SaaS renewals that are easy for customers
A robust, scalable business is always based on strong processes. And if you are in the business of offering a Software as a Service (SaaS) product, you will doubtless have a recurring revenue model.
Our business debit card expires tomorrow and so I’ve been in the throes of receiving alerts, notifications and emails from a range of providers asking me to update my card details so they do not lose their revenues. The experiences were very varied from the best, smoothest, least painful to the worst where I had to raise a support ticket.
Given SaaS firms risk losing revenue from non-renewals, this is a critical business process.
Here’s what we found
- The earliest “nag” emails came from Hootsuite, Unbounce, Xero and MailChimp. They were sending them 30 days prior to expiry.
- The laggards include Upwork, Skype, FeedBlitz, Teamwork and LinkedIn (from 10 to 5 days in advance),
- The “best” process just allows me to update the expiry date on the card (PayPal) without having to re-enter all the other information
- The “worst” don’t send me a link into the EXACT page on my account where I can update my details after logging in. Skype was particularly irritating with a hideous UX on their mobile browser. They leave me failing to find the right billing page detail and resorting to search / help / customer tickets.
- The Very Very Worst was Teamwork where they successfully hide the link in an upgrade screen which is not where I’d look to find my payment information (see below)
Hard to find link for payment information on Teamwork.com
Mystery shopping
Any customer process needs testing and constant monitoring to keep it relevant and improved. Clues which may indicate you have this problem can be found:
- Check the exit pages on your website
- Check the long dwell time pages (that you don’t expect)
- Check the customer service enquiries
- Check the Searches on your website
When did you last mystery shop your business?