How can SaaS platforms decrease their churn and increase customer engagement? Through what we call the Expert Platform solution. Read more to find out what it is.
Updated July 1, 2024.
To meet the diverse needs of customers and provide greater value, SaaS platforms are continuously introducing new features. However, adding new features increases complexity, particularly for SMBs that may struggle to fully utilize these offerings.
At the same time, the rising costs of maintaining and scaling customer success departments are leading to a growing segment of unmanaged users.
The platform knowledge gap, coupled with the reduction in personal CSMs, results in decreased product usage, thereby increasing the risk of churn.
Underutilization is an important indicator to predict churn for SaaS platforms. Learning what accounts for underutilization and how to overcome it, is crucial for those who seek to minimize churn. Hence, Mayple, a prominent platform that connects businesses with seasoned experts, conducted a survey to understand why customers leave SaaS platforms and how experts can prevent churn.
The survey analyzed client churn across 7 prominent SaaS platforms: Mailchimp, Klaviyo, HubSpot, Mixpanel, Sprout Social, Shopify, and Semrush. 67 highly vetted experts, with 6 to 30 years of marketing experience, participated in the survey. These hand-picked freelancers work closely with a variety of customers to achieve their marketing and business goals. They taught customers how to use the 7 SaaS platforms in a manner that aligns with the client’s business specific needs.
Due to the variety of users they meet and their frequent, unmediated interactions with SaaS clients, these experts possess a broad perspective that allows them to shed light objectively on long tail users’ common behaviors, usage patterns, challenges and satisfaction levels with SaaS platforms.
The survey began with the core question: what prompts clients to leave the platform?
Experts identified several compelling reasons, with the following as the most common:
With 70% of experts mentioning cost-related reasons, pricing dissatisfaction is a widespread concern across all 7 SaaS platforms. Pricing becomes an even greater issue as businesses scale and usage requirements grow.
The prevalence of pricing dissatisfaction across platforms with different pricing models and offerings, including some that are direct competitors, signifies more than just monetary concerns. It indicates that clients do not believe that they are receiving enough value from their subscriptions.
Functionality gaps are also a major cause of churn. While all SaaS platforms in this study offer a wide range of features, 56% of respondents report an insufficiency of features, integrations, and capabilities.
Additionally, platforms may not always align well with specific business models. Among businesses with more complex requirements, experts testified that their clients perceive certain SaaS features as too basic, lacking in depth, or introductory.
On the other hand, the complexity of use emerged as a significant factor driving customer churn. 47% of respondents indicate that these platforms can be intimidating, confusing, and difficult to understand, especially for users without proper training or knowledge. This is exemplified by the struggle of small businesses to leverage available features effectively.
The overwhelming nature of these platforms and the insufficiency of features leads to customer frustration and a perceived inadequacy of value for money.
However, experts disclosed that these same clients are far from fully using the platforms. 76% of respondents noted that long tail users utilize less than half of the features available. Moreover, a third of respondents reported that their clients use less than 30% of the features.
Underutilization extends beyond niche features to core functionalities, resulting in subpar business performance outcomes.
Long tail users tend to overlook similar features across different platforms. Almost 40% of the experts brought up reporting and analytics as widely underused features. Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Sprout Social, Shopify and Semrush users regularly disregarded custom reports, in-depth analytics, and integrations with analytics tools. Without using reporting tools, users lose critical insights into their performance.
Experts identified automations and journeys as commonly underutilized features among Mailchimp users. Similarly, Hubspot users are reported to often neglect workflows. Customers tend not to use these features properly due to perceived complexity or, alternatively, oversimplification.
Experts also highlighted segmentation and tagging as often neglected areas by Mailchimp and Klaviyo long tail users. While effective segmentation is crucial to maximize email marketing results, many users struggle to harness the full potential of tags, groups, and advanced segmenting options.
These few examples provide perspective on the vast platform abilities that users are missing out on, while at the same time stating they struggle to see the value for their money spent on the software.
