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Tag: Customer

  • What is Reputation Audit and How you can do a Reputation Audit For Your Brand?

    The reputation of your brand will have a direct impact on your sales. Analyzing what people think about your brand is very important.

    If people are talking negative things about your brand or even worse, not even talking about it then you are in serious trouble.

    Your brand name should generate excitement or a sense of trust in the minds of people.

    Taking feedback, improving your brand presence on the internet and building long-term relationships with your customers are important aspects of any business.

    A reputation audit of your brand will help you to grow your business.

    Don’t know how to do the audit? Keep reading this article and I will guide you through all the steps.

    What is a Reputation Audit?
    Why is Reputation Audit Important?
    Know your Target Audience
    Steps to Conduct a Reputation Audit

    ‌What is a Reputation Audit?

    A reputation audit will help you in understanding what people think about your brand.

    It will give you an in-depth review of where your brand is positioned in the market.

    You will understand the strengths, threats, and weaknesses of your brand.

    You will also get an idea of who your competitors are and how you are performing against them.

    Why is Reputation Audit Important?‌

    If you do a reputation audit you will understand how your brand is communicating with your target audience.

    Gone are the days when marketing was a one-way route. Nowadays, people share their experiences on social media. If you don’t answer their grievances and treat them well your business won’t grow and eventually fall.

    If you understand the relationship between your brand and the audience, you can understand flaws and work on them.

    You can find out why your sales are not going up. You can make effective strategies to skyrocket your sales and improve your company’s presence.

    If your online visibility is low and your reviews online are not good, your company will face a dull future.

    Know your Target Audience‌

    You should know who your target audience is before making the reputation audit. You can look at Google Analytics and other tools to know who your target audience is.

    You should know what your customers want and how you are fulfilling their wants.

    To make things easier for you answer the below questions to know your target audience:

    • My products are made for which age group? OR Who can use my products or services?
    • What is causing my audience to demand those products or services?
    • How is my product helping them?
    • What actions do I expect my audience to take?
    • What audience my competitors are targeting?

    Once you found out who your target audience is ask these questions to niche down:

    • What are the demographics of my audience?
    • What are their interests?
    • Where do they hang out online?
    • Who is the decision maker?
    • What are their income and expenditure?

    If you already have customers to whom you are selling your products you can create survey forms.

    In this way, you will get a better understanding of what your customers want and how you can help them in an efficient way                                                                    ‌‌

    Steps to Conduct a Reputation Audit:

    Think of words that people might use when they talk about your brand. Do a brainstorming session with your employees and then select 15-20 words that are closely related to your brand.

    2)Time to Use Those Words:

    Search those words on Google and check if your business website or your business name is appearing in the search results or not.

    Check the first 3 pages. Review what people are saying about your products or services.

    Also, keep an eye on how many times your website is appearing in the search results.

    Then check out of all those visitors how many people actually click on your Website’s link. You can use Google Analytics for this purpose.

    3)Check Review Sites:

    Hop over to review sites where customers leave reviews about your product and service. Web Pages that appear on page one of Google for your company name or product keywords are very important.

    Check if there are any negative reviews about your products. Understand what is lacking in your product or service.

    Reply to those negative reviews politely. Tell them that you will improve things or explain why that particular thing went wrong.

    Offer them a good reason to try your product or service again. If you have a lot of negative reviews then it is a big problem.

    Understand what are the majority of complaints about (poor customer service, bad product quality, shipping delays, rude staff) and improve those things immediately.

    If there are any negative reviews on an influencer’s website then contact them and thank them for their honesty. Ask them to try the improved version of the product.

    Make sure this time you make them happy and provide them with a memorable experience.

    If they are happy they might write another article praising your products.

    If you find negative reviews in magazines then it is very tough to make magazines change their mind. In this case, make sure other magazines are praising your products.

    4)Use Your Loyal or Satisfied Customers:

    Make sure your loyal or satisfied customers leave a positive review. These reviews should be on Google and various other social media handles. Remember lots of positive reviews will have a positive impact on your brand.

    5)Review Your Social Media Handles:

    Search what people are saying about your brand on various social media handles.

    Nowadays, people tag brands whenever they mention them so it would be easy for you to collect the data.

    Understand for what product or service they are mentioning your brand and how many people engage on your social media handle.

    Read the comments present in your posts. This will help you to get a better understanding of whether people are liking things that your brand is doing or not.

    Check how many times your content has been shared on social media. You can use Instagram Analytics, Facebook Tools, or LinkedIn Automation Tools to get all the necessary data.

    If you have a YouTube Channel check how many views are there on your videos.

    Understand which videos are getting the most views. You can use YouTube Analytics to review these things.

    6)Review Your Collected Data:

    Now, it’s time to review the data that you have collected till now. You remember why we have collected this data right? To understand what people think about your brand across the web.

    After collecting this data you will find yourself in these 4 situations:

    No Web Presence – There is very little information about your brand on the web. People don’t know about your brand.

    In this scenario, your main focus is to create a web presence and interact with customers online.

    Less Web Presence – You do have information about your brand but it is from your website itself. This usually happens when you have recently started to create a presence online.

    You need to make sure customers talk about your brand on various websites and on social media.

    Negative Perception – There is a lot of information about your brand on the internet, but people don’t like your brand. You have tons of negative reviews on various platforms.

    Don’t get shocked or sad. Relax and understand what things people don’t like about your products or services.

    Improve your product and services and you will soon get positive reviews.

    Positive Perception – People are impressed with your services. Everything is positive but don’t get too excited. You need to keep growing.

    Add more features to your existing products. Remember if you are careless, a positive web presence will soon turn into a negative one.

    Conclusion

    As you can see online reputation audit can be very helpful for your business. Most importantly, you can do the audit yourself.

    Remember analyzing your reputation online is as important as other things.

    If people are not talking about your brand online then your business will soon come to an end.

    The market has become very competitive and that’s why you need to be alert all the time. You need to constantly monitor and work on improving things.

    FAQ

    Why is a reputation audit important for my brand?

    A reputation audit will tell you what your target audience thinks about your brand.

