This article is directed toward SaaS providers. It’s a call to offering better support to customers. If you want to make your customers happy, offer support that’s prompt, real, and skilled. This creates customer loyalty. More importantly, it creates a better functioning society because the software we use is backed by the human factor of making it function as it was intended for people.
The #1 Complaint about Software Companies is…
LACK OF QUALITY SUPPORT
The Bad Customer Service of SaaS is prevalent. It’s annoying. Given that SaaS stands for Software as a SERVICE, the lack of service is ironic. And it’s unacceptable. But it’s the sad truth: the number one complaint people have with software services is not the software itself. It’s the customer service. Bad support is the number one complaint.
Why is it so common that we’ve grown to accept it as normal?
The short answer is that the larger tech companies have gotten away with it. After all, what choice do their customers have? Part of being a successful software company depends upon having a product that you couldn’t find anywhere else. When software of any kind is a must-have for personal or business operations, the software company is not as incentivized to help you after the initial sale.
It comes in many forms:
- general lack of support
- not responding or slow responding
- not addressing the issues
- major time lag to get help; etc.
First and foremost, exceptional support means promptness. Promptly responding when a client reaches out. Promptly fixing bugs. Promptly completing customizations.
A Call to SaaS Providers:
1. BE PROMPT!
Many customers would be much happier and loyal if they received prompt support. They want to feel like they’re being helped. However, the good news for prompt is not the same thing as prompt.
PROMPT vs Fast:
Fast means quick. Whereas, the dictionary defines PROMPT this way:
done without delay; immediate; to move to action; being ready; performed readily; at the time stated and no later
Is there some crossover between the definition of fast and prompt? Sure. They can be used as synonyms in many cases. We don’t necessarily mean fast. Although, promptness if often fast and quick as qualifying feature of being prompt. But being quick is not always a requirement. For instance, you wouldn’t want to focus so much on being quick that you create more problems like bugs or other mistakes. Some SaaS use the strategy of automatic reply emails and/or automated phone systems. In other words, if you do the task for the client so quickly that it really just ends up taking longer when you have to redo something, then it was neither fast nor prompt. Try to be quick but be careful.
2. BE REAL!
You don’t have to know all the answers in order to make people happy. Be honest, be humble, and be yourself. For example, customers appreciate when their support manager tell their clients on the phone, “I don’t know the answer to the issue you’re describing” as long as it’s followed up with “but I will find out.” Let people know you care enough to be honest and to make it your mission to find out how their issue can be resolved. It paints the company in a positive light.
Being real entails proving that you mean what you say, and that “looking into the problem” is really what you’re doing. Follow up with your customers. Why? Because people love authenticity number one.
You don’t have to be perfect either. The reality is that no software is perfect nor is any software company. Being real means you admit and address mistakes. Being perfect isn’t everything. As a company we admit to our clients that we make mistakes. This works in everyone’s favor.
As a support specialist, have a mindset that goes something like this,
“We can’t promise we won’t make a mistake; but the difference between us and the next company is that we’ll admit it and we’ll want to make it right.”
3. Be SKILLED
Being prompt and real doesn’t solve everything. In fact, it solves nothing. At some point in the process of the customer support your offer, customer issues must actually be resolved. For this to happen, support staff must be trained with the knowledge and skills to do it. This final point is directed more toward the software company leadership. SaaS providers must invest time, money, and energy into ensuring their support specialists are true specialist. Train your employees. Offer professional learning opportunities. Trust us, your employees want to be good at their job. They want to be skilled. Don’t leave them high and dry. Train and equip them to answer customers’ questions, solve issues, and resolve problems.
Flowtrac’s Support
Flowtrac is an SaaS provider that strives for promptness, realness, and skillfulness when support our clients. This singles us out from the herd of other inventory management software companies. We outshine our competitors by providing exceptional support.