Software as a Service (SaaS) is on the rise. Along with other XaaS models, SaaS has increased over 20% per year since 2011 according to information technology research and advisory company Gartner. More and more companies are utilizing remote software to cut costs and responsibilities within their organizations.
This evolution in technology creates a need for technical support to evolve to meet a new set of challenges.
Customer Retention Model
The rapid adoption of SaaS by technology companies across the globe has shifted the sales model for providers. Rather than the traditional mode where the sale was the beginning and end of the relationship, SaaS is a “recurring revenue model” according to Archie Black of SPS Commerce. SaaS vendors need to get the most value from their customers as possible through customer retention because prolonged relationships are required to recap the initial cost of the sale.
This means great technical support is more important than ever.
Hands-Free Not Always Hassle-Free
It is important to remember that companies choose SaaS because it allows a hands-free approach to software. It’s one less thing they have to worry about so they can focus on their business’ core values. Sadly, simply providing customers with a self service support model isn’t enough to remove all the hassle.
Proactive Identification
Monitoring customers’ issues will give you a leg up into solving issues and providing top of the line support. Observing how customers use products and what weaknesses these unique use cases may present will allow you to solve developing issues before they become crippling problems.
Providing through Social Media
Another way to proactively provide technical support is to communicate and listen to customers through social media. Customers tend to voice complaints and concerns about inconveniences over social media channels. Monitoring behavior and concerns will alert your technology support teams to issues before more customers can raise the issues.
Proactivity is a great way to keep current customers happy. And happy customers are the best way to grow your business.
Multi Vendor Support
Companies who provide SaaS are essentially hosting software on behalf of their customers. This gives you greater control of the environment and theoretically should lead to fewer issues caused by interactions with other hardware and software technologies.
This greater control of your customers’ environment will reduce the need to plan for cooperation with multiple contingencies on server X or operating system Y. However, multi vendor interoperability issues can still come up. For example, your company may create new patches, new features and new versions of your hosted software.
Because you’re hosting an all on one system, when an issue does arise, all your customers experience these issues. So being able to quickly identify the problem and having the ability work with that other vendor of the technology is crucial in a SaaS model.
TSANet provides a Solution Support Partner Model that allows Members to create groups that are designed to meet the support of their SAAS solutions.
Evolution for SaaS
The evolution of the ways in which companies adopt and use new technologies is faster than ever. To survive in the technology industry, your company must evolve right along with your customers and those trends. The recurring revenue model created by SaaS puts extra pressure on vendors to retain customers with superior services and support for those services.