    You will understand if your audience has a positive perception of your brand or negative perception. You will also understand where your brand stands in the market.

    Which are the best reputation audit tools?

    Some of the best reputation audit tools are Google Alerts, SEMrush, RankRanger, Social Mention, and SentiOne.

    What is the meaning of reputation audit in simple words?

    In simple words, a reputation audit is a way to understand what people think about your brand.

    Can I do a reputation audit myself?

    Yes, you can easily do a reputation audit by yourself. You don’t need to hire someone as the process is quite simple.

  • How to Improve Customer Experience for SaaS Businesses? (Best Strategies)

    Interaction between a customer and a brand at different stages of the customer’s journey impacts the customer’s perception of the product and services. Positive interaction strengthens the connection and enriches the customer’s experience (CX) throughout all aspects of the product consumption journey, including browsing websites, enquiring about products, purchasing products, post-purchase communications, etc.  Hassle-free and convenient business transactions keep customers engaged and drive their loyalty to a brand.

    The personalized experience of the product enhances the credibility of a brand and brings out the brand from a shop for a shop. Let us see how SaaS companies can enhance customer’s experience and drive revenue growth:

    What is Customer Experience?
    Why do SaaS companies need to Improve Customer Experience?
    How to Improve Customer experience strategy for SaaS Business?

    What is Customer Experience?

    SaaS products and services work on subscription-based pricing and that can be altered anytime with the myriad number of SaaS products available in the digital market. Customer acquisition and customer engagement are their prime concerns and to get an edge in the market, they are dependent on customers’ responses about the SaaS products.

    Effective customer experience strategy is well-crafted planning of business goals and organizing the itinerary to reach that goal. Online customers relationship play a crucial role in keeping customers engaged with the SaaS product and a brand, in a highly competitive SaaS market.

    Advanced UX, easy interface, real-time chatbot conversations, engaging emails, customer feedback, review, YouTube videos, etc are various means to increase interaction between the brand and the customers. It also helps businesses to get data insights about the sensory and behavioural responses of different types of customers to further improve communication with the targeted customers.

    Why do SaaS companies need to Improve Customer Experience?

    SaaS businesses are undergoing many transformation phases due to the increased use of cloud computing, AI, advanced data management tools, remote working, agile infrastructure, on-demand resource availability, and many more local/global reasons. SaaS businesses run on subscription services so customer satisfaction at every consumption touchpoint delivers a stand-out result and ensures product-led growth.

    Maintaining customer retention for a long time is extra pressure apart from increasing new customer in-flow for a brand.  The end user’s experience is essential to maintaining a long-term relationship and improving business output.

    Why Should You Improve Customer Experience
    Why Should You Improve Customer Experience

    How to Improve Customer experience strategy for SaaS Business?

    Improve Customer Onboarding Experience

    User onboarding is the beginning stage of a customer’s interaction with a SaaS product. The customers should be well acquainted with the accessibility of website navigations, image representation, easy interface, purchasing convenience, and smooth check-out functions. Easy onboarding can include:

    • Free Sign-up and product trials to gain audiences’ trust for paving the way for long-term relationships.
    • Complete walkthrough, knowledge base, support, FAQs, and guidelines to provide comprehensive knowledge about the product and simplify the process.
    • Consistent customer support through support and knowledge base articles to help them to reach easy and quick solutions. Quick resolution of Help Desk queries enhances customer experiences and builds the product’s credibility.

    Increase UX Investment

    Your website is the face of your business and the main communication channel for showcasing your product and crafting your digital customer journey. Slow-running websites, abrupt navigation, poor image quality, and complicated language are all major pain points for customers and cause frustrations at every stage of the customer’s journey. Even a few seconds wait period for a website to upload causes 70% give up of visitors and the business loses its brand loyalty too.

    Poor digital customer experience can lead you to lose traffic to competitors and it can ultimately impact the company’s growth and revenue. 85% of buyers do online shopping because of the great customer experience they get through product pages.

    Focus on Customer Feedback and Reviews

    Unbiased and honest posts have more capability to drive traffic and then convert it into potential buyers. People adopt which is devoid of the banner and listen more to genuine comments. Customers’ feedback, reviews, surveys, and questionnaire are considered more trustworthy because they are coming directly from customers’ mouths.  

    According to a market survey, 85% of people trust customer reviews before online purchasing. This way a brand engages customers and promotes its product more efficiently and authentically. Approximately 75% of brands agree that their customers are their brand promoters.

    Customers’ feedbacks and ratings identify valuable insights about product quality, shortcomings, encountered issues, expectations, satisfaction, recommendations, and customers’ perception of the product.

    In a fiercely competitive market of SaaS businesses, lead generation and customer acquisition are substantial parts of product growth. The constant customer engagement leads to secure and long-term relationships, which eventually turned into customer loyalty.

    Get the opinion of customers through feedback, survey forms, emails, chats, and social media, and ask them to respond quickly. Positive feedbacks and recommendations promote your product through word-of-mouth marketing free of cost.

    Average people are more trustworthy because they are promoting your brand for the value they got in return and not for the marketing.

    Cross-Departmental Collaboration

    Effective customer experience strategy is the well-crafted planning of business goals and organizing the itinerary to reach that goal. Your business goal and marketing goal should be aligned and the marketing goal should work as a complementary to achieve the business goal. Less coordination between different teams hinders smooth business functioning and frustrates your customers due to time lagging in response to the request.

    Customer experience should be intelligent, personalized, relevant, and insightful across customers, marketing, communication, sales, and service teams. Develop a smooth business transition to bridge the gaps between customers and multiple departments to create better customer experiences.

    Track and Measure Customer’s Experiences

    Subscription-based product is highly volatile in nature and can be replaced anytime with alternates. Current customer trends, purchasing behaviours, expectations, and demands, are needed to be tracked and examined to focus on target customers.

    Map your customers’ journey; research customers’ profiles, and collect data from social media about their choices, interests, gender, age group, and preferences to track the latest trends. Identify whom you are talking with? Create a persona of your audience and then target them selectively.

