How to Surpass Customer Expectations Using SaaS Tools

⏱ Reading Time: 8 minutes

One of the most rapidly advancing industries is the IT industry. The most important aim of this industry is to make lives easier for people all around the world while meeting the ever-growing customer expectations. In accordance with this aim, there is a huge influx of innovative ideas with a clear goal to simplify some common processes in business. Some of the most innovative ones are those which are based on cloud computing and Software as a Service as a part of cloud computing. 

🚀Read: Customer Experience Guide: How to Put your Customers First? 🚀

Business is a saturated market. Therefore it is essential to make a company trustworthy, to turn it into something people talk about in their small talks. Consequently, there are businesses which provide safe, quick, and accessible tools to portray an obligation. An obligation to the general public that they mean seriously. 

From Gmail to OneDrive to Dropbox, SaaS is everywhere and exceeds customer expectations every day. In this article we are looking more closely into how SaaS tools and practices can help you provide an unforgettable experience to your customers

Time is Everything

Let’s be honest. In this racing, fast-paced world of today, wasting time is highly unattractive. Wasting a single minute can sometimes push you completely out of the game.

Thanks to cloud-based computing and software as service usage, businesses can deploy and set up cloud-based systems across multiple areas. All of that can be done without having a headache about installing different hardwares. All you need to do in the end is to train your IT team and finally, manage the system from an on-premise setup.

Read 5 Essential Time Management Techniques

A+ for the Efficiency

People are very much attracted to the efficiency of a system. The more efficiently you set up your cloud-based computing across multiple regions, the more likely you’ll catch the attention and customer satisfaction rates you need. Customers normally do not expect a system to operate across multiple regions if the service just started. Making the system accessible across multiple regions makes the system stand out. It reflects an idea of efficient business operations.

Picture 1. SaaS tools contribute to efficiency – one of the key factors of customer satisfaction

Customer Expectations and Money

Who likes to spend their money on things they are not sure would benefit them? Before trying out the accessibility of something new, people like to take free trials of the services. In the case of SaaS. However, many of them come with a partial free version. But this is still a version which allows customers to enjoy great features for free. 

However, one thing regarding using SaaS is constant – the customers don’t need to buy the hardware installation packages. Everything is already out there, waiting anxiously for people to avail.

A survey by Manipal University, Department of CS, has shown that SaaS benefits service consumers in many ways. No initial cost. No updating and maintaining fees. Access through internet, pay-per-use pricing, and high availability is guaranteed. Talking about increasing customer satisfaction!

Money Saving For Start-ups

SaaS is great for those with business startups. The ones who are trying their hardest to decrease their expenses as much as possible. Using SaaS can bring them the benefits of otherwise heavily expensive softwares. Also, it’s quite hard to pay in one go rather than paying in periods. This is why SaaS has a subscription-based method of paying, but only if the customer decides to enjoy further services.

Convenient Payment Methods

Even after the payment, the buyer’s risk is quite minimal. In other words, you can halt the subscription at any time and no money goes to waste. This might lead to an increase in customer expectations, since people get to enjoy more for less money.

Portability and Automation

People use more than one device in different areas of work. This depends upon their convenience of using one. Whether they use a laptop, phone or tablet, or all of these, there is a high demand for portability. Or, better to say, a high demand for cloud computation service providers. This gives the users the freedom to access whatever it is that they need, from any of their devices and from a remote server.

SaaS vs On-premise Set up Software

What could be the greatest drawback, following today’s needs, of a licensed software set up on-premise? For one, it is its lack of flexibility. Moreover, it will not be compatible with a device that is not included in its specified lists. As compared to SaaS which has an extremely high range of portability.

For example, this article was at first written at the iPad version of office 365. Later, it was written in the computer version because both had an internet connection and a connection to a cloud. Which means that the article was being edited on the cloud, the edit being done across different devices. Meaning, that the article can be updated and modified from any device with an internet connection. The person needs only to log on to their SaaS, office 365 in this case, and start editing.

