How adopting a “Continuous Improvement” mindset can add value for your customers and drive more revenue to your business.
You just managed the successful implementation of your SaaS company’s product and the client is happy. Good for you! As an excellent Customer Success Manager, you know that your job is just beginning. After launch, it is critical that you focus on continuously improving and personalizing your solution.
Researchshows that the cost of acquiring a new customer is 5 times more expensive than retaining a new one, often more!
There is a major opportunity waiting for companies that are willing to spend even a little extra time with their customers post-launch. Shifting your focus to continuous improvement can increase customer satisfaction and reduce churn. That alone has tremendous value. But it will also position you to grow your relationship with that customer and increase revenue.
According toInvesp, the likelihood of selling to an existing client is between 60-70%. Whereas the chance of selling to a new client is between 5-20%. Combine thatdatawith the staggering 90% of consumers who say they’re willing to spend more with companies that personalize the customer service experience, and the continuous improvement approach becomes a no-brainer.
“I understand why continuous improvement is important; now how do I do it?”
The good news is that there is no secret formula or methodology for this. Just good old-fashioned listening, evaluating, and acting.
Recently we launched a Visual IVR solution for a leader in the hospitality industry. The client needed to reduce the number of calls fielded by their call center. Specifically from guests requesting a copy of their bill. We implemented a solution to prevent and deflect those calls into a self-service web app.
We scheduled regular post-launch calls with the client to check on the app’s performance and quickly discovered that enough calls were successfully deflected from the call center to provide adequate value to the client. We also identified that many more callers could still be deflected.
This is the turning point when “Client Onboarding” becomes “Continuous Improvement”. It would have been easy to point out that the solution works as designed, the client is getting a great value, and the problem is with their back end. This is a fair answer, but not one that will help to grow the client relationship.
Instead, we used this as an opportunity to work through the solution and look for areas to improve and personalize by:
- Evaluating the wording in their IVR, using our experience to optimize the messages.
- Removing unnecessary input fields that complicated the client’s back-end search.
- Using analytics to adjust messages in the app to influence the user and optimize the experience.
For example, more than 13% of users were submitting inaccurate information. By suggesting simple changes to the messaging, we could immediately reduce that number to less than 2%.
Summary
Take the extra time to hold regular post-launch meetings with your customers. Identify the simple areas where your solution can improve and be personalized to your client’s needs. This will strengthen your relationship and increase the chance they will want to spend more with you in the future.