    Introduce chatbots to get personalized with customers and to address accurately what they are looking for. Determine the common stage where you can connect with your customers. Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest might be the best channels for connecting with target audiences for SaaS-based products.

    Personalized email marketing collects insights such as niche interest, buying intent, and behavioural patterns and helps in anticipating the future needs of the customers.

    Some SaaS companies personalized their websites for new or existing customers. Big data analytics and machine learning bring out the customers’ insights and their predictive behaviours which help to segment customers based on their preferences and needs. Delivering individualized content and targeted emails strengthens the relationship between businesses and consumers. It enriches customer experiences and increases brand credibility in a volatile SaaS market.

    Make a Mobile-friendly Interface

    Make your interface mobile-friendly as 90 out of 100 customers access web pages, social media, and emails on mobile. Customers can get weekend offers, festive offers, and timely coupon notifications anytime, anywhere with the portable mobile device.

    According to a recent survey, 82% of users are primarily engaged with smartphones, while 63% of users use computers. Effective customer experience is to meet customers where they are and mobile device is accessible almost everywhere.

    Incorporating the Latest Tools and Technologies

    Using the right tools and technologies is an integral part of an enhanced digital customer experience. Live chat, FAQ page, Chatbot, and Helpdesk enable customer support to automate resolution quickly and enhance customer experience. Big Data analytics, AI, and Machine Learning techniques collect valuable insights and create a customer-centric user experience for individual users.

    Promote Omni Channel marketing

    With constantly changing consumer habits, it is crucial for the business to connect with customers through multiple channels. However, maintaining consistency all along and seamless communication at various media channels (omnichannel support) is quite a tedious job.

    70% of consumers expect the same representative or same product copy in every channel. A mobile app, social media, chat, email, and web page are all part of omnichannel marketing. Create an omnichannel support strategy by optimizing user engagement across web, mobile, social media, and live chats.

    How to Reduce Customer Churn Rate: 5 Proven Strategies
    A churn is a user or revenue loss in a given period. If you don’t want to lose your customers, follow these strategies to reduce the churn rate.
    StartupTalkySunita Singh

    Conclusion

    A perfect customer-centric strategy comprises a well-thought-out plan to increase positive customer experiences at all stages of the customer’s journey and measures the customer’s perception of the company, product, and brand.

    To create an excellent SaaS customer experience, nurture your relationship with your customers by understanding their behaviours and expectation and provide a comprehensive customer experience platform from onboarding to feedback collection.

    An average user can be turned into a brand ambassador from his role as a fan or a contributor.

    FAQs

    What is the SaaS customer experience?

    SaaS customer experience is keeping your customer engaged with your SaaS product.

    What are customer experience strategies?

    Customer experience strategies are a strategy that you plan to provide the customer throughout the customer journey by providing the best experience at every stage.

  • How to Reduce Customer Churn Rate: 5 Proven Strategies

    A churn is a user or revenue loss in a given period. Customer churn is determined by the number of customers that end to use the product and service during a given period.

    In a more refined way, the number of customers you lost in the quarter in comparison to the number of customers you started with the sales quarter. Customer retention is the major factor in a company’s success. If you have a customer retention rate is 75%, it means you have a low churn rate of 25%.

    Most often SaaS companies face a high churn rate due to the falling demand for existing products and services. The SaaS business evolves constantly so they need to constantly upgrade their products and introduce new services to sustain old customers and engage new customers. If the product is not fulfilling customers’ expectations and marketing demand, the churn rate will increase. Losing customers means losing revenue. So, if you want to reduce customer churn rate follow these best strategies.

    How Customer Churning is Affecting Businesses?
    Customer Churn Vs Revenue Churn
    How to Reduce Customer Churn?

    How Customer Churning is Affecting Businesses?

    Customer churning is greatly affecting the business and if above than 10% of customers are cancelling the product, it is difficult for long-term growth. It also means that you are losing more customers than acquiring them and which is seriously impacting your revenue.

    According to a survey, companies lose $1.6 trillion per year due to customer churn. You need to permanently fix the root cause of churning to run your business for the long term. Every customer is different, you need to make strategies to make existing customers stay content and happy with the products and services.

    According to the Forrester analysis, acquiring new customers is 5 times cost more than maintaining the existing customers.

    Customer Churn Rate in United States in 2020
    Customer Churn Rate in United States in 2020

    Customer Churn Vs Revenue Churn

    Customer churn is the number of customers you are losing in a given time frame. Revenue churn is slightly different from customer churn. Revenue churn is the loss of revenue that is not necessarily happening because of customer churning.

    Revenue churning means that you are not making enough money from your existing customer base than you were making before. There could be several reasons for this such as, your customers might have shifted to lower subscriptions, declined a few paid features, got discounted features, and so on.

    Analyze all the business metrics, competitors’ graphs, target customers, and long-term customers and determine the most useful customers that stay long with you. Retain your loyal customers and try to compensate for your revenue loss with flexible customers.

    If you have a diverse customer base, most likely you cannot satisfy all customers. Hit the majority of your target customers and meet their requirements and expectations, instead.

    How to Reduce Customer Churn Rate?

    According to Gartner’s survey report, approximately 80% of a company’s future revenue come from just 20% of its existing customers. So, 60-70% of the marketing focus remains on selling products to old customers.

    Many companies are understanding the importance of low churn and proactively implementing reduce churn strategy. They emphasize improving customer relationships and communications and removing all bottlenecks that come in between product and customer experience.

    According to HubSpot’s 2021 State of Inbound report, over 50% of companies are giving top priority to increasing customer satisfaction and generating leads. They are incorporating occasional rewards, free offers, and promotions to retain customers for a long time with the product.

    Implement a systematic retention process that brings you the actionable insights to generate new ideas to reduce churn. Break down your churn into its component parts (pricing, types of users, product features, support, etc) and experiment with different parts and resolve all aspects of churn.

    Here a few strategies are given to maximize customer satisfaction and reduce churn:

    Analyse the Cause

    Analyze why customers are leaving? There could be lots of reasons for customer churn such as pricing, product quality, customer experience, etc. To track the problem in the right direction, collect customers’ insights and their issues through email, feedback, and surveys, and build strategies proactively to prevent churn.

