When information technology comes to customer service, SaaS products are in a league of their ain. Because customers pay on a recurring ground, oft use your product daily, and have to acquire new features as the product evolves, having proficient client support is cash-burn-rate-friendly—and integral to the success of any SaaS product.

Of form, some of the challenges that come with SaaS client back up stand for an opportunity as well—especially with a pocket-sized team.

Later on all, in a business where customers use your product regularly over time or are just getting to know your product, client back up offers a adventure to build a relationship and fifty-fifty glean insights that help the unabridged company. Not to mention they're literally the life-blood of startups—every bit a rule, the goal should be to retain as many customers as possible. (And yep, often that means existent-time 24/7 support.)

And that relationship building? That'due south also the thing that will get y'all great reviews and referrals, and keep customers subscribed and brand yous more money calendar month after month.

Then, how can you be sure you lot're getting customer support right for your SaaS production? It's not as hard as it seems—with the right strategy and some unproblematic all-time practices, your customer back up can exist the kind that turns customers into raving fans.

As a company that helps customer service teams communicate and interact every day, we know how important back up is to pocket-sized SaaS businesses like yours. That'south why today we're sharing the best insights that will assistance you assist your customers.

Here's what we'll cover today. Feel free to skip alee:

  • 3 essential components of a SaaS customer support strategy
    • The agents
    • The tools
    • The resource
  • 3 SaaS customer support best practices
    • Meet customers where they are
    • Tailor your messaging
    • Reframe your client service

🔑  What's the key to edifice a customer-axial team? Grab our eBook to find out.


3 essential components of a SaaS customer support strategy

When information technology comes to creating a SaaS support model that works for your company, you need to start with a few foundational components.

Having a skilful team, the right tools, and solid customer resources will brand sure that your support squad is set up from the beginning to provide the best possible customer service.

In the adjacent section, nosotros'll talk more specifically about best practices for your back up agents, but beginning, it's all about getting the right framework to build your support strategy on.

Ready? Allow's start with how to hire the correct agents.

Great agents

Many larger companies work on a tiered organisation, with levels of agents handling progressively more complex questions that come in. But for a smaller business, you may have a team as small-scale as ane person treatment customer support.

That's why hiring the right people is the well-nigh important investment y'all can brand in your SaaS support model.

A peachy SaaS support agent should be, in a higher place all else, curious and ready to learn.

Ultimately, the all-time agents volition know your production inside and out—but usually, nobody will know your product that well withal off the bat.

That's why investigative skills and an ability to larn and solve bug are admittedly crucial in a SaaS support hire—considering those skills volition ensure that they learn quickly.

Depending on your product'due south complexity, technical skills are important too so that they tin can handle more in-depth tech questions that may come in.

And, of course, they should likewise exist personable and professional person, so you know you tin can trust them with customer-facing communications.

💡 Pro-tip:

Afterward you lot've found and trained the all-time amanuensis possible, trust them! Requite them freedom to do well and they'll deliver exceptional customer service.

If information technology sounds like this person is a unicorn, y'all aren't wrong. In fact, proficient support agents are so crucial to a customer support model that you may consider opening your search to remote agents to notice the best talent.

That'due south not the just do good, though—a remote support squad will set your digital product up with a competitive reward over time. As y'all hire agents in different places, y'all can offer back up around the clock.

Hiring remote back up agents might sound intimidating or complicated, just it doesn't need to be. The right communication tools will allow your team to stay connected to each other and to communicate with customers from anywhere around the world. Which brings us to our adjacent indicate.

The right tools

Every bit a SaaS visitor, you probably already know the importance of having the right technology at your disposal, and when it comes to customer support, it's no dissimilar. The right back up software empowers your agents to practise their best work in real time.

The most important resource for your agents volition exist the one they use to actually speak to customers—your support software.

Because of the technical nature of a SaaS production, it'south important to be sure that video conferencing and screen sharing are bachelor options on your customer support platform. For example, RingCentral'due south desktop and mobile app both have screen sharing and video calling options—forth with squad messaging and phone telephone call functionality besides:

But equally you're shopping for tools, don't lose sight of the fact that your goal should be to help customers solve their problems on the first phone call or contact.

Screen sharing empowers your team to walk advanced (or just hopelessly lost) customers through even the nearly technical questions hands. Just imagine a highly technical dorsum-and-along chat session on a telephone telephone call and how much time you could relieve by being able to encounter someone's screen:

screen sharing in RingCentral Video

It'due south also crucial that your team can connect with customers and partners—and even sync customer information—across platforms. When a client tweets a SaaS support question to y'all, is your support team prepared to tackle the issue and respond?

