is at?

2. What is their level of activity on your tool?

3. Are they being nurtured to reach out to you if they run into issues?

My tool recommendation for adoption management is:

Totango - Their user interface is a breeze and makes for a really short learning curve. I’ve heard that they are super receptive to feedback as well.

2. Co-Browsing

No matter how amazing your onboarding videos are, there will be times when you’re going to get on a video call, take control of your customer’s computer and show them how to use your product. 

And if you have global expansion on the cards for your SaaS, you’re going to need an efficient Co-Browsing tool sooner than tomorrow.

Here is my recco:

Upscope:

I personally use Upscope a lot and would recommend it for a number of reason. Now that they’ve fixed their log-in process, I really don’t have any cons to share. One-click, no download screen share…super smooth.

3. Calendar

I’m sure I don’t need to explain why a B2B SaaS business needs a calendar tool. So I’m just going to list the top three that I like.

Calendly: I use it personally and I like the design and integrations a lot.

ScheduleOnce: I’ve seen a lot of sales teams use this one, my sales team used to use it at one point as well.

Acuity: Another tool used by a lot of teams I work with.

Each one has its own features that make sense for different teams and people but all three get the job done!

4. Surveys

What’s the best way to keep your customers happy? Get their feedback and use it to inform product development, simple eh?

Surveys are also crucial to identifying at-risk clients and turning them into retained clients. One of the first things I do when I start coaching a founder is building a Red Playbook with them which outlines the exact strategy to win back disgruntled customers. But your red playbook won’t be of any use if you don’t know how to identify clients who are about to leave.

Everything from your net promoter score (NPS) to your customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is decided using surveys. These will help you really understand the heartbeat of your customers and locate the points of friction in your product experience or customer service.

Again, here are two great tools that I’ve used and can personally recommend: 

Typeform: The UX is really well designed which is probably why I end up using it the most but not a fan of the fact that I have no visibility if someone doesn’t finish the full form.

Delighted: Came out seven years ago and we use it with Front which is our email app. Works great for NPS scores.

5. Metrics

The big metric that you want to be measuring is the health score. Different SaaS businesses like to name this concept in their own way, I call it the member at risk monitor framework, it’s what I teach my clients. 

A lot of tools will help you figure out your metrics and monitor them, but here is my recommendation:

ProfitWell: And I’m not just recommending this one because Patrick is a friend of mine! ProfitWell is kind of customized for SaaS metrics and so many of my clients find it really easy to use and designed for their needs.

Honestly, customer success starts with a health score for me, so no matter what tool you pick, make sure you know your health score before deciding on your strategy.

6. Helpdesk

If your customer support team doesn’t feel the need for a help desk software, then you’re not growing fast enough and need to talk to my scale specialists TODAY.

Having a help desk software with a ticketing system and a historic knowledge base will ensure you don’t miss customer complaints and allow your team to process them faster.

A key feature to look for in your help desk software is the ability to create FAQ pages that work as a self serve. 60-70% of your customers don't want to call or wait for an email and they don’t mind going through FAQs if it gives them an answer quicker.

And I recommend -

HelpScout I have a complete bias towards HelpScout because I’m an investor… but why do you think I Invested in the first place? HelpScout is simple to deploy and works really well at scale, so it will grow with your company.

Another one I recommend (and invest in)-

Intercom: they built a great company and they offer so many features. A lot of companies already have Intercom but don’t use it for customer service. So if you’re already on Intercom, don’t add a new tool for your help desk, because you’ve already got one of the best!

7. Screen Recording

If a picture is worth a thousand words…

…then a video is worth 10,000!

“Picture” this… a customer reaches out with an issue, you create a screen recording on how to solve that issue. Not only do you enable them with a resource they can keep referring to, but you can also save it so that the next time a customer has the same issue, you have the answer ready to go!

And I have two current favourites:

CloudApp: I use it for screenshots and my team uses it for screen recordings, it is super easy to use.

Camtasia: This one is a little more evolved, I think useful for higher production stuff when you want to do a little more than just a simple screen share . I found it a little bulky but probably because I didn’t need the additional features as much.

8. Status Page

Now, this one might be a little left field for some, but your clients would love to know the status of your infrastructure and especially the issues you’re already working on.

If your servers are down for example, your existing customers can go on the status page to self solve their issue before they send you a panicked email.

If you’re talking to a new prospect and they feel like they need an additional feature or upgrade they can use your status page to see if you’re already working on it or not.

You get it. Here are the two most popular tools in the category-

StatusPage.io & Status.io: Both are pretty similar in their features and functionality, I suspect they compete a bit over branding and copywriting. But both are great tools for your status page.

Want to get closer to net negative churn? Make sure these 8 key areas of your business are working in perfect sync and delighting your customers every step of the way!

What's your customer success secret?