    The survey is useful and easy. You can get the survey through email, SMS, live chat, social media, etc. Analyze their response and work on the points which are causing you more revenue loss.

    Moreover, find out the specific reason for leaving the product after 30 or 60 days of using it. Talk to your customers and offer a discount or incentive to engage them with the product.

    If there is any technical issue regarding the improper functionality or lack of understanding about the product, communicate with them and provide all technical support to reduce customers’ dissatisfaction with the product. Ask cancellation reasons in the form of a survey to get valuable product insights.

    Spot the customers who have not been contacted for a while. They might be in the risk group and can impact the churn badly. Take preventive measures to include them in regular conversation. Start email conversations, feedback, and survey to foresee the problems.

    Engage with Customers

    Ensure quality customer service for successful onboarding and implementation. Guide them in every step so they get familiar with the product features. Provide a guided tour for all functionalities, and give value-added support and FAQs so they don’t feel clueless on handling basic issues.

    Offer free training, webinars, video tutorials, and product demos to make them comfortable with the product. Demonstrate the full potential of the product so customers can see the value of using the product.

    When customers feel the product/solution is helping them to achieve target expectations in business they are less likely to leave the product/solution. You need to constantly keep monitoring and communicating with them. Constant feedback keeps you aware of customers’ inclinations and expectations. Amazon has excellent customer service that gives it leverage over its competitors.

    Proactive Customer Services

    Sometimes customers struggle to navigate the website and didn’t get exactly what they are looking for. Confusion around a product or service and a lack of effective and timely support around for a particular issue increase their disappointments.

    Use Live chat to engage with them throughout their product journey and have your customer support system ready to address product-related issues. When customers get an immediate solution and it enhances their overall user experiences.

    Very likely, customers may overlook small glitches if they get timely support and stay with the product. You also get time to improve on technical things without losing your customer base.

    According to a Harvard Business School report, 65% of the company’s business comes from existing customers.

    Build a personalized relationship after onboarding the products and maintain a friendly rapport with your customers. The Starter Story and Pigeon had reduced their churn rate with personalized emails and customer support, only.

    Build Customer Loyalty

    Make your customers feel that they are a part of a brand community. Invite guest posts, question-answer discussions, and community forums where they can share their views and suggestions. It keeps them engaged with the product and if there is any issue or dissatisfaction, it can be solved within the community.

    You can also get insights into customers’ perspectives and get time to resolve them early. Offer discounts, promos, and loyalty programs to keep them stuck with the product. Occasional discounts and incentives are offered to show how much you value your customers for the business. If the customer is approaching to end of their subscription, you can offer discounts to elaborate the subscription and retain your customer.

    Be honest and transparent with your customers and share your revenue report and business metrics openly.

    Reeboks and Nike have huge customer loyalty bases. Smaller SaaS brands like Ahrefs and e-commerce software Shopify also have a big loyal customer base that contributes to their growth.

    According to research from Bain & Company, a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits margin by 25% to 95%.

    Improve Customer Experience

    According to Forum Corporation’s research, 70% of churning is happening because of slow services and uncooperative support staff. Delight your customers with Thank You or Welcome Note after their subscriptions or purchasing the product. A Reddit uses a handwritten thank you message for its subscribed customers to give them value and importance.

    If your customers are happy, they may refer you to others and help your business to expand. Celebrate your long-time customers by rewarding them with badges or highlighting their success on social media and your website. For example, freelance marketplace Fiverr highlights its customers’ stories on its blog.

    Good customer service can reduce churn for a long time. Improve customer services to hook the customers with your brand. Attend every complaint seriously so the customers stay with the brand.

    Conclusion

    Nothing is going to change overnight! Follow the process and observe closely what areas in the company are causing churn problems. Retention is cheaper than customer acquisition. The KPMG survey revealed that customer retention drives 52% of the company’s revenue. You already have customers, engage with them and make sure they too stay with you.

    FAQs

    What is the churn rate?

    A churn rate is when your customers stop using your services within a certain period of time.

    Why is the churn rate important?

    Calculating the churn rate is important, as it shows how many customers you have lost and lost customers mean less revenue.

    What is a good average churn rate?

    A 5% – 7% churn rate annually is considered an acceptable churn rate.

  • Customer Acquisition Cost By Industry | How to Calculate CAC?

    I’m sure you know that your customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the price you pay to convert a lead into a customer. And for most companies, that’s a pretty huge expense. According to a 2017 CMO survey, businesses spend over 11% of their total company revenue on marketing. The CAC metric is important to two parties: companies and investors. The first party includes outside, early-stage investors who use it to analyse the scalability of new Internet technology companies. They can determine a company’s profitability by looking at the difference between how much money can be extracted from customers and the costs of extracting it.

    The other party interested in the metric is an internal operations or marketing specialist. They use it to optimize the return on their advertising investments. In other words, if the costs to extract money from customers can be reduced, the company’s profit margin improves and it makes a larger profit. In this article, you will get to know about some CAC benchmarks for different industries.

    How to Calculate your Customer Acquisition Cost?
    Customer Acquisition Costs by Industry
    Cost per Acquisition on Google ads
    Cost per Acquisition for Facebook Marketing
    Cost per Lead for B2B Marketing Channels

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    How to Calculate your Customer Acquisition Cost?

    LTV should be 3x CAC
    LTV should be 3x CAC

    Basically, the CAC can be calculated by simply dividing all the costs spent on acquiring more customers (marketing expenses) by the number of customers acquired in the period the money was spent. Consider a SaaS company that spent $125,000 on sales and marketing in a month, including salaries, commissions, ad spend and trial support. 50 new customers were signed up during the same month. In this case: CAC = $125,000/50 = $2,500.
    Congratulations! You’ve calculated your CAC.

    But here’s the thing: knowing your customer acquisition cost is fairly meaningless if you’re not comparing it to the lifetime value. You want to see a LTV three times higher than your CAC.

