The founder's guide to customer retention strategy

In the fast-paced realm of tech start-ups, where competition is relentless, and customer expectations are ever-evolving, customer retention is a make-or-break factor. The SaaS B2B start-up space is burgeoning, but there’s a ton less investment money going around, and the industry is facing historically poor levels of retention, even in comparison with pandemic lulls. According to the ProfitWell B2B SaaS Churn Index, the reading for Q2 of 2023 was the worst since 2019. With customers scrutinising their renewals and competition levels rising, how will you keep your clients?

While most start-up founders grasp the importance of retaining customers, many grapple with the nuances of developing a robust customer success playbook. In this comprehensive article, we delve deep into tactical and advisory strategies, extending beyond the surface to explore the intricacies of customer satisfaction, customer experience and the implementation of customer loyalty programmes.

The significance of customer retention

Customer retention refers to a business's practices and strategies to encourage existing customers to continue purchasing its products or services, remain engaged with the brand and maintain a long-term relationship with the company. It is critical to a business's growth and profitability because retained or repeat customers are often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. (But only if you keep those aligned with your Ideal Customer Profile).

Customer retention involves nurturing and sustaining the customer relationship beyond the initial sale. Before exploring advanced strategies, let’s reaffirm why customer retention is a paramount concern for tech start-ups.

1. Sustainable growth: As mentioned, customer retention is often more cost-effective than customer acquisition. Loyal customers are not only prone to spending more but also serve as brand advocates, driving organic growth. 
   
   
2. Brand loyalty: Building formidable relationships with customers fosters unwavering brand loyalty. Loyal customers are less likely to succumb to competitors' allure, even when confronted with compelling offers. Brand loyalty is tough to earn, but it’s worth it: 88% of consumers say it takes at least three purchases to build brand loyalty, but once they have it, 60% will share their brand love with those in their network, over 50% will join a loyalty programme and over 40% will pay more even if it’s cheaper elsewhere. Heads up, according to a 2022 global consumer survey, top brand loyalty drivers included great customer service, a fantastic product/service and a brand’s efforts to build a relationship. 
   
   
3. Feedback ecosystem: Existing customers serve as an invaluable source of feedback, enabling iterative product enhancements and improvements and insights into your customer service experience. 
   
   
4. Mitigating churn: High customer retention rates translate into reduced churn, thus ensuring a stable and predictable revenue stream. For sustainable growth, SaaS companies should avoid customer churn rates of over 8% (for 2022, this was around 13%) and ideally keep monthly churn to around 3%.

How to calculate your customer retention

Customer retention can be calculated using several key metrics, depending on the specific aspects of retention you want to measure. Here are some standard methods to calculate customer retention:

Churn Rate: Churn Rate is a measure of customer attrition. It represents the percentage of customers who stop using your product or service over a specific period, usually monthly or annually.

• Formula: Churn Rate = (Number of Customers at the Beginning of the Period - Number of Customers at the End of the Period) / Number of Customers at the Beginning of the Period.
• Multiply the result by 100 to express it as a percentage. Example: If you start with 1,000 customers and end the month with 900, your monthly churn rate would be (1,000 - 900) / 1,000 = 0.1, or 10%.
• Tactics to consider here:
  • Regular communication with your customers
  • Don’t sell them on a new feature or upgrade; communicate value to them 
  • Keep your product roadmap visible to them
  • Keep an eye on your competitors’ activity

Retention Rate: Retention Rate is the inverse of the churn rate and represents the percentage of customers who continue to use your product or service over a specific period.

• Formula: Retention Rate = 1 - Churn Rate. Using the same example as above, if your monthly churn rate is 10%, your monthly retention rate would be 90%.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Customer Lifetime Value calculates the total revenue a customer generates for your business over their entire engagement with your company.

• Formula: CLV = (Average Purchase Value * Average Purchase Frequency) * Customer Lifespan.
• The "Average Purchase Value" is the average amount a customer spends per transaction, "Average Purchase Frequency" is how often they make purchases, and "Customer Lifespan" is the average duration a customer remains active. For example, if the average purchase value is $50, the average purchase frequency is 3 times per year, and the average customer lifespan is 5 years, the CLV would be (50 * 3) * 5 = $750.
• Tactics to consider here:
  • Reward your best customers
  • Invest in a loyalty programme
  • Create a feedback loop with customers, ensuring you action their suggestions and show their impact

Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS measures customer satisfaction and their likelihood to recommend your product or service to others.

• It asks customers a single question: "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague?"
• Customers are categorised into Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6). The NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. This is easily automated through your CRM. 
• Formula: NPS = % Promoters - % Detractors.

Calculating customer retention metrics allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your strategies in keeping customers engaged and satisfied. By tracking these metrics over time, you can identify trends, make data-driven decisions and implement targeted efforts to improve customer retention, thereby contributing to the long-term success of your business.

Now, let’s look into other ways to ensure customer traction and longevity.

1. A holistic understanding of your customer base

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Begin by crafting comprehensive buyer personas. These personas should provide in-depth insights into your customers' pain points, aspirations and preferences. With this knowledge, you can tailor your product development and marketing endeavours to create personalised experiences that resonate profoundly with your target audience. And personalisation is crucial! According to Epsilon, 80% of consumers are likelier to do business with a vendor offering personalised experiences.

2. Elevating onboarding to an art form

First impressions are indelible. Ensure that your onboarding process is not merely a sequence of steps but an experience that is seamless, intuitive and engaging. Provide comprehensive tutorials, step-by-step walkthroughs and dedicated support to empower new users to extract maximum value from your product immediately. Use video. We love Vidyard to walk customers through the buying cycle, from the proposal stage to the latest product news. 

