It’s not enough to assist your customers only when they are having issues with your products. You must engage with them throughout the various phases throughout their journey to provide an excellent customer experience.
In an PWC study in the United States, more than 54% of the consumers in the U.S stated that the customer experience for the majority of businesses needed to be improved. The speed, the convenience, how friendly the employees were, as well as the quality of service were identified as essential factors, with each one being “important” for 70 percent of consumers.
The study found that companies who understand the importance of customer satisfaction prioritize technologies that improve customer satisfaction. An customer Engagement Platform (CEP) could be an instance of a technology solution that can assist you to create a positive customer experience.
The article below will will look at the ways in which Customer Engagement Platforms are beneficial to SaaS businesses. We also discuss how to select the right platform for your company , and the essential features to have for the most effective tools for customer engagement.
TL;DR
A platform for customer engagement (CEP) is a software that can be designed to monitor and analyze the behavior of customers in an item, and for communicating with them.
Platforms for customer engagement aid Saas companies to engage with their customers more effectively, which leads to greater customer success and satisfaction. This means lower turnover and increased overall growth.
They also aid in reducing demand for customer service by offering self-service support for customers through guides, resource centers and interactive walkthroughs, guides and onboarding flow.
In the end, an improved customer satisfaction by using CEP can give companies an edge over their competitors due to more satisfied customers.
In order to select the ideal customer engagement software it is essential to comprehend the customer journey and the stages of interaction between customer and product; you should also establish the model of customer engagement and be aware of the various kinds of beneficial interactions you can offer your customers.
The essential features to have for a successful CEP include channels and functions with advanced segmentation capabilities and advanced personalization capabilities automated triggered by behavioral factors analytics and tracking integrated A/B testing simple no-code configuration and mixed support (self-serve as well as human) and the capability to integrate with third-party integrations
What exactly is a Customer Engagement Platform (CEP)?
A platform for customer engagement (CEP) is software utilized for analyzing and tracking the behavior of customers in an item, and for connecting with them. In simple terms, you employ CEP software to monitor and improve the experience of customers throughout the user experience.
It offers companies the ability to centralize customer interactions. Through tracking and analyzing information about customers, it enables companies to design experiences that increase the level of engagement with your product throughout the user’s journey.
For example, a good customer engagement tool helps you to:
Implement onboarding flows once the first user sign-ups
Create a customized welcoming message to new users when the user registers
Create interactive walkthroughs that help users reach a specific goal.
We will announce the debut of a brand new feature for users of the relevant age
Share a link with the new user to install a mobile application for their device
What makes customer engagement platforms crucial to SaaS?
1. Growth in revenue
Every business wants to see growth in revenue without spending more money on customer acquisition. This is why customer engagement platforms can be beneficial.
In helping your customers engage by engaging them, you can unlock greater value for your customers. This results in increased the adoption of your product, improvements and higher revenue.
Research conducted by Gallup has revealed the fact that clients who have been engaged have an increase of 23% in terms of the share of wallet, profit, revenue and overall relationship growth.
Additionally, the study shows that businesses that are able to successfully engage with B2B clients achieve the lowest churn rate of 63 as well as 55% greater percentage of wallets and 50% greater productivity.
2. Reduces customer support demands
But, regardless of whether the SaaS product is straightforward or complex, customers are likely to need assistance at some point of their journey as a user.
Being able to support customers throughout their journey is more crucial for the future of your product more than any time in the past.
Walker’s study on 2020 revealed the 86% who purchased from Walker’s study were satisfied with excellent customer service. In addition being willing to spend more to get it.
A report from SuperOffice in 2021 revealed that 95% of businesses don’t acknowledge receipt of emails from customers.
Customer support duties can get overwhelming. One of the primary reasons that most businesses don’t respond to customer emails is due to the huge amount of emails they get.
For SaaS businesses, it could be more challenging when users ask questions at each stage of their journey as a user.
Customer engagement platforms can help reduce some of the costs associated with support through the ability to design onboarding flow including interactive walksthroughs, support centers and tooltips that are native to help customers to get the solutions themselves.
Users who receive guidance ask less questions and write fewer emails. In turn, SaaS companies are able to cut down on customer support calls and expenses. This is all while providing more effective customer satisfaction on a larger scale.
3. Gain competitive edge
More than two-thirds (63%) of marketers who are responsible in customer service compete exclusively by focusing on customer experience as per the findings of the Gartner Customer Experience in Marketing Survey. Additionally, by the year 2019, the majority of these marketers are are expected to compete mostly in relation to the customer experience.
