It's Hard To Support SaaS Customers: Learnings From Our Research

In the world of SaaS, the art of engaging with customers extends far beyond the traditional scope of customer service. Over the last several months we have conducted extensive research, including interviews with over 50 companies, to understand how they engage and interact with their customers. What we found is a nuanced and complicated landscape that is constantly changing, involving multiple teams from customer success and account management to sales, support, and professional services.

Constant Reorganization

The most striking finding is just how much change companies are going through. Almost every organization we spoke to mentioned that they had either just completed a total revamp of their customer teams and operating model or where about to. This trend wasn't just about reducing headcount but rather adapting to the comprehensive nature of customer interactions in the SaaS environment.

Finding a Unicorn

The primary reason for all of the change is the amalgamation of diverse skill sets required for effective customer engagement. Providing an excellent customer experience requires customer teams to posses a wide variety of skills - interpersonal communication, technical expertise, sales acumen, and implementation proficiency. It's extremely rare to find individuals who are adept in all necessary areas. This breadth of skills is crucial for a seamless and positive customer experience and yet it doesn't exist in a single person.

The Challenge of Specialization

In response, many companies split customer interactions across multiple specialized groups. They ask their AMs to handle renewals and upsells, they create Customer Success teams, they involve their sales function. They spin up Professional services. They build support teams. This makes it much easier to hire and staff for all the skills needed to deliver exceptional service. However, this leads to operational inefficiencies. We heard "too many cooks in the kitchen" more often than we can count. This leads to uncoordinated efforts and a fragmented customer experience. This disconnection often results in missed opportunities for growth and retention, alongside the financial strain of an inflated workforce.

Trying On Multiple Models

During our calls we heard organizations try multiple operating models and approaches. We saw companies employ all sorts of tactics to tackle these challenges, ranging from pod structures to having huge teams join every customer call. In all cases, we heard of tons of meetings, updates, write-ups, and status checks. Even with all this experimentation, we rarely heard anyone say that they had figured it out. In fact, the more they changed, the more they felt that they were still far from a perfect solution.

BackEngine

At BackEngine, we believe that this problem can be solved - but it requires software, AI, and tools that do not exist yet. If what we found in our research sounds like what you are dealing with at your company, please reach out. I'd love to talk to you. We're evaluating design partners that we can work closely with to help them solve this messy problem so they can deliver an exceptional customer experience, for less cost, and drive a materially higher Net Revenue Retention.