Managing Customer Churn Through The Coronavirus Pandemic

We can see that all the industries and their customer churn have been affected by the global pandemic of COVID-19. The recovering process will surely not be a short one. That doesn’t mean the businesses will have their hands tied and lose control over their future growth. Even though the pandemic inflicted massive damage, it should be said that businesses can still improve their customer engagement, and preserve the loyal customers.

What’s the Current Situation?

As it is the situation with many other businesses and industries, SaaS suffered a heavy blow caused by the global pandemic of Coronavirus. So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that SaaS customers started saving their money to survive the pandemic. The fact that supports this claim is both global and United States tech markets are down by 50% when compared to the beginning of the year.

One of the obvious consequences, due to the decline of the cash flow, is that the SaaS rates will skyrocket. The reason this is so dangerous is that approximately 90% of customer value derives from recurring revenue. Thankfully there are a couple of strategies business owners can implement and get the best possible outcome from this situation.

The Importance of Customer Success

Customer success teams have a priority of preserving customer retention, which is a method of keeping the customer lifetime value at a certain balance. Focusing on these teams is important because the customer lifetime value can have a positive impact on customer spending over a certain period. Now, let’s take a look at certain customer success practices that can actually influence reducing the effects of Coronavirus pandemic.

1. Focus on Customer Data

Naturally, when the world is facing financial uncertainty, customer behaviour can’t be fully predicted. So, businesses need to rely on the data they already have. They need it now more than they ever did. These will provide them with opportunities to capitalise. The further automation of these processes even more by using coming up with an early warning system, which will provide notifications about specific activities.

2. Categorisation of the Customers

A business can capitalise even more by categorising customers into certain groups. For example, the grouping can be done by industry, location, structure, size, and the level of effect Coronavirus has on them. By doing this, the owner will have the opportunity to personalise the messaging and make keeping the engagement relevant to each one of the customers. This will ultimately lead to more personalised solutions.

3. Proactive Communicators

Having a proper communication with customers is of the essence during these hard times. The communication will surely add a whole new value for the customers, which will lead to the protection of the connections already developed. Furthermore, it will have a significant positive effect on the increase in customer retention.

4. Economic Flexibility

Since the world is a pretty uncertain financial situation, it wouldn’t hurt the owners to be flexible with their financial solutions. Thankfully, there are more than just a couple of ways a company could go from this point. There are always options like free trial extensions, downgrades, limited access to the premium accounts, and most importantly, discounts.

5. Think about Success Points and Goals

During the global financial struggle, every company should revisit some of its goals, and adapt to a new reality. Coming with a set of new goals and strategies, a complement to the new situation, will surely provide some new solutions. At the same time, the focus should be shifted from the teams that were doing the biggest chunk of the business to others who are now under the spotlight.

The Bottom Line

Even though the reality is pretty harsh at the moment, that doesn’t mean it will not change in the future. This is not something that’s written in stone and cannot be changed. We’ve provided you with a couple of practices you can implement to reduce the negative effects of the global pandemic. You shouldn’t be scared of the current situation, it’s bound to change sooner or later.