    Balance between CAC and LTV
    Balance between CAC and LTV

    A higher ratio than 3x means you could actually be growing faster if you invested in the right channels. Anything lower than 3x means you need to be exploring these options for either growing your LTV or lowering your CAC.

    How to calculate & Track Customer Acquisition Cost

    Customer Acquisition Costs by Industry

    Customer Acquisition Cost by Industries
    Customer Acquisition Cost by Industries

    Customer acquisition cost varies across industries due to a number of different factors — including, but not limited, to: Length of sales cycle, Purchase value, Purchase frequency, Customer lifespan, and Company maturity.
    Here’s a rundown of average customer acquisition cost by industry:

    • Travel: $7
    • Retail: $10
    • Consumer Goods: $22
    • Manufacturing: $83
    • Transportation: $98
    • Marketing Agency: $141
    • Financial: $175
    • Technology (Hardware): $182
    • Real Estate: $213
    • Banking/Insurance: $303
    • Telecom: $315
    • Technology (Software): $395.

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    Cost per Acquisition on Google ads

    CPA on Google ads
    CPA on Google ads

    To many, Google Ads is still the most effective ingredients in their digital marketing mix, allowing you to widen your reach and promote your product to millions of users. In terms of averages, CPA is lowest in the auto industry, which acquires new customers at only $33.52 a head, while the tech industry spends a whopping average of $133.52.

    Cost per Acquisition for Facebook Marketing

    CPA for Facebook Marketing
    CPA for Facebook Marketing

    In marketing circles, Facebook is considered the most important platform for both B2C and B2B businesses. In fact, the social platform already has 80 million business pages online – and numbers don’t seem to be slowing down. There are more stats, of course. 78% of Americans discover new products through Facebook and 30% of marketers believe it has the highest ROI of all digital ads. As for average cost per acquisition numbers, education gets a big bang for its buck by paying only $7.85 per customer, in contrast, of course with tech’s $55.21.

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    Cost per Lead for B2B Marketing Channels

    CPA for b2b channels
    CPA for b2b channels

    One of the most common B2B lead generation channels is email marketing. On average, a lead from email marketing costs $53. On the high end, a lead can cost around $72, and on the low end, around $33.

    If you’re a B2B business that targets medium to enterprise-level clients, LinkedIn advertising can be incredibly effective. On average, a lead from paid LinkedIn advertisements costs $75. On the high end, a lead can cost around $99, and on the low end, around $51.

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    Conclusion

    A Good Customer Acquisition Cost varies by the industry and tactics used. But a good way to benchmark your CAC is by comparing it to Customer Lifetime Value (also known as LTV). It is said that an ideal LTV to CAC ratio is 3:1. We hope these cost per acquisition averages assist you in making better marketing decisions in 2020.

    FAQs

    What CAC means?

    Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the cost incurred to acquire a new customer.

    What is considered a good CAC?

    A ratio of LTV/CAC greater than 3 is considered good.

    How do you predict CAC?

    CAC is calculated by dividing marketing expenses by the number of customers acquired in the period the money was spent.

    What is average customer acquisition cost by industry?

    Average customer acquisition based on industries are:

    • Travel: $7
    • Retail: $10
    • Consumer Goods: $22
    • Manufacturing: $83
    • Transportation: $98
    • Marketing Agency: $141
    • Financial: $175
    • Technology (Hardware): $182
    • Real Estate: $213
    • Banking/Insurance: $303
    • Telecom: $315
    • Technology (Software): $395

  • How To Build A SaaS Referral Program? – A Stepwise Guide

    SaaS referral programs are interesting to build and at the same time some amount of effort is also required. However, there is a way to build a SaaS referral program which you can follow. But, before moving on to building programs one should be thorough about the basics of it.

    With the simple process given below, you can try building a SaaS program for yourself. Whether it is a business or for any other purpose it will make your work much easier.

    Steps To Build A SaaS Referral Program?
    Step 1. Customers Should Be Motivated To Share Your Product Or Service
    Step 2. Know What Your SaaS Referral Program Should Be About
    Step 3. Decide Your Incentive
    Step 4. Choosing The Right Referral Tool
    Step 5. Outlining Terms and Conditions
    Step 6. Promoting Your SaaS Referral Program
    Step 7. Track Your Results
    Conclusion
    FAQs

    Building a Referral Programs Effectively

    Steps To Build A SaaS Referral Program?

    Step 1. Customers Should Be Motivated To Share Your Product Or Service

    Satisfied and Happy Customers
    Satisfied and Happy Customers

    Satisfied customers are the reason for a business or a service to sustain and flourish in the market. So, your business or your service should satisfy them and let them share about your business with others. But, how does this contribute to building a successful SaaS referral program?

    Well, you should have the perfect business to attract customers and customers should be happy with your service. Incentives and rewards do attract customers but customers will not refer your SaaS product to their personal network until and unless they are satisfied with your service.

    You can start by conducting research or online reviews so that you gain some data about what customers think about your product. By doing this you will be able to gain in-depth data and accordingly, you can take necessary actions.

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    Step 2. Know What Your SaaS Referral Program Should Be About

    Do not be confused because this is something almost similar to an elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is something that you propose an idea in front of someone within 20-30 seconds. Similarly, your referral program should be something that should grab the attention of the customers.

    However, you should try to keep your referral messaging short and to the point. Given below are some examples that you can try out.

    • Try to get 16 GB of free space by inviting your friends to Dropbox
    • Also do not forget to invite friends on Evernote
    • Refer as many friends as possible so that you can earn rewards

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    –

    Step 3. Decide Your Incentive

    Provide incentive to customers to make them happy
    Provide incentive to customers to make them happy

    Businessmen would want customers to share their products with as many people as possible. But, this does not happen in the real world. This is when you decide to give incentives that will make your referral program much easier.

    Do not go for incentives that will make the customers uninterested and boring but try to bring something new and catchy to make customers share your product. Given below are some ideas that you can try out.