3. Invest in continuous customer education and training

Your commitment to customer education continues after the onboarding phase. Invest in ongoing educational resources. Organise webinars, create an extensive library of video tutorials and furnish comprehensive documentation that aids customers in unlocking the full potential of your product. Encourage self-service while remaining prepared to deliver personalised assistance when the need arises. This is also where your Customer Success team can come into their own and should be a stalwart of your go-to-market process. Customer care is becoming increasingly complex, but according to McKinsey, “those that have the leading edge are leveraging real-time customer behaviour insights and conversational AI to deliver proactive customer outreach.”

4. Proactive customer support: The first line of defence

Refrain from falling into the trap of waiting for customers to reach out with problems. Implement proactive customer support mechanisms that monitor user activity and identify potential issues before they snowball into critical concerns. Use cutting-edge AI-powered tools like HubSpot's AI-driven knowledgebase chatbots to discern patterns and predict customer needs; they can answer customer queries efficiently without pre-programming, leaving your CS team free to work on building relationships. 

5. Harvesting feedback as a strategic resource

Frequent feedback collection should be a cornerstone of your customer retention strategy. Employ surveys, email inquiries and support interactions to glean insights directly from your customers. Swiftly act upon this feedback, underscoring your commitment to improving your product based on customer opinions. However, don’t get lost in the noise. Be sure to prioritise this feedback. Some tactics you can employ and questions to ask include:

• Review the data to identify trends. How does it impact your main customer base?
• Is this what our product is meant to be doing/solving for?
• Calculate the highest ROI
• What’s the level of effort versus impact?

6. Creating thriving customer communities

Foster a sense of belonging around your brand by establishing a vibrant community forum or a social media group where customers can connect, share experiences and assist each other. This not only enhances customer loyalty but also cultivates a peer-driven support system. 

A great example of this is dbt Labs, a $4B+ analytics engineering B2B software company that committed to investing its resources in its community before communities were cool. Fast forward five years and they have 25,000 members, growing in size 10% every month - and this is where over 80% of their revenue comes from. 

Check out our HUG on building communities here. 

7. Rewarding loyalty through customer loyalty programmes

Introducing a customer loyalty program can be a game-changer. They typically include features like:

• Points system: Customers earn points for every purchase or interaction, which can be redeemed for discounts, free products or other rewards.
• Exclusive benefits: Loyalty programme members gain access to exclusive perks, such as early access to new features, premium support or members-only events.
• Tiered loyalty: Customers can unlock higher tiers with increasingly valuable rewards as they progress in their loyalty.
• Referral bonuses: Encourage customers to refer friends and family with referral bonuses, expanding your customer base through trusted recommendations.

These require careful planning and execution. Ensure that the rewards are meaningful to your target audience and that the programme aligns with your brand's values. 

By rewarding long-term customers with exclusive benefits, discounts or early access to new features, you incentivise them to remain committed to your company. These programmes also establish a deeper emotional connection between customers and your brand. Seven out of 10 consumers in the US consider loyalty programmes important to keep them connected to brands. Almost 80% said that schemes positively influenced their likelihood of continuing to do business with a company - ahead of other factors like personalisation or customer experience. The same number said they purchased more frequently from those businesses as a result. 

8. Measuring and analysing for continuous improvement

Data is the lifeblood of customer retention. Utilise advanced analytics tools to track and dissect key metrics related to customer retention. Metrics like churn rate, customer lifetime value (CLV), and net promoter score (NPS) should be monitored diligently. Regularly reviewing these metrics will empower you to identify trends and areas for improvement.

A note: You can’t measure off of two or more CRMs, or worse yet - spreadsheets. You need one source of truth with transparent customer information input and seen by all revenue departments.

9. Scaling personalisation to perfection

Leveraging automation and AI, aim to deliver personalised experiences to your customers at scale. Tailor product recommendations, content and communications based on user behaviour and preferences. Striking the right balance between automation and personalisation is key to retaining your customer base effectively.

In case you haven’t guessed it, your data situation, particularly that 360-degree view of your customer, is key here. As well as an agile, cross-functional team. Without these two things in particular, your ability to scale your personalisation efforts will be difficult. (Luckily, we can help with both). 

10. Agility in adapting to an ever-changing landscape

The tech industry is a fluid ecosystem and customer expectations shift in tandem. To ensure your start-up's continued success, stay agile and be ready to adapt your customer retention strategies as necessary. Keep a vigilant eye on industry trends and emerging technologies - and be willing to pivot when required. 7% of start-ups went under in 2022 because of their inability to pivot.

The unending pursuit of customer loyalty 

Remember, customer retention is not a one-off effort but an ongoing process that evolves alongside your business. Dedication, data-driven insights and the right strategies are the building blocks for nurturing lasting customer relationships. 

But it’s also, crucially, about people. Your customers and your in-house talent that nurtures your customers at every stage of their journey. Customer support and success teams aren’t staying as long with businesses as they did pre-pandemic and are harder to replace than ever. Top cited reasons they are leaving include employee burnout, lack of advancement opportunities and poor work/life balance. Your dedication to building a culture that nurtures growth and talent retention internally is just as critical for your start-up’s success. 

As a B2B tech start-up founder, your commitment to understanding your customers, elevating their satisfaction and experience and implementing customer loyalty programmes will set the stage for enduring success in an ever-competitive landscape. Embrace these strategies, iterate on them and watch your start-up flourish with a loyal and devoted customer base. Finally, use technology to do the heavy lifting; look at Arrows.to for HubSpot users and the Service Hub to scale your CS operations.

If you’re looking for support on this journey, we’re here. Check out our ARISE™ and CHAMPION© products for more insights into how.