Gone are the days when your social media manager could merely inquire a customer to file a ticket. Customers now wait helpful, uniform responses across platforms. Once again, RingCentral can help here. RingCentral'due south Engage Digital product consolidates all your client support queries across social media in one convenient identify:

💡 Pro-tip:

Use a platform that pulls all of these requests into i place, then your squad tin easily manage them, no affair where they came from.

Some other win? RingCentral also makes it easy for support agents to connect with the rest of the squad. That means they tin can provide instant feedback to the marketing department about the FAQ page or quickly message a developer when they need an expert's input.

Acquire more than about how tech startups are using RingCentral to collaborate more finer with distributed teams and continue customers happy.

Client resources

You've heard that oft-cited stat: it costs five times as much to earn a new customer as opposed to keeping an existing one. i

If you find that y'all're getting a lot of the same questions coming to your back up team all the time, it'southward a good sign that information technology would be worthwhile to invest in some resources on your website.

Some customers just prefer to work through issues themselves, and some may accept technical questions at a fourth dimension when support is unavailable.

Either way, you can ease customer headaches and make the job of your small SaaS back up team simpler by investing in resources for your customers.

Information technology might be as simple every bit an FAQ page or equally in-depth every bit a assistance heart on your website, simply either way, your customers should exist able to help themselves to information earlier reaching out to support.

💡 Pro-tip:

If a lot of the simple questions coming in are most pricing or how to brand a purchase, you might need to redesign your website to be more intuitive. Pass these questions on to the marketing team.

In society to know which questions come in most ofttimes, offset keeping track. Then, ship these FAQs, along with request frequency, to the marketing department or a designated support team fellow member to start developing helpful customer resource.

Don't forget to encourage support staff to apply these articles when helping customers and so they get more familiar with the resource at their disposal.

For instance, a rep can respond "Here's an article that shows exactly how to exercise that. Let me know if that helps" instead of spelling out the entire procedure.

Not only does the agent salve time, merely they also testify the client where they can find answers in the futurity.

Plus, if the client withal isn't getting it, that's great feedback to edit the article or even speak to the product team about making the software more intuitive. Call back, customer support can be a resource for the whole company.

Contact Center Maturity Quiz


3 SaaS customer support best practices

Now that you've built a solid foundation, we wanted to share some of the best practices yous'll need in your agent playbook to ensure infrequent SaaS customer back up.

By instilling these habits in your support reps, through the onboarding process, training, and positive reinforcement, you'll be able to create an effective team that y'all can trust to take intendance of your customers.

To help drive home each idea, we've even included real life examples of SaaS companies putting these ideas into activeness—so there'due south no alibi not to implement these support best practices in your own business.

Meet customers where they are

As we previously mentioned, customers are no longer simply coming to your site, submitting a support ticket, and patiently waiting for their question to be resolved.

Instead, they expect to go client back up where they are—and on need.

That means it's non uncommon to field SaaS back up requests on Twitter or Facebook, live chat, and standard back up tickets. And our research has establish that 88% of customers detest having to echo themselves on multiple different channels.

It can feel like questions coming at you from all angles—which is why it's crucial to manage it intentionally with omnichannel client service .

Omnichannel customer service is all about meeting customers where they are and allowing them to become service however they're most comfortable—exist it by phone, chat, your site, or social media.

Real-life example: Stratejm

Stratejm , a cybersecurity-as-a-service company, saw firsthand the style platform flexibility benefits their customers.

"Now my analysts tin can communicate and collaborate with our customers in whatever way they choose, including vocalism, chat, text, electronic mail, and video," said President and CEO John Menezes. These communications options, he said, "make Stratejm friendlier for our customers."

And they fifty-fifty found that many of their customers preferred to speak with agents via video call over audio calls.

Social media management isn't just the domain of the marketing department—it's likewise a critical support channel, and information technology should be treated as such.

By moving these social media conversations into the realm of the back up team, y'all can ensure the high quality service your customers expect is consistently provided across channels.

Just apply a platform that allows you to bring those conversations into your typical support queue. Then, you lot tin can respond quickly and tailor those conversations based on the platform your client prefers to use.

While social media is usually seen equally a marketing platform, more and more, it's also where many customers turn to go help correct at present . And, if they're asking questions on social media because your back up team is experiencing delays, information technology just serves to back your team upward even more.

The key to managing these multiple inquiries? Know who yous're talking to.

Again, non only does RingCentral keep your agents organized, but it automatically merges social identities. So, when a client asks a question on multiple platforms, they're automatically mapped onto a single user identity and grouped into a single ticket.

It even identifies the best platform to reply on, automatically. Talk about simplifying your back up queue.