    • 50% discount on your next bill
    • Free upgrade (premium version)
    • Cash credits (example $50 to offset next bill when a friend signs up)

    Step 4. Choosing The Right Referral Tool

    There are several tools that you may come across for referral marketing. Most of these tools are great but you should find out the most suitable one for you. Tools are used to set up programs manually and this helps a lot. But, in order to track down the effectiveness of your program tools are necessary for doing the job. Some tools that you can try considering are Growsurf, ReferralHero, and Viral Loops.


    Try Impact for Your SaaS Referral Program

    Step 5. Outlining Terms and Conditions

    Terms and conditions for SaaS referral program
    Terms and conditions for SaaS referral program

    It is important to make certain conditions while creating a SaaS referral program so that bases are covered. Customers will be looking at it and they will see whether you are ready to make referral bonuses. If a referral done by a person has been done successfully then the person can turn into a customer.

    Other than these you would also want to make sure to specify the people who are eligible for referral bonuses. People should know beforehand about the offers that you want to make to them.

    Step 6. Promoting Your SaaS Referral Program

    Building a SaaS referral program successfully is not the end of it. There is something that you need to do and that is ‘PROMOTIONS’. You can take the help of social media to promote your referral program so that a large number of people will know about it.

    There are several ways you can promote your referral program. For example, given below are some methods you can use.

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    Step 7. Track Your Results

    Without tracking the results you will not be able to judge your growth. Therefore, it is important to track and as well as to measure your results. First of all, you have to think about how you can track your results. You can take the help of some popular metrics systems for tracking.

    Some of the most popular metrics include the following things.

    • Percentage of people who have become referrers
    • The percentage of the numbers of referrals sent
    • Conversion rates like conversion of sign-ups through referrals

    There are many more metrics that you should be able to think of based on your goals and targets. Make sure that your goals and target are met because that is what you have been working for.

    Conclusion

    In the end, you need to make sure that the referral program that you created is a success. Success should be in any senses not just focussing only on one thing. The next thing after building a SaaS referral program you should try out advanced level techniques for referring your services and products.

    FAQs

    What are the four elements that I should consider while building a referral program?

    The four elements that you should consider are:

    • Offers
    • Communication
    • Execution
    • Supportive Programming

    How to create an effective referral?

    There are various ways that you can create a referral quite effectively. Focus on what the customers would want and accordingly, you can drive them to make your referrals effective.

    What are the examples of SaaS referral programs?

    Some of tools for SaaS referral programs are:

    • Dropbox
    • Evernote
    • Shoeboxed
    • Notion
    • Drift

  • How much does Market Research cost?

    Big companies deal with many sectors and have the constant need to improve and try new things to keep their consumer engaged. Not only large tech companies but developing ones also spend on market research. They spent on research because of two reasons:

    • Businesses have to be innovation-focused. Working in a constantly changing marketplace, they use research to test new technologies and try to satisfy the customers.
    • Companies have resources, which simply is the reason to research more.
    Steps of Market Research

    All organizations would benefit from having a solid market research practice, but startups don’t have the money or staffing resources to dedicate to intense market research, and companies with mature products often don’t feel a market pressure to spend money on changing/staying ahead of the curve.

    How much do companies spend on Market Research?
    Why is Market Research important?

    Conclusion
    FAQs

    How much do companies spend on Market Research?

    It depends on multiple things. Some of the insights are Qualitative Research and Quantitative Research.

    The total amount spent by companies on market research in 2015 was $68 billion worldwide. The biggest market research spenders by industry are as follows.

    • Consumer Non-Durables, 23% of the total
    • Media and Entertainment, 15% of the total
    • Pharmaceutical, 13% of the total

    Others like Government or Non-Profit Organizations (8%), Financial Services/Bank (7%), Telecoms and Wholesale/Retail (5%), Consumer Durables (4%), Research Institutes (3%), Automotive (6%), Advertising Agencies (2%), Utilities (1%), Other (8%).

    Marketing-driven companies spend much more than product-driven companies. Companies like Unilever, Coca Cola, PepsiCo, etc. spend a few hundred million dollars per year on Research. These companies have a massive number of consumer brands, and the product does not change or update very often. Marketing and sales are key aspects of success, and insights can make a large difference in the business.

    Similarly, success for media and advertising companies depends on reaching a particular number of consumers, so insights into their habits can make a huge difference for their effectiveness (e.g. message, channels used, time spent). However, even if you look at the biggest spenders, it is still significantly less than 1% of their annual spending.

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    Most big companies (1000 employees+) drive 80%+ of the spending.

    Market research tends to be expensive if one does it with agencies, and low-cost / DIY alternatives (e.g. Google Surveys) tend to require trained people that few smaller companies have, otherwise they lack the quality to inform decision-making.

    Top Companies Spending on Research and Development
    Amazon $42.74 billion
    Alphabet $27.57 billion
    Huawei $22.04 billion
    Volkswagen $13.8 billion
    Samsung $18.75 billion
    Intel co $13.56 billion
    Microsoft $19.3 billion
    Apple $20.161 billion
    Roche $10.8 billion
    Johnson & Johnson $12.2 billion
    Toyota $10 billion
    Ford $7.1 billion
    Facebook $18.45 billion
    Merck $10 billion
    Novartis $8.5 billion
    BMW $8 billion
    General Motors $7.3 billion
    Honda $7.1 billion

    Why is Market Research important?

    R&D is the necessary and initial phase of any process leading to technological innovation or market expansion. Research embodies a company’s long-term vision and its strategy when innovation operates more in a short-term economic model of the company.

    Spending growth of Organization on Research
    Spending growth of Organization on Research

    Research and development consist of investing money/resources to find innovative products, services, or processes that will enable the company to earn some goodwill and new technologies.

    The experience and the knowledge accumulated by the companies due to R&D activities enhance innovation for any given company. At the end of the day, market research investment will allow the companies to gain in technology and future capabilities that would be eventually convertible into new products, processes, and services. Some of the gains of Research and Development are –

    Finance

    If the companies are conducting their R&D activities to reduce manufacturing costs and improve the system, it provides them with the solutions with less costly processes to manufacture the product and therefore provide more competing prices to the customers or increase their profit margin.