SaaS businesses that don’t focus on the customer’s experience risk losing out on a large amount of competitive advantages. Customer engagement platforms can help you create the best customer experience. This will result in more satisfied customers, giving you the edge you require to compete with your competitors.
We now know why a platform for customer engagement is beneficial for an SaaS business, how can you select the best CEP?
What is the best way to select an engagement platform for your customers?
When choosing a good customer engagement system for your customers must be aware of the various ways that your customers interact with your staff. You must know what they are hoping to accomplish from these interactions too.
Understanding the user’s journey can help you determine the most effective customer engagement platform that will be most suitable for your customers.
Consider the kinds of interactions that are most beneficial to your customers in helping them move along the path starting with to the “AHA instant” to becoming brand advocates.
Take the time to answer the following questions because it will aid you in determining what kind of platform for customer interaction is best suited to your requirements:
Do you find that your SaaS tool has a lengthy learning curve? It could be that you require an in-person course
Do you require holding the hand of the user? Onboarding automation tools are exactly what you need.
In what stage of the process do you require to communicate with customers? Think about the Pirate analytics framework, and the stage that you want to influence.
What’s your preferred method of acquisition?In-app mail, website etc.
To assist you in choosing the right customer engagement platform to use with your SaaS here are some essential features to be at the top of your list.
1. Channels and functionality
Your choice of the best customer engagement software will be based on the features you’d like to see it provide and the channels you require to support.
To fully comprehend the functions and channels, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the various touchpoints that make up the customer journey and also your goal.
A platform for customer engagement which combines every type of communication channel onto one platform may not be the ideal solution. Because when it attempts to do everything, it’s unlikely to accomplish everything efficiently. Thus, it is best to choose an option that can support one or two channels easily and seamlessly with your technology stack.
Here are a few examples:
Do you want to automate your email? You need an automated email tool
Do you want to communicate users on your website?- then you’ll need chatbots
Do you want to personalize the user experience?- you require an onboarding tool in the app and most likely an automated email tool.
2. Advanced segmentation capabilities
Separating your customers into smaller, more specific categories allows you to personalize the way you communicate. It lets you deliver your message to the appropriate group at the appropriate date and time.
Your customer engagement platform has to be able to perform advanced segmentation that can group customers based on:
Demographics: Customers’ size, their browsers and location,
Personas of the user – who the people who are customers and how they’re trying to accomplish
Analytics on the user journey – at what level they are at in the customer journey
How they’re using your product
By using advanced customer segmentation, instead of broadcasting the same message to everyone , like an unreliable radio it can be helpful to various groups of customers.
Sending them relevant, relevant, and personal messages at different stages of their journey can make their journey more enjoyable.
3. Advanced personalization capabilities
Many people believe that personalization means the inclusion of a customer’s name in every message or email. It’s not.
Personalization is the process of making communications more personal according to the user’s requirements and desires.
In the final analysis, categorize your customers by what they are looking to accomplish. Therefore, you can help them accomplish what they want to achieve.
4. Automation that is triggered by a behavioral trigger
While the idea of automating basic tasks such as sending reminders or confirmation emails is admirable but it’s not going to make a difference when it comes to the engagement of customers is concerned.
A good customer engagement system should be able to enable you to create sophisticated automation that can support:
A) Contextual communication
This is simply a matter of delivering the correct message at the appropriate time to the user who needs it, making use of the correct method.
The basic principles of context-based communication indicate that you must provide information that is:
Finds the right tone
Customers are looking for or want
It is dispatched at the appropriate time
Sends out via the correct channel and device
B) The use of behavioral messaging
Behavioral messaging is the process of distributing relevant and user-focused content to your customers immediately after they take certain actions that trigger certain events within your SaaS.
What are the reasons you should be aligning your messages to the actions of your users within your application?
Be sure that your messages are appropriate to the user experience
Make sure that communication is relevant and precise
Send your messages on time – they are delivered to users at the exact moment at the time they’re likely to perform a certain decision
In short, make sure that your customer engagement platform is able to support the use of contextual communications and behavioral messages.
5. Analytics and tracking
If you don’t have analytics on your customer engagement system, you’re in the dark. In the end you’ll most likely be crashing.
If you are able to access the customer journey analysis, you take data-driven decisions. Analytics lets you gain data to create the most effective customer experience for your SaaS.
It is possible to see how your customers engage with the app on different channels over time. You will learn about which features work and what don’t.
