One of the unique benefits of SaaS is that the application user interface (the components the user interacts with) can be designed to monitor the users behavior and give the vendor information on how the software is actually being used. This not only provides insight into how the SaaS should be improved to meet changing customer requirements, but also how to proactively reduce customer churn.
On-boarding, the process of getting customer signed up and using a SaaS is a good example. Effective on-boarding is critical in terms of determining the tenure and profitability of a SaaS customer relationship. The challenge for SaaS vendors is to immediately gain and leverage an early understanding of new customers behavior and then drive relevant communications to facilitate both immediate on-boarding and continued engaged use for the first 60 days (and beyond).
Designing your SaaS to take advantage of monitoring
So what are some of the steps in application design for effective monitoring?
- Identify the high value scenarios for your SaaS application. We use a systematic and formal process to determine these, but on a casual level try to imagine what what customers/users want to accomplish (not what you think they need).
- Define 2-3 key benefits that differentiate your software from the competition from a customer point of view (e.g. customized interface / ready to use out of the box / cheaper / faster).
- Define the critical behaviors a user must take to successfully accomplish the high value scenarios (e.g. they must import their contact list).
- During the application design process, as you streamline workflows and user-validate the UI, track where even a small percentage of users face issues. While a goal in the design phase is to refine the user interface to minimize these friction points, track any issues that do arise, no matter how infrequently. These can be used to develop processes for intervention during on-boarding.
- Build your UI as a modular system with the capability to track user patterns and clicks, and relate them to desired behavior sequences.
- When you deploy your SaaS, use these monitoring components to identify what features of the software do not seem to be used, where users get distracted from completing high value scenarios, where they make mistakes, where they stop at signup, etc, Integrated monitoring is essentially a continuation of user-validation testing and data collection we do during the basic application design. But here is it used both as information on how to modify the software in future revs, but also where to determine where you can provide assistance before those new revisions are out.
On-premise vs SaaS on-boarding
With on-premise applications, customer on-boarding is considered as outside of the functionality of the software product itself. But with SaaS, on-boarding is an essential process and monitoring the user behavior needs to be part of the SaaS application design. Whether you are trying to get users to complete signup for a trial, or whether you are trying to get users to successfully start using your software, tracking user behavior enables the software (or humans) to intercede at any points where the user might be dropping out.
For example, if users drop out in sign-up, only partially completing the process, the SaaS application can send out an automated, semi-customized e-mail which reads "Thanks for starting your online trial. To finish the process, do XYZ."
Or if users are not going through the critical behaviors that are necessary to complete high values scenerios (and thus experience the benefits of your service), then you can have a tech support person call (costly but effective, particularly for important individuals representing large clients), or you could send them links to videos or invite them to webinars explaining how to complete these behaviors, or point them to discussion board posts that answer other users questions related to completing the tasks.
For example, based on where a customer appears to be dropping out, an automated email goes out saying: "To really take get maximum advantage from our software, you will want to do XX. We have a options to help you through the process including one on one telephone support."
Customer Engagement
This same kind of monitoring can be used to determine intelligent automated (or human-based) up-selling or to tap into social networking for referrals. Once you have determined the high value scenarios and behaviors that users need to complete in order to find "addictive" or engaging value in your software, then monitoring and intelligent SaaS application design, can help users along.
Monitoring at the user experience level is an effective way both to to correct drop out points during the first 60 days, improve effectiveness and efficiency for your customers, and quickly determine how to modify your application on a regular cycle to meet user needs, increase sales and up sell, and reduce churn.
Categories: SaaS, User Experience