The underutilization of key features raises questions about whether customers are maximizing their return on investment in these SaaS solutions.
It is a seemingly simple gap to address: customers need to be informed about all relevant features and use them effectively.
However, reality proves to be more complex.
Some important aspects that influence usability, like the complexity of the software and the quality of customer support, are within SaaS companies’ control. Nevertheless, other equally significant factors, such as time constraints and personnel resources, are customer-dependent.
Customers have limited time and resources. 73% of the experts stated the lack of time for proper platform learning is a major setback.
Email marketing for instance, is often just one aspect of users’ broader job responsibilities. Emma Tessler notes that “...Many of the people who managed the email marketing for their organizations were thrown into this role, and learned on the fly.
The abundance of features adds to platforms’ perceived complexity, discouraging users from investing their limited time into mastering it. As Marielle Reussink described: “Time will always be a challenge but intuitive interfaces have a lower learning curve…” Platforms can be enjoyable and relatively easy to learn, thus reducing this friction.
Businesses often miss out on using SaaS platforms as part of a larger strategy, not realizing their full potential beyond mere technical usage. As Brian Riback stated, “Learning any technology is one thing. Learning strategy and how to use each tool and why, is a different matter, completely.”
For that reason, 64% of the experts stressed the importance of having a knowledgeable, skilled professional handling those platforms and integrating them with the larger scope of the business activity and goals. According to Hilary Primark “...you need someone who can dedicate time and focus on best practices to make it function correctly.” Otherwise, the job is at risk of being oversimplified and poorly performed.
50% of experts added that platform ownership is critical.
Another important aspect (in some platforms more than others) is the absence of technical support. The initial setup phase is particularly critical and requires proper execution, as well as other tasks such as complex integrations, syncing with other systems, data connection, and trigger creation.
If not done properly, the customer’s onboarding can adversely affect overall usage and subsequent initiatives.
While SaaS companies can and should provide adequate resources to support long tail users and continue to improve the interface’s user-friendliness, customers still need personalized, professional assistance.
Nevertheless, all hope is not lost. This is where experts come into play.
Through their valuable guidance and expertise, 94% of experts testified that they played an instrumental role in boosting the success of their clients.
Experts provided comprehensive assistance to their clients. Experts helped with education, training, audits, and strategic development. They conducted informative training sessions to familiarize clients with pertinent platform features and industry best practices.
Some performed thorough audits to pinpoint areas for improvement and optimize platform utilization. Additionally, experts collaborated closely with clients to craft personalized strategies aligned with their unique business objectives. Ultimately, they provided invaluable clarity on integrating the platform within a broader marketing strategy.
Another aspect experts assisted in is hands-on work including setup, implementation, optimization, and ongoing maintenance. Experts played a central role in developing and executing strategies, campaigns, and automations.
They constructed workflows and sales processes aimed at boosting revenue generation. Integrating platforms with other tools and systems was a common practice to streamline operations and enhance efficiency. Customizations were crafted to the unique requirements of each business, alongside an emphasis on expanding testing capabilities.
Beyond technical implementation, these “upgraded CSMs,” experts who possess vast industry knowledge, have assisted clients in developing comprehensive business and marketing strategies, following best practices, and understanding their broader implications and opportunities. Simultaneously, they have intertwined their clients’ businesses with the SaaS platform.
A third aspect experts tackled is reporting and analytics. Experts helped with data management including setting up analytics dashboards and cleaning up data. Additionally, they provided guidance on interpreting database information, comprehending reports, and extracting meaningful insights from the data pool. This facilitated informed decision-making processes based on data-driven insights, empowering businesses to make strategic choices with confidence.
Overall, experts played a critical role in bridging the gap between SaaS platforms’ capabilities and business's goals, ultimately driving better results and ROI for their clients.
