594. Marilyn Lin, SaaS Customer Support

Unleashed - How to Thrive as an Independent Professional

Show Notes:

Marilyn Lin, a customer support thought leader with over two decades of experience, discusses the importance of customer support in driving business success in the Software as a Service (SaaS) industry. She has led global Technical Support Teams that not only resolve issues but also foster customer loyalty, drive renewals, and inform product strategies. In today's competitive SaaS landscape, customer support is not just a cost center but a linchpin of retention and growth.

Customer Support in the SaaS Industry

The conversation turns to the different terms for customer support, such as customer support, customer service, customer care, and customer success. Marilyn identifies the difference between terms. She equates customer success to the team focused on the health of a customer, focusing on how they are leveraging and using the product and solution, realizing value from their investments. They are more akin to the account management side of the organization, taking care to understand the customer's top priorities and helping guide them through leveraging and using the solution and products they have purchased or subscribed to. She explains that customer support and customer service are terms used interchangeably to describe the teams that help customers resolve issues with using their products or services. In B-to-B environments, customer support are more technical support teams, while customer care and customer service is more tactical and often describe teams within B-to-C environments.

Subcategories within Customer Support

There are different subcategories within customer support, such as onboarding teams, which help new B2B customers onboard with a SaaS company. Major functions tied to customer support include customer training and onboarding, customer delivery teams, and customer escalation teams. The support delivery team handles cases and interacts with end users, helping them find solutions to their issues. A customer escalation team is involved when customers escalate issues or outages, ensuring timely resolution. Marilyn explains that historically, customer support organizations have been seen as reactive and cost centers rather than a strategic arm. However, there is a treasure trove of insights from the interactions with end users, which can be used to drive improvements in the product and solution. This information can feed into the product development cycle, helping product and engineering teams prioritize their roadmaps and drive the voice of the customer. Support teams can also provide insights related to training and enablement, usability, and user experience, which can be shared with the enablement and design teams.

The Importance of Customer Support in Business

The importance of customer support in a business is discussed, including the need for analytics to understand the impact of the customer support team and how that ties back to customer retention rates. A high retention rate can lead to increased value and a better brand image. Marilyn talks about key metrics she pays attention to as VP of customer support, including the importance of understanding the time to resolution, common themes of issues, and the financial impact of these metrics is mentioned. In a recurring revenue environment, it is crucial to highlight top case drivers or issues tied back to the customers and provide the ARR to the executive team. The need to prioritize areas like product bug fixes or feature enhancements is stressed, and the cost to serve customers, breaking it down by segments and regions to better understand customer needs and improve efficiency. By focusing on these metrics, businesses can better serve their B2B customers and drive more value. Examples are shared.

Tracking Trends and Changes in the Support Business

In a VP of Customer Support role, key metrics include time to resolve issues, first time to resolve, and the ability to address user issues with the first interaction. Additionally, the team and individual level is monitored to identify areas for improvement. Employee engagement is a key focus, with companies conducting quarterly or twice a year employee satisfaction surveys. The focus is on analyzing trends and identifying high priority areas for improvement. In a support organization, it is crucial to prioritize employee experience, provide the right tools and processes, and listen to employee feedback. Support leaders should prioritize their team's well-being, as it translates into better customer service and interaction. By taking care of their employees, support leaders can improve their overall customer experience.

Evaluating a SaaS Company’s Customer Support

In evaluating a SaaS company, it is essential to consider whether the support organization has a strategic roadmap outlining their vision and quarterly milestones. This roadmap should evolve as business objectives and priorities change. A more holistic view of investments should be considered, not just focusing on key metrics. Marilyn suggests that organizations should give their team the support to take time to step back and look for ways to make things more efficient, such as creating knowledge articles based on interactions to prevent customers from having to log cases. Training and enablement should be provided for employees to continue learning and grow.

AI Customer Support Solutions

AI solutions are being evaluated and implemented by support organizations to enhance customer service. Marilyn led the first support team at Salesforce to leverage AI and machine learning within their support processes, using SupportLogic. The app helped identify potential cases that would escalate, allowing managers and teams to be aware of potential cases and provide timely resolutions to end users.

The SupportLogic app has improved the way managers manage their teams and assigned cases to the right agents with the right knowledge and experience to handle unresolved cases more efficiently. This has led to improvements in the way managers manage their teams and elevating the customer experience provided by their support agents.

Timestamps:

03:40: Defining Key Customer Service Terms

07:47: Classification of Customer Service Roles

10:22: Transforming Customer Support from a Cost Center to a Revenue Driver

13:00: Metrics and KPIs for Customer Support

18:00: War Stories and Practical Examples

21:48: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Metrics for VP of Customer Service

25:44: Evaluating Customer Service in SaaS Companies

29:07: Implementation of AI in Customer Service

Links:

Resource: https://umbrex.com/resources/how-to-analyze-a-saas-company/

Website: Golotusgroup.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marilynlin/

Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com.