    When the companies are looking to raise funds, R&D activities provide good opportunities to prove the company’s vision to their potential investors. By showing the investors that the company has the right structure to innovate constantly will make them understand that the company has everything it needs to meet sustainable growth. Investors are looking to invest in companies having a proactive approach of finance to manage their business, the constant investment in R&D will prove them the company has quite potential.

    Patents

    Through Research and Development activities, your company can acquire patents for new products you have previously developed. It can help gain a set of sustainable competitive advantages and position the company in an extremely comfortable situation within your market and therefore benefit from long-term profits.

    Recruitment

    Talented and skilled ones are also attracted via recruitment to innovative companies doing exciting things and providing exciting opportunities. With R&D activities, the companies will attract several qualified candidates to join.

    Conclusion

    Research and development have no guarantee of profits, companies spend a lot of time and sacks of money that sometimes turns into nothing. R&D is vital for many companies as they use it to expand their market share and increase sales. The top Research and Development spenders on this list have made a difference on the market, providing new technologies and products that have changed lives and the way the market worked.

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    FAQs

    What is market research in business?

    Market research is an effective tool to assist your business planning. It is about collecting information that provides an insight into your customers’ thinking, buying patterns, and location.

    Why is market research important for a business?

    It is important because it can identify how customers and potential customers might view your business and identify gaps in customer expectations. This is powerful information to have when completing your marketing strategy.

    How much do companies spend on innovation?

    On average, firms tend to spend 1-2% of turnover on various innovation-related activities, but this share exceeds 5% for large firms in some countries. R&D usually accounts for around one-half to two-thirds of all innovation expenditure, but the share varies widely by sector and firm size.

    How much does Market Research cost?

    The price for quantitative research can range widely, from $15000 to over $100,000, with most studies in the $30000-$55000 range.

    What percent do companies spend on R&D?

    Mostly, companies spend between 5-20 % of their annual revenue.

    How much does the average company spend on research and development?

    A company on average spends merely 2%-3% of their revenue on research and development.

    Why R&D is important?

    It is important in many senses like analyzing your target audience, competitors, recent trends, the reaction of consumers towards changing technology, etc. It minimizes the investment risk.

    How is the R&D ratio calculated?

    The price-to-research ratio is calculated by dividing a company’s market value by its last 12 months of expenditures on research and development.

  • What are the Revised ATM Cash Withdrawal charges and List of all the charges revised by RBI

    The Reserve Bank of India has announced a considerable number of changes in regards to the financial and non-financial transactions related to the ATMs in the country. The Central Bank has provided the permission for the banks to increases the charges from their customers. Let’s look at the latest Financial service Fees and charges revised by RBI.

    RBI Revised Financial Charges – Latest News
    Interchange Fee charged by the Banks revised by RBI
    Interchange Fees for Customers revised by RBI
    Reason for the increase in the charges by RBI
    The Committee that revised the ATM charges
    List of Financial Charges revised by the RBI
    FAQ

    RBI Revised Financial Charges – Latest News

    A banking charge will be applicable from 1 January 2022 where the bank customers will have to pay an amount of INR 21 if they exceed the monthly limits of the withdrawal from the ATM. The ATM charges which were in existence were around INR 20 per customer if they exceed the monthly limits of the free transactions provided by the bank.

    On 10 June 2021, the Reserve Bank of India has provided the permission for the banks to increase the charges regarding cash and non-cash Automated Teller Machine for exceeding the number of free financial transactions available on a monthly basis from next year i.e., 2022.

    Interchange Fee charged by the Banks Revised by RBI

    The circular contained the information regarding the interchange fee charged by the Banks for the ATM transactions. The interchange fee for the ATM transactions is increased from INR 15 to INR 17 for each financial transaction and the interchange fee for the non-financial transactions is increased from INR 5 to INR 6, which will be effective August 1, 2021.

    An interchange fee is paid by the banks to the operator of the ATM when a customer makes a transaction at an ATM that does not belong to the card-issuing bank.

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    Interchange Fees for Customers revised by RBI

    The Interchange fee has been revised by the RBI from INR 20 to INR 21 if the customers exceed the monthly limits of the withdrawal from the ATM.

    RBI added that the customers will continue to enjoy the benefits of free 5 transactions every month which will be inclusive of financial and non financial transactions. The free transactions will be available every month through the ATMs of the banks with which they have an account.

    The customers will also be eligible to do transactions in the ATMs of other banks with a limit of 3 free transactions in the metro cities and in the non-metro cities the customers will be eligible for 5 free transactions from the ATMs of another bank.

    RBI conveyed in a statement that in order to compensate the banks for the higher fee charges for interchange and due to the general increase in the costs, the Reserve Bank of India has allowed the Banks to increase the charges on ATM transactions to INR 21.

    Number of ATM's in India
    Number of ATM’s in India

    Reason for the increase in the charges by RBI

    The Reserve Bank of India has conveyed that the reasons for letting banks increase the fee and charges for the transactions were mainly due to the increase in the cost towards the maintenance of the ATMs and also the increase in the cost for the deployment of the ATMs.

    The maintenance cost incurred by the banks and the white label ATM providers is considered to have the necessity to balance the expectations of the stakeholders of the financial institutions as well as providing a convenience to the customers.

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    The Committee that revised the ATM charges

    The committee which decided on the ATM charges was established by the Reserve Bank of India back in the year 2019 in the month of June. The committee was set up under the chairmanship of VG Kannan who was the chairman of the Indian Banks’ association. The main aim for the setting up of the committee was to review the entire range of the ATM charges.

    The recommendations of the committee were announced to the public by the Reserve Bank of India in the year 202o in the month of July and the recommendation was to use the population as a metric in order to measure the calculations for the ATM charges.

    The Reserve Bank of India had also conveyed that the recommendations from the panel were examined in detail.

    List of Financial Charges revised by the RBI

    From January 1 2022, Customers will be charged INR 21 per ATM transaction after exhausting limit of free transactions which a customer is eligible to conduct from other banks’ ATMs. The interchange fee is hiked from the existing INR 20 to INR 21 per transaction.