One can argue that the customer support department is there to facilitate the knowledge gaps for the unmanaged segment. While they do play an important role, expert support is still necessary and provides exceptional advantages.
“There is a huge, huge difference in providing product specific support (how to use platforms) vs. providing personalized support about their business and using it as a tool to help them achieve their goals… the support as an expert is dramatically more impactful for the client’s goals.” (Leslie Zaikis)
The main difference between expert and customer support lies in their focus and depth of assistance. Expert support offers a holistic approach, providing deeper insights into clients' overall initiatives and aligning strategies with broader business objectives. Their support is more customized, delving into historical data to identify issues and opportunities at a personal level.
In contrast, customer support primarily addresses technical inquiries and one-off issues related to platform functionality. While customer support can be helpful in navigating the system, it typically does not extend to implementing strategies or understanding CRM operations.
Expert assistance, therefore, offers a hands-on approach that prioritizes clients' real business needs. It includes strategic direction, practical implementation, and education aimed at empowering clients to leverage features in alignment with their business objectives. As a result, experts deliver impactful suggestions that directly contribute to revenue generation and overall success.
Another upside is “being able to build a relationship with clients by asking the right questions and taking the time to understand their business goals. This meant that they felt more comfortable using the system,” according to expert Mario Lucas.
Strong relationships foster trust and loyalty, nurturing long-term partnerships where experts can consistently provide value and ongoing support.
The key takeaway is that it's not just the features themselves, but also the expertise that makes a difference. Guidance, strategic implementation, and showcasing real-world benefits are how professionals maximize the benefits of SaaS platforms for their clients.
Following their work with the experts, clients experienced a rise in profitability. For some, related marketing activities became a prominent revenue generator and part of their core strategy. Others reported a significant growth in AOV, LTV and ARR.
Nearly half of the respondents explicitly pointed to a rise in revenue, profits, and additional sales as a direct outcome of optimizing platform usage and implementing experts' suggestions.
Numerous experts have reported substantial enhancements in performance metrics. Email marketing clients have witnessed a significant increase in open rates, with some reporting a 50% rise. For others, click-through rates have experienced a remarkable 200% growth. Social media clients observed an uplift in engagement and followers, and SEO clients noted increased rankings and traffic. These improvements upgraded user experience inducing better audience nurturing and increased conversions.
The successful collaborations further optimized time management and operational efficiency. Experts highlighted how their work helped clients save time by reducing duplicated efforts, streamlining processes, and leveraging automations. Additionally, experts facilitated better tracking and reporting, providing businesses with valuable insights for informed decision-making and strategy adjustments. This increased operational efficiency brought about a more effective resource allocation and enhanced ROI.
Overall, expert assistance in leveraging SaaS platform’s capabilities can result in tangible improvements in KPIs, operational efficiencies, and ultimately, business growth and revenue generation for clients.
The positive impact extends to SaaS companies themselves. 89% of respondents reported higher levels of client satisfaction, and 67% indicated that clients were more likely to upgrade their subscription after working with an expert.
Partnering with an expert can be invaluable for business success. However, for this collaboration to be fruitful, certain requirements must be met.
Clients must recognize the value and potential of these marketing activities and expert advice for their business. This belief is essential for them to invest resources into this activity. A commitment to putting in the time and work as well as openness to making necessary changes is also required.
By aligning with an expert and actively participating in the process, both clients and SaaS platforms can achieve an unparalleled return on investment.
In conclusion, the research findings shed light on the complexities that contribute to customer churn in SaaS platforms. Clients often leave due to perceived shortcomings in features, pricing misalignment, and platform complexity. Nonetheless, a significant gap exists as many clients underutilize platforms’ capabilities.
Experts play a crucial role in addressing this gap by offering personalized support tailored to individual business needs. They optimize customers’ usage both in a functional and a strategic manner. Through this unique expert guidance, clients experience improvements in profitability, performance metrics, and operational efficiency, benefiting both their businesses and SaaS companies.
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