21 B2B Strategies for Customer Retention

1
21 B2B CUSTOMER RETENTION
STRATEGIES
Samuel J. Woods

2
It doesn’t matter how amazing your B2B SaaS product
is, if you can’t get customers to stay. Keep them with
customer retention strategies.
While gaining new customers is important, the most
successful SaaS brands have mastered the art of both
acquisition and retention, to great results.
So why does it matter, you might be asking? If you
replace lost customers with brand new customers every
month, you’re set, right?
Wrong.
21 B2B CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGIES

3
First, look at the cost. For the vast majority of businesses out there keeping a customer is far cheaper
than getting a new one. You could be churning through thousands of dollars by focusing on getting new
customers over keeping the ones you’ve got happy.
Something to think about if your brand is struggling to slow down the churn.
Second, it’s been proven that current customers are far more likely to keep buying from you, and at a
higher rate, than new customers. If you focus only on acquisition you’re leaving money on the table.
Now, the key is, how do you stop it?
That’s where this post comes in. Here, we’re going to cover some of the best customer retention
strategies B2B SaaS brands can use to bring in more sales and stop the churn.
Here we go.

5
All too often, this is the forgotten step in the process.
Big mistake.
When your customers realize the value and potential
your service provides them from day one, they are
likely to stay longer and increase their customer lifetime
value.
So, how to get there?
Have your own game plan of what your customer path
looks like. It can’t just be converting them from free
customer to paying customer, it might be great for you,
but likely doesn’t solve their problems.

7
Stop hiding from your customers. The most successful
B2B SaaS brands are those that fully engage with their
users.
That doesn’t mean being all in until they switch to
paying customers. That means following up every step
of the way. So much of churn is directly related to
users experiencing a lack of service and support.
Avoid that by going above and beyond when it comes
to service. Follow up on help requests to ensure a
satisfactory outcome, and then follow up again weeks
later to see if the customer is still happy or needs
anything else from you.
Image: Groove

9
You may think your SaaS is awesome and perfect. Well, that’s great, but you
created it. There could be massive holes where new users are getting lost,
discouraged, or frustrated with the product. All huge red flags you need to
avoid.
Counteract potential issues by constantly refining your support and
documentation, as well as the expectations you’re setting for your customers.
The more you can mimic and understand their actual experience as opposed
to assume what will happen, the better off you’ll be.

4. FOLLOW UP ON INACTIVE
USERS

11
Having a customer sign up for your SaaS is just the
first step. The next is actually getting them to use it.
And, that can be more difficult than it sounds.
Don’t let the inactive users fall through the cracks. At
the same time, don’t assume everyone who signs up
for your service is going to jump in and use it right
away.
Take the proactive approach. Offer an original follow
up a few days after the first customer contact, then
follow up again with a free consultation.

13
Let’s face it, who doesn’t love getting a discount or special bonus from a product or service you use and love?
No one.
So capitalize on that. Choose to highlight just how awesome your customer service is by leaving customers
surprised and delighted with free stuff.
Some ideas:
A free month of service
A free upgrade to the next level
Extending a free trial another month
More storage
A discount on a yearly subscription
A free consultation
Something like this which is a small cost for your brand upfront, can be the thing that tips the scales in your
favor for customer retention.

15
Each brand tracks success differently.
The key is locking down what your key
performance indicators and metric of
success actually are.
When you understand what you are
going to specifically be tracking, you can
build strategies and campaigns around
your current baselines and go from
there. It should be more than just
revenue.
Photo: Loyalty360

17
Hand in hand with providing customer service is having a quick response rate. The last
thing you need is having a customer who is already frustrated feel like no one is listening
to them and doesn’t want to help.
Depending on the size of your team, work on assigning a specific customer service
person to each customer so they have someone to deal with personally.
Also have hard limits on the response time if you can get a response within 24 hours,
strive to make that standard across your customer service team.

19
Keep hearing the same complaints over and over again about your product? Turns out it’s not
them, it’s you.
Keep an ear to what your customers are saying. That could be searching for your brand on
social media and see what people are saying, it could be having a few key questions you ask
during phone calls with customers, or even during an exit interview.
You can learn quite a bit on the things that work, and the gaps that don’t by listening to what
you customers say and implementing changes to fix it.

21
An email marketing plan can be a SaaS
retention team’s best friend. You want to
walk the line between not overwhelming
users with follow up emails, and actually
providing them something of value.
Brands that set up a campaign designed to
educate users on their best tips, or
showcase cool hacks their service can do
go a long way. This can also serve as a
way to help onboard and indoctrinate
users into fully embracing your service
over the long run.
Photo: Ninja Outreach

23
This is a lesson in making things easy for your customers. Research has found that
credit cards typically expire every three years.
We’ve all had that experience where a card has expired and suddenly our inboxes are
full of emails telling us we didn’t pay for a product or service. It’s incredibly annoying.
Rise above that by tracking the expiration dates of your customers credit cards. Before
the card expires, send an automated email out reminding them the card is set to expire
and how they can easily update their credit card information.