Picture 2. Portability in cloud computing

Automatic Updates

Automation makes it possible for the users not to worry about updates. This means that the latest updates don’t have to be taken care of manually. The software automatically checks them and if there is something new available, it is downloaded and installed. These updates can improve the security of the computer and in some cases they can be turned off manually.

Let’s Not Worry About the Updates Any More

As stated earlier, SaaS does come with automated updates.

Since the software is provided by a vendor, all you need to do is login and start using it. Customers like it when they have everything already set and served on the plate, who doesn’t? Who would love to go through daily pinching thoughts of worrying about updates of on-premise hardware they installed?

Hence, in the SaaS world, the vendors solely have to keep the software updated. Nice, easy, reliable and accessible through periodic upgrades depending on customer demands. Normally, there are two options available, which are a part of the software provision: planned maintenance and scheduled maintenance. But vendors can also bring about emergency maintenance and corrective maintenance.  If the cards are played right by the providers, they can quite easily impress the customers. Simply imply upgrades that do more in less time.

Scale, Integrate and Customize Within Minutes to Meet Customer Expectations

The SaaS apps are rarely designed in a way to provide the customers with quite some options for customization priorities. This leaves space for your imagination.

The Effects of Customization

Normally, people hardly see a high yield software on cloud computers to have an option of customisation. Who would waste extra lines of code on personal customisation, right? Wrong. A recent survey showed that people enjoy a platform more when they have an option of customisation. The survey based in NYC, proved the importance of customisation. The results showed that it makes them feel free and in control. And that it is a way to express themselves via their customisations.

The Extent of Integration

Another popular feature of SaaS vendors is that they are gods of APIs who create connections. And by that, we mean connections not only to internal applications like CRMs, but also to other SaaS providers. This potentially increases the extent of an integration to a very large extent. In this wa it offers numerous possibilites to meet your customer expectations.

Using integration, one can write orders and send them directly to the company’s resource planning. Hence, a salesperson can check through the catalog, write orders in front of the customers to boost their trust and send it and receive confirmation all within minutes. Such is the power of SaaS. Of course, while deciding upon a vendor, there are zero needs for investing in server capacity and software license.

A research published by IJFCST mentioned integrations in one of its points. It says that integration and customisation are critical components of the strategies of a successful SaaS architecture. It concludes that they should be a key component of an IT infrastructure centralised on services.

Read 5 Steps to Success in Content Marketing For SaaS

No Piracy and Easy Access

In SaaS provisions, vendors don’t sell software to the customers. When the customers subscribe, they enjoy access to the cloud computer. They also happen to enjoy the services they get on a pay-for-use basis. In SaaS, the cloud itself becomes the platform for the data. Hence, there is less chance for the pirating of a software by a third-party operator.

This increases trust and confidence among the customers. They feel relatively safe when using it, unlike with the package-based installation software provided via complete payments. While their pirated versions are crawling the internet, this hardly happens in SaaS.

Delivery Time Can Be A Mood Changer

Vendors distribute the software via the Internet. This implies that the only thing a customer needs is a nice internet connection. And it’s not far from the truth. Once available, the software access will be up and running in no time. This highly decreases the delivery time. Consequently  the product is easily and quickly accessible to the customers. And who doesn’t love a quick delivery anyway?

Read How To Improve Customer Experience With Data

Conclusion

In short, cloud-based models have made business support easier. Moreover, customer satisfaction metrics have become more than a distant dream. SaaS brings the ability to share and work at the same time across various devices which contributes to its wide-spread use.

A research funded by NWO shows that companies adapting to SaaS witness a positive influence on operations and innovations. SaaS statistics shows that this field is expecting a boost by the end of 2020.

When all of the above mentioned factors work together, customers can have a very positive experience. One that surpasses all their expectations from a software. The ease of customization. The virtual space. The security. The data safety. The fact that the data won’t be lost, even if the computer goes on fire. These are the things that contribute to customer brand loyalty and increased customer satisfaction.

–

Shawn Mack is a content writer who offers ghostwriting, copy-writing, and blogging services. His educational background in business and technical field has given him a broad base from which to approach many topics. He is also fond of writing interesting blogs on technology & digital marketing related topics. He occasionally writes blog articles for Coast.