Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) businesses don’t just sell their product once like traditional, perpetual license vendors. In essence, they must re-sell customers every month, and profitability often starts later in the customer lifecycle. Because of this dynamic, SaaS businesses are increasingly focusing on Customer Success – an emerging function that ensures SaaS customers receive continuous value and remain loyal users.
To help their customers succeed, companies must identify which accounts are struggling, as well as why and what to do about it.
SaaS providers have massive amounts of data about their customers, but they often don’t know what to do with it. While Sales, Marketing and Customer Success Managers (CSMs) understand their products or services, they are often in the dark when it comes to product usage and customer behavior. This is where Natero comes in.
Natero aims to empower Customer Success, Sales, and Marketing teams to become data-driven, without having to be data experts. It automatically aggregates and mines all sources of customer data to uncover actionable insights.
Natero captures granular usage data directly from a SaaS vendor’s own product and integrates with all of their key customer data hubs, such as CRM, support and billing software. Unlike its competitors, Natero can scale its real-time data collection without affecting its own performance (it will never “choke” on data and cause a system-wide slowdown, for example). Natero uses the data it collects to 1) identify which customers are struggling or likely to churn and; 2) predict which customers are ready for up-sell and cross-sell.
Natero applies machine learning to the data it collects and predicts potential cases of churn – giving CSMs precious time to act before the situation becomes unsalvageable. Natero continuously evaluates hundreds of factors to accurately predict customer behavior. It even identifies the factors that led to each prediction, giving CSMs a great starting point to drill into a client account and learn what is happening. This results in customer engagement strategies that go beyond simple alerts or best guesses.
Proactive customer retention can have a dramatic impact on a SaaS vendor’s bottom-line. Reducing monthly churn by as little as 5% can result in 50% more revenue for SaaS companies in just five years. When you factor in a typical SaaS revenue multiple of 3x to 10x, the impact on company valuation is even greater. That 5% reduction in churn can make a SaaS company 150% to 500% more valuable!
With a healthy customer base, SaaS companies can continue to maximize revenue through up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. Natero’s predictive analytics identify new opportunities within existing accounts so sales teams can focus on the best prospects. Marketing teams can use Natero’s business intelligence tools to optimize messaging based on customer behavior or target customer segments who are likely to succeed. Natero provides highly in-depth segmentation and charting tools enabling shrewd SaaS companies to leverage every bit of their customer data.
Customer Success is clearly a growth driver for today’s SaaS businesses. With Natero, SaaS vendors significantly increase customer retention and identify accounts that are ripe for expansion.
Sign up for the free insideBIGDATA newsletter.
Speak Your Mind