11. SET PRE-DEPARTURE
TRIGGERS

25
Even before a customer becomes a former customer
there are signs they might not be that into your service
anymore. You don’t want to wait until they already have
a foot out the door before you try to pull them back in.
Instead, have a series of warning triggers that indicate a
user is likely to leave. Granted, some might not be your
perfect customer, but there are plenty of users who can
stay with you, if you pay attention to them before they
leave.
Inside your retention strategy, include these triggers and
set up actions your team can take each step of the way.

27
When customers churn, you need to know why. There’s no better way than asking them. In order
to do that you have a couple of options.
You could provide an exit survey or conduct a phone interview in person to find out the answers.
What some brands have been doing with success is having a required comment box on the
unsubscribe page that asks why users are leaving.
Brands don’t need a ton of information, they just need the right information to help reduce churn.

29
Wait, what? Yup, you heard me right. This taps right into
psychology. Consumers typically assign greater value to
those things that have a higher price. So why not
include your SaaS?
Another benefit to customers paying more for your
service is that people often are more likely to use
something they pay a lot for. Plus, raising prices have
the added benefit of dropping those users who aren’t
interested or simply shopping based on price.

31
As your brand and product matures, a couple of things will happen. First, you’ll see the areas
of weakness you can improve upon, second you’ll see the uses your customers love and can
improve upon.
The key here is to do updates that really provide value to your customers. We’ve all had an
experience where an unnecessary update somehow turns people away, don’t follow that path.
This is where all the information you’ve collected from communicating and engaging your
customers comes into play. So put it to good use.

33
People see the word “sell” and get uncomfortable.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Having spammy
or crappy content that provides no interest and
value to your users is a surefire way to send them
away.
Instead focus on upsells. Look at the key features
your customers want and are willing to pay more
for. Offer tiered pricing that allows them to get the
service they need for their brand.
It helps get customers even more in love with your
service, increases their lifetime value, and puts
more revenue in your pocket.
Photo: Chaotic Flow

35
While most SaaS marketers are focused on what customers will continue using your
service on a month to month basis, the best play the long game.
The biggest struggle for the SaaS brand is that they need to focus on constantly selling
their service on a monthly basis. If they don’t, that churn rate goes up.
Hand in hand with that, the retention team needs to nurture the customer relationship over
the long term. That means more than just getting them through the onboarding process.
Keep hitting them with value during the entire duration of the relationship.

37
This one should seem pretty obvious, but so
many brands aren’t doing this one thing that
could lead to a dramatic increase in retention.
Focus a team on retention.
If you really want to slow down that churn, you
need to treat this as a serious part of your
service. The person in charge needs to be able
to analyze churn rates, identify potential areas of
risk, and direct the team to directly reach out to
customers on a regular basis.

39
As your service updates and improves you want
to share this with your users. But frame it in the
concept of continuing education. Save this for
more advanced tactics that customers who have
used your service for a while and will appreciate
how they can level up.
Host webinars, create blog posts, record videos,
showcase case studies that all not only highlight
your SaaS but show customers the possibility of
what they can also do with your service.

41
Here’s a tip that’s good for not only for business, be honest and transparent about issues.
Look, things happen. No product or service is going to be 100% on point all the time.
The key is how you are prepared for when that happens. Have a plan in place that will
alert your customers to things like outages, downtime, or security breaches. When the
slightest issue arises, be the first to let your customers know, tell them exactly what is
happening, and what you are doing to fix it.

43
Let your customers know they are available to you
outside of your website. Tell them how they can get
in touch with you on your social media channels and
engage with them there.
This includes following up on any service or support
requests, jumping into conversations people are
having about your product, or simply answering
general questions followers might have.
Another tip is to follow your customers on social
media (you can ask for their handles during the
onboarding process). Welcome them to the brand
and see how they speak about your service, you’d
be surprised what you can learn.

45
More and more consumers are getting more
protective of their security. With monthly data
breaches circulating around the internet, it’s
easy to understand why.
Highlight to customers that one of your best
features is how seriously you take the security of
their data. Remember your transparency
promise here. Let customers know that you are
careful about their data not because your
software is leaky, but because you’re proactively
ensuring your customers (and their privacy) is
very important to you.

CUT DOWN CHURN AND
OPTIMIZE RETENTION

47
These 21 customer retention strategies are going to help slow down your churn rate and help you
optimize your retention optimization.
The most successful SaaS brands are those that focus on the service aspect, they are all in on
providing their customers with the tools and experiences to keep them happily coming back every
month.

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
48
ABOUT STIMULEAD:
Unlock Exponential Growth
You know your product or service has far more potential for growth than you can achieve right
now.
But executing on the right strategy and process is proving to be complex and ambiguous.
Your next step is to use our unique Growth Methodology to equip and enable you, your team and
marketing to achieve growth.
Contact Stimulead today to schedule a confidential call to discuss your business.

21 B2B Strategies for Customer Retention

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (18)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (15)

21 B2B Strategies for Customer Retention