Customer Service and Marketing Alignment in SaaS

In a world where software is a dime a dozen, attracting and maintaining a customer base is a constant battle. Clients can easily be attracted by another company’s advertising or promise of greener pastures. Aligning effective marketing tactics with incredible customer service, though, is one great way to ensure your customers not only feel taken care of, but get the most out of your company. The more they feel they will always have help, the less likely they’ll feel the need to leave. And the more integrated they are in your product, the harder it is to leave.

Benefits of Strong Customer Service and Marketing Alignment

Correlation of Client-Employee Satisfaction

When your clients are happy, your employees are happy. Treating all of your people right, internally and externally, ensures that everybody benefits from experiences with your company. This correlation mutually affects the other – employees who are happier at their job provide higher quality service to their customers – and the more your customers see your strong company culture or internal environment (yes, people can tell when things are internally disastrous), the more enjoyable they’ll find it is to work together.

Revenue Increase

Experts say that 75% of people would return to a company with excellent service – which is the perfect central focus for both your client relations and marketing teams. When your clients are happy, they’re more likely to return – meaning, higher retention rates, thus a solid stream of recurring revenue will come from your returners. Ensuring open communication between your customer service and marketing teams will allow for more universal, yet distinctive tactics for your clients. This will lead to higher satisfaction rates; and when your clients are satisfied, they help your company build a better reputation. Positive client experiences propel brand awareness – word of mouth will always be an effective marketing tactic. With this boosted awareness, you then can obtain cyclical revenue for your company.

Saves Marketing Money

Having clear-cut alignment between your customer service and marketing teams will allow for more efficient budget distribution. If your clients are happy and returning, this can often allow money originally allocated for marketing to be redistributed into other important business factors. Efficient use of your budget mixed with strong marketing efforts and client-focused customer service can greatly affect your business’s long-term success, providing you the opportunity to extend business longevity.

Internal Unity

Positive and praised customer service unites internal culture by uniting your goals and processes between departments. Working toward a common goal streamlines your entire workflow. Place the ultimate emphasis on your customer, then move through each department to align them with customer service as one of your main focuses. When your employees and clients are happy, and that correlation relies heavily on the other, internal teamwork is significantly influenced. The company culture, the team buy-in of values and providing excellent service inspires your employees to go the extra mile because they know it means a lot to their clients. And when everyone on board is working toward a common goal, it centralizes the development of every department’s strategies.

Keep the Sass out of SaaS

The SaaS industry is saturated, and it’s possible your product will have some strong competitors in the market. Learn from companies like HubSpot – who have provided a good product in a saturated market – who have still found a way to set themselves apart from their competitors by homing in their efforts, going above and beyond to align their marketing and customer service. Instead of under-valuing your clients, genuinely take the time to shift them to your central view. What better way to market your company than to ensure they are your priority – because people won’t forget that effort.