Retention Talk

Check out the full writeup here

Having an outcome-focused product roadmap

• First we look back at our first episode with Oscar Carlsson of Framer. His advice was to have an outcome-focused product roadmap. Rather than worry about different features and capabilities, Oscar described how the entire company was aligned about segmenting their buyer personas and the outcomes they were working toward. This led to a laser focus for the entire company to radically shift, not only the distribution channel, but their product itself.

Breaking down customer cohorts

• Next we look at our episode with the crew over at Knowledgehook. They advised to break down customer cohorts. At Knowledgehook there are three key people: there is the end user who uses the tool, there is the economic buyer, and there is the technical decision maker. They have assigned individual storyboards for each of these which help with pushing deals forward. Additionally, they have created story cards for each team on customer success so that they know the journey for teachers and district leaders. These storyboards and cards are helpful but only illuminate what’s on the surface. They still double click in to individuals to understand common bottlenecks in the customer experience.

Retention starts with onboarding

• Next, Romain Pouillon of Beatport told us that retention starts with onboarding. Before retaining a customer, you have to instill the value that your product provides. At first, retention will seem to be all over the map, but this is no cause to panic. Over time as you improve your product and correspond it to the needs of your customers, numbers will naturally start to normalize. The best thing you can do upfront is ensure your onboarding is in a good place. Check in with your team weekly and ensure that the tweaks, large or small, are affecting the numbers you are tracking.

Letting certain customers churn

• Let’s take it back to our episode with Oscar Carlsson. He had some great advice about customer churn. Though it sounds counterintuitive, letting certain customers go is a good thing. You want to focus your efforts and resources on those customers that are going to provide a higher lifetime value.

Have a cross-functional approach

• And last, let’s look at our conversation with Kelly Danahy of CompanyCam. Kelly advised to have a cross-functional approach.Above everything else, a cross-functional approach is crucial to retention and it shouldn’t just be up to customer success. Aligning sales, marketing, and even product gives CompanyCam a holistic approach to making sure customers succeed.

This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

Check out the full writeup here.

Nailing the core principles of the Voice of the Customer Program

• Every single interaction with your customer is either a value add or a value diminishing interaction. A VOC survey can very easily be a value diminishing action. Asking for a lot of information takes time. But it doesn’t have to be a survey per se. Get creative. Look at or evaluate through a community forum, review sites, and more.

If you don’t have a dedicated dunning strategy: get one

• Having a sole individual responsible for reaching out to customers about failed payments is better than nothing. However, adding some sophistication to the process isn’t as difficult as you might think. Sending automated emails or implementing winback campaigns can go a long way… okay we may be a bit biased… we wrote the book on churn. Literally.

The two kinds of customer loyalty to focus on: Behavioral and Attitudinal

• Behavioral loyalty involves customers who are renewing month over month or year over year (depending on your payment term). Attitudinal loyalty is about willingness to trust the business, willingness to forgive bad experience, and willingness to refer a friend. Evaluating this loyalty against net revenue and logo retention reveals discrepancies in order to close the gap.

This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

Check out the full writeup here.

The perpetuity of Customer Experience

• A customer’s journey isn’t impervious to ending which means you should be ready to serve at a moments notice. This can be achieved through training videos, help docs, chat features, or even a knowledgeable team member. It’s nice to think that you can just “set it and forget it” when it comes to product usage, but learnings are there to be had.

Feedback can lead to renewals and expansion

• There are certain metrics you’re going to be able to measure that your customer can’t access, but on the flip side your customers may use your product in a way contrary to what you envisioned. There’s only one way to find out how they feel about your product: ask. As with John Golden, it can be as easy as asking on a scale of one to five how your product shapes up.

Focusing on the right customers will lead to success

• While it’s easy to think that anyone could be a customer, the reality is your resources are best spent focusing on the right customers. While this is preached with acquisition, it’s very much the same with retention as well. And while your customer profile needs to be specific, you need to be somewhat ready to pivot at a moment's notice. Constant measuring and testing will help you determine if your profiles are accurate or if the notecards you pinned to the bulletin board 3 years ago belong in the trash.

This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

Check out the full writeup here.

Integrating with your customer’s ecosystem

• By forcing their users to use only one software, it was not easy to retain customers who had already built out systems on other platforms. This led them to adopt up to 15 different platforms that Link integrates with, shoring up faith in the Beatport product.

Using segmentation to forecast churn by cohort

• Romain learned that using a broad retention tactic for all customers is not as effective as a calculated winback campaign for individual segments. He noticed usage dropped by streaming fewer and fewer tracks on Link which made it clear a dedicated email to re-engage with the platform was needed.

Retention starts with onboarding

• The best thing you can do upfront is ensure your onboarding is in a good place. Check in with your team weekly and ensure that the tweaks, large or small, are affecting the numbers you are tracking.

This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

Check out the full writeup here.

Onboarding in a group setting

• Initially, Knowledgehook would onboard district by district with the intent to trickle down the understanding of the product to principals and teachers. They shifted this process to instead onboard multiple districts at one time with key stakeholders present.

Breaking down customer cohorts

• At Knowledgehook there are three key people: there is the end user who uses the tool, there is the economic buyer, and there is the technical decision maker. They have assigned individual storyboards for each of these which help with pushing deals forward.

Think outside the traditional CS box

• The Knowledgehook team understands that you cannot have expertise in every single area. If you don’t seek help from different disciplines or outside sources, tunnel vision can lead to structural collapse. A key asset that the team found helpful was sourcing an outside panel of researchers. This panel offers insights into what the value of the product means to them as educators separate from the core team.

This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

Check out the full writeup here.

• Be proactive when it comes to customer success. You improve what you measure and CompanyCam has been disciplined about tracking and optimizing metrics throughout the entire funnel
• Small wins matter. There are a number of tactics they have experimented and improved overtime from driving better email campaigns to even optimizing their upsell to an annual plan
• Above everything else, a cross-functional approach is crucial to retention and it shouldn’t just be up to customer success. Aligning sales, marketing, and even product gives CompanyCam a holistic approach to making sure customers succeed.

This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

Check out the full writeup here.

• Don't overthink it. Sometimes the simplest answer is the most effective one.
• Better Proposals has a culture and framework to experiment at a rapid pace. Don't underestimate the impact that a weekend hackathon can have on your retention.
• Nothing else matters if you don't measure success. Rally the team around a key set of metrics to make sure you're monitoring the health of your business.

This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

Check out the full writeup here.

• Hunt a Killer uses ongoing surveys down to the cohort level to really understand the customer journey and dig up various pain points that customers have every step of the way.
• They leverage NPS to directly influence the product roadmap. They prioritize what they can do broken down by small and quick wins all the way to longer-term initiatives to really drive customer satisfaction.
• Mary Emphasizes the importance of onboarding and customer experience. If you build a product that your customers absolutely love, they'll come back.

This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

Check out the full writeup here.

• Leveraging data across the entire stack: Empowering your teams across the board to take ownership of certain metrics will help create a data-driven culture, fostering experimentation and data driven decision-making
• Letting certain customers churn: Though it sounds counterintuitive, letting certain customers go is a good thing. You want to focus your efforts and resources on those customers that are going to provide a higher lifetime value
• Having an outcome-focused product roadmap: Rather than worry about different features and capabilities, Oscar described how the entire company was aligned about segmenting their buyer personas and the outcomes they were working toward. This led to a laser focus for the entire company to radically shift, not only the distribution channel, but their product itself.

This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

Each episode will be jam-packed with key takeaways you can implement or hand off to your retention team.

Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get ready to listen to all things retention.

This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.