With a tool like that, it's easier to piece of work through your queue and get questions answered quickly, saving your agents tons of fourth dimension that would otherwise be spent responding to redundant questions.

Tailor your messaging

When customers interact with brands on Twitter or Facebook, they're expecting the same content and quality of service that they would experience via e-mail, chat, or phone. Of form, you'll still need to tailor your messaging a flake.

A quick reply is perfectly acceptable on Twitter, while an email requires a greeting and an opportunity for them to respond with questions.

About of all, when they are asking a back up question, it'south time to step away from the marketing language y'all might normally use on social media and get their trouble solved.

Real-life example: Hubspot

hubspot customer support

For instance, Hubspot offers back up on Twitter (responding both to their @Hubspot company page and @HubspotSupport requests) in quick, helpful, casual tweets—perfectly tailored to that platform.

That doesn't hateful they cut any personalization or a prissy greeting, but they may not dive as deep as they could over electronic mail.

Consider how you can tailor your support language so that it'due south consistent, but still appropriate for the platform you lot're using.

Not but will it merely expect better to keep it brief instead of replying with a slew of tweets, but your customer will get a response in a format they're used to using. Subsequently all, if they reached out for support on a given platform, that'southward probably the style they're most comfy communicating.

Go along in mind that dissimilar demographics also take different preferences when it comes to social media.

Slang, emojis, and jokes are more comfortable for the younger audiences on Twitter and Instagram. On Facebook or LinkedIn, though, a more polished response will get over improve with the older or more than professional demographics you'd detect there.

Of course, you should ever collaborate with customers in a human way. Afterwards all, they're humans, and then are you. That ways personalizing your response with their name and whatsoever details you know about them or their business, when possible.

This is another area where it pays to hire savvy support agents—the right team members tin can be trusted to take your standard scripts and tailor them to the specific customer and platform they're working with.

Reframe customer support

Companies that are known for bully SaaS customer service don't leave it in the hands of one team—information technology'south a visitor-wide initiative .

Customer service isn't everyone's job, but it's everyone's responsibleness. When a customer has a question, nobody should be higher up helping them out. After all, without your customers, you wouldn't accept a visitor.

Existent-life example: PipelineDeals

Seattle-based CRM PipelineDeals' top core value is being customer-obsessed.

To them, that means that anytime a customer calls in, they're greeted by an employee, not an automated menu of forwarding options—even though they have a remote team.

Because they utilise RingCentral, their support reps tin be available even when they're working remotely or on the road.

PipelineDeals is such a customer-focused company that every new employee listens to and participates in back up goals as a part of onboarding at the company. "It helps united states of america give each employee a better understanding of the needs of the people we serve," said Paige Thomas, PipelineDeals' Customer Care Director.

And it's paid off, earning the company several awards for their outstanding client service and a near-perfect rating on review sites.

By instilling a customer-centric mindset across your company, you can ensure that quality SaaS client support isn't only a dainty idea, but is woven into the fiber of your company. This idea might begin at onboarding, merely it shouldn't end in that location.

Marketing, sales, and fifty-fifty the production team tin can all contribute to making customer service a priority. How? Remove silos.

Walk the talk of customer back up being everyone'south responsibility by making sure everyone is available on the same communications platform. With RingCentral, agents use the same platform to speak with customers as they do to chat with other departments beyond the company.

For instance:

  • When a customer has a technical question, an agent tin apace ping the development squad to get an reply or fifty-fifty hop on a video call with someone who's a subject thing expert.
  • When agents run into a lot of questions that bespeak usability issues on the website, they can let marketing know right away.
  • And when a lead contacts support with questions that indicate a potential enterprise customer, it'due south simple to redirect them to sales.

Ultimately, you can say all day that customer back up is a company priority, but choosing a platform that allows seamless advice is a swell way to actually implement that ideal across your company.

Creating the best SaaS client support experience

If yous're trying to create a cracking customer experience at a SaaS company, there are unique needs to consider.

For instance, most of your customers volition interact with support at to the lowest degree once, since they use the product on an ongoing ground.

Plus, great customer service is crucial for subscription-based companies since continually impressing your customers leads to continued subscriptions, referrals, and more money coming in each month.

Swell customer support but isn't optional for SaaS companies.

Luckily, you've got some SaaS support all-time practices to take with you. With the right combination of great agents, tools, and self-service options, you can build the foundation for a keen support team.

Combine those steps with training your agents to meet customers where they are, tailor their messaging, and even reframing customer support to a whole visitor functioning, and you're on your way to success.

1 forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2018/09/12/dont-spend-v-times-more-attracting-new-customers-nurture-the-existing-ones

Originally published Oct 06, 2020, updated Sep 29, 2021