Best Strategy to Drive Customer Retention during Lockdown
Tags: customerretention, customersuccess
Published: 2020-07-23 10:33:39

The coronavirus crisis is real and has escalated quickly. It has pushed many countries to take extreme measures including lockdowns, school closures, and college and forced social distancing. The expansion activities of many companies have come to a screeching halt. 

While the impact of Covid-19 is high on brick-and-mortar businesses, the impact of the coronavirus crisis on SaaS companies cannot be ignored.  

It's obvious that SaaS companies can now expect a bevy of failed payments, cancellation emails and subscription cancellations soon. 

As SaaS business owners, we need to suspend heavy-duty expansion activities and spend time, <a href="https://www.smartkarrot.com/resources/blog/revenue-churn/">resources</a> and effort on Customer retention and- by extension- <a href="https://www.smartkarrot.com/customer-success/">Customer Success</a> and Customer Experience.   

Since customers are the lifeblood of any company – the focus should be on keeping them happy, especially during recession. This involves being able to re-organize customer success efforts and help them reach set goals. 

To sum it up – the only way to make sure your company survives the storm is to retain customers and hence cashflow.  

 

How to keep your customers in the time of universal Lockdown? 

The Customer Retention Strategies during the time of a global crisis like the Covid-19 calls for special activities and measures – and that will be the focus in this post. 

1. Stay Real and don’t discount your value 

‘Reach out’ is the only motto now -and not just as a customer retention strategy. Keep it real, ask customers what they are doing in these difficult times. Find out how the crisis has affected their business and if you can support with anything.  

Ask how they are using your product during this period and seek feedback from them. Also, don’t succumb to offer them a discount in order to retain them.  

This strategy, though highly followed, leads to increased churn in the long run. 

Discounting gives your customers the signal that your product value may not be worth the price tag.  

It’s never about the price, as said by Grant Cardone in ‘Sell or be Sold‘– it’s about the value. 

Rand Fishkin, the co-founder of SparkToro – said this in Lost and Founder  

lost and foundr 

 

Give extra value to your customers in the time of crisis by  

Knowing the impact of the crisis on their business  

Product explainers about mitigating risks during crisis  

Video calls are a great way to keep the communication alive  

Making quick announcements  

It's important to be resilient and show the same to your clients as well.  

  

2. Provide bonus resources like higher features, checklists etc.  

Cater to customers’ changing needs during the crisis If they use your product or tool as the medium of communication, help them prepare new checklists and templates to accentuate their process. Send all clients Corona-related drip campaigns to create better value. 

Offer special crisis checklists that will help them achieve their goals faster. 

You can also make some premium features free for them or upgrade customers to higher plans. 

3.  Set the right Expectations  

Harvard Business Review mentioned that, “most customers want to be empowered, and not controlled.” 

Be honest when making a promise; don’t over-promise and under-deliver.  

Set expectations that you can meet. In case, they are too tough to meet,apologize and compensate your customers. Understanding that customer satisfaction is the most important key to a sustainable business is important.  

4. Marketing Automation  

Using marketing automation to engage your customers is important to see a boost in overall conversion rates. You can communicate better, faster and stronger via automation. When you can automate processes, it's easier to deliver on certain promises made to customers.  

5. Offer extended trial customers that want to cancel 

Some customers will look for all the possible ways to cancel fearing costs. Contac them and ask if there’s something you can help to give them more value from the product. Allow them to pause or hold their subscription without cancelling.   

Final thoughts 

As Mark Zuckerberg noted ‘The coronavirus outbreak isn’t just a major health crisis — it’s also a large economic disruption leading to people losing their jobs and making it harder to take care of their families.’ – it is important to show solidarity to the customer base and also not damage ur own business