Technology is a fast-evolving industry. With so many new software making headlines every year, it may be difficult to maintain your business’ relevance. This is especially true for your SaaS business, which should always be updated with the most useful and affordable services to get ahead of the competition.
According to digital experts, many SaaS businesses fail within 1-2 years of their launch. There are several reasons why SaaS companies might struggle:
- Lack of market demand – in any business, it is important to pin down a niche so that your company has a defined set of clients. However, a business may be at risk of losing actual clients when their services are “too niche” to the point that there’s no actual market demand.
- The competition is better – although your software may be spectacular, it may just be one face among many others that strive to shine. In this scenario, the lack of market demand isn’t the problem. Although competition is healthy to some extent, it may be too overpowering to the point that many SaaS companies find themselves buried in the heap.
- Poor operational strategy – a part of keeping a SaaS business successful is keeping your clients happy. There could be mishaps such as poor customer service, software glitches, and bugs, or the lack of innovation that makes the software rendered useless.
As we pinpoint the causes of SaaS business failure, we now look ahead to the ways we can make our software business run strongly towards the future.
4 Ways To Future-Proof Your SaaS Business
- Look ahead, but don’t forget to look sideways
Sometimes, there’s also a purpose with looking sideways to keep your SaaS business afloat and speeding up. An example would be the success of Snapchat versus Facebook and Instagram. Initially, millennials were drawn to the microblogging nature of Snapchat, posting and sending “snaps” to each other almost instantaneously. What did Facebook and Instagram do? They looked sideways towards the competition and saw that they could make their own version–through FB and Instagram stories. Thankfully, the effort paid off and now users were retained in their respective social media platforms.
The same can be said for SaaS businesses. Whatever your competition is doing right, find a way to make it better. Look sideways and analyze how you can incorporate trends in your business.
- Ask feedback from your audience
Oftentimes, many businesses forget that their audience is a goldmine of ideas. One of the most useful ways to understand how to future-proof your SaaS is to know what your users like.
What seems to be currently lacking in your services? What upgrades are needed to reduce customer churn? Do they feel like they have maximized your services already to the point that they could no longer benefit from it? Maintaining your users is as important, if not more important, than getting new ones. Lead generation is essential, but customer retention creates more profits in the long run.
- Provide unbeatable value to your clients
Many SaaS companies are hesitant to give away something for free. Little do they know that these strategies are what makes a company valuable in the eyes of their users.
A good example of this is Blinkist. Although Blinkist has a premium service which lets you read book summaries of self-improvement titles, they give users a free option of reading one editor-picked book a day. This gives the users a “sneak-peak” of what it’s like to experience their quality service, and in turn, acts as a lead capturing device to help more customers sign up for their premium offers.
- Incorporate the use of AI to improve operational systems
Another way to reduce customer churn is through AI services such as UserIQ. UserIQ offers automated services to improve the customer onboarding experience and to improve customer retention. These may include tools such as better user interaction within your website, optimization of your SaaS flagship services, and intuitive analytics which can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses as a business.
SaaS is a business that requires innovation and edge against the competition. With the right tools, you can make your SaaS profitable for the future.