Last editedApr 20222 min read
Since the termSoftware-as-a-Service was coined over twenty years ago, the industry has seen immense growth and performance track record envied by businesses left, right and center. While some factors leading to SaaS growth are irreplaceable in non-software firms, there are still some SaaS growth hacks you can try in order to see some of that same desirable growth. In this post we’ll take you through the ways you can learn about growth from SaaS companies — and hopefully replicate it!
SaaS growth: 4 lessons you can learn to see similar success
1. Prioritize customer satisfaction
SaaS companies don’t just invest in making a sale with customers, but keeping them constantly satisfied throughout their use of a product or service. This is because with subscription based models — which is the typical SaaS model — it’s imperative that you keep customers happy in order to retain them, or else they’ll simply cancel and never come back.
In order to create a solid customer experience, SaaS companies open direct dialogue with customers and respond rapidly and efficiently to any queries or complaints. This open dialogue doesn’t just help customers to feel heard and valued, it also gives the business the opportunity to learn about their customers, ask questions and in turn use the feedback they receive to consistently improve their service.
The bottom line is that offering customer service that can rival a SaaS company will help you imitate their customer retention rates and fuel growth.
2. Be innovative and up-to-date
Key to the success of SaaS companies, especially the big players, is that they tend to stay on the forefront of new technologies and innovation. They’re either the pioneers or very rapid adopters of any new technology which can improve their service or product.
For example, making your software available on the cloud was a game-changer that successful SaaS companies had to be a part of to keep growing. As well as allowing customers to access the software anywhere they had internet, it also meant versions of the software could be easily updated.
The key takeaway here is that offering up-to-date resources and adapting to a constantly changing technological climate will help your company stay relevant and remain attractive to potential customers.
3. Make your services available to the masses
SaaS companies owe a great deal of their success to the fact that they are available to and obtainable for nearly everyone — not just those with significant means. Companies like Apple, Facebook and Google aren’t only interested in making their products available to the elite, but in revolutionizing how everybody uses certain services. They may have target markets in mind, but these markets are vast, diverse and overlapping.
The lesson here is to think about ways your company could benefit the maximum number of people possible in order to see maximum growth.
4. Make payments easy
SaaS businesses understand that offering a streamlined, subscription-based payment option is imperative to maximizing customer lifetime value (CLV) and reducing customer churn. This is because offering diverse and reliable payment methods helps to reduce failed payments, ensuring low levels of involuntary churn (where customers unintentionally opt out of a subscription service because their payment method fails).
To see comparable growth, your business should consider ways to offer optimal payment options to customers. With GoCardless, businesses can collect payments directly from their customers' bank accounts, making it easy, cost-effective and far less likely to result in failed payments.
We can help
GoCardless helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of admin your team needs to deal with when chasing invoices. Find out how GoCardless can help you with ad hoc payments or recurring payments.