    The interchange fee for the ATM transactions for the Banks is increased from INR 15 to INR 17 for each financial transaction and for the non-financial transactions is increased from INR 5 to INR 6, which will be effective August 1, 2021.

    Conclusion

    The last change in the interchange fee in regards to the transactions of the ATMs was in the year 2012 and the charges that were paid by the customers were revised in the year August 2014. There has been a lot of time since there was a change in the charges on the customers regarding the use of ATMs and the transaction fees.

    FAQ

    Why has RBI revised Cash withdrawal charges?

    The Reserve Bank of India has conveyed that the reasons for letting banks increase the fee and charges for the transactions were mainly due to the increase in the cost towards the maintenance of the ATMs and also the increase in the cost for the deployment of the ATMs.

    What are the revised charges by RBI?

    Customers will be charged INR 21 per ATM transaction after exhausting limit of free transactions and The interchange fee for the ATM transactions for the Banks is increased from INR 15 to INR 17 for each financial transaction and for the non-financial transactions is increased from INR 5 to INR 6.

    What is interchange fee ATM?

    An interchange fee is paid by the banks to the operator of the ATM when a customer makes a transaction at an ATM that does not belong to the card-issuing bank.

  • Types of CRM

    What is a Customer Relationship Management System?
    What does a CRM System do?
    Why have a CRM System?
    Do I need a CRM System?
    Types of CRM:
    Operational CRM
    Analytical CRM
    Collaborative CRM

    What is a Customer Relationship Management System?

    A customer relationship management (CRM) system is an IT technology that allows you to manage the business relationships you have with your customers, service users and suppliers. Customer relationship management (CRM) is important in running a successful business. The better the relationship with your customers and suppliers, the easier it is to conduct business and generate revenue.

    In continuously growing competitive market, it is very much important for a business to share right information to the right person at the right time, otherwise business will lose its opportunities to sale products or services. Customer Relationship Management software is the only solution that can help business to communicate with prospects or customers properly. For any CRM application, primary goal is to enable an organization to understand customers’ need and behavior and provide better quality of service. It helps to retain existing customers and capture new opportunities by building a strong relationship between an organization and customers. CRM can analyze data and generate reports whenever required.

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    What does a CRM System do?

    CRM is a software or a tool that provides a central place for storing all your customer data and sharing it with other teams within your business. There, you can create records and track the history of all your interactions with the customers, including: phone calls, emails, meetings, presentations, service inquiries, leads, purchasing habits and preferences. As well as tracking contact history, in most CRM systems you can also:

    • add notes
    • schedule follow-ups
    • assign tasks to staff
    • generate reports and sales forecasting

    Why have a CRM System?

    Customer Relationship Management
    Customer Relationship Management

    With all your information collated in one place, it becomes easier to understand and anticipate the needs and behaviors of your customers. This, in turns, allows you to:

    1. Keep customer contact relevant, personal and up-to-date
    2. Modify your business to better serve your customers
    3. Identify new leads and sales opportunities
    4. Win new business

    In essence, CRM can help you to recognize the value of its customers and to capitalize on improved customer relations. The better you understand your customers, the more responsive you can be to their needs.

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    Do I need a CRM System?

    Not all businesses need a full CRM system. If you typically have very few leads and no repeat business, the costs of an enterprise level CRM software may outweigh the benefits. Find tips to help you decide if your business needs a CRM system.

    Even the best CRM system will need to be properly managed, if you are to make the most of its features. Without good management, significant challenges can arise – such as creating duplicate records and accumulating vast amounts of incomplete, unnecessary or out-of-date data. It’s important to consider the potential drawbacks of CRM systems. Technology can greatly help you to optimize your CRM and make your service more efficient, cost-effective and reliable.

    Types of CRM:

    There are mainly three types of CRM applications – Operational, Analytical and Collaborative to perform all these activities.

    3 main types of CRM
    3 main types of CRM

    Operational CRM

    Operational CRM streamlines the business process that includes Sales Force automation, Marketing automation and Service automation. Main purpose of this type of CRM is to generate leads, convert them into contacts, capture all required details and provide service throughout customer life cycle.

    Operational CRM
    Operational CRM

    Sales Force Automation

    Sales automation helps an organization to automate sales process. Main purpose of sales automation is to set standard within organization to acquire new customers and deal with existing customers. It organizes information in such a way that the business can meet customers’ needs and increase sales more efficiently and effectively. It includes various CRM sales modules like lead management, contact management, Quote-to-Order management, sales forecasting.

    SFA is the application of technology to manage selling activities. It standardizes a sales cycle and common terminology for sales issues among all the sales employees of a business. It includes the following modules −

    Product Configuration − It enables salespersons or customers themselves to automatically design the product and decide the price for a customized product. It is based on if-then-else structure.
    Quotation and Proposal Management − The salesperson can generate a quotation of the product prices and proposal for the customer by entering details such as customer name, delivery requirements, product code, number of pieces, etc.
    Accounts Management − It manages inward entries, credit and debit amounts for various transactions, and stores transaction details as records.
    Sales team automation – An operational CRM can stop sales tasks from piling up or getting forgotten. Automatically assign tasks to your sales team based on customer actions or deal value.

    In this sales automation, an ActiveCampaign user chooses to assign a task based on the deal value.
    In this sales automation, an ActiveCampaign user chooses to assign a task based on the deal value.

    Lead Management − It lets the users qualify leads and assigns them to appropriate salespersons. Lead scoring helps you figure out: Which leads are the highest priority?, Who is most likely to become a customer? and Which leads will spend the most over time?
    Contact Management − It is enabled with the features such as customers’ contact details, salespersons’ calendar, and automatic dealing numbers. These all are stored in the form of computerized records. Using this application, a user can communicate effectively with the customers.
    Opportunity Management − It lets the users identify and follow leads from lead status to closure and beyond closure.

    Marketing Automation

    Main purpose of marketing automation is to find out the best way to offer products and approach potential customers. Major module in marketing automation is campaign management. It enables business to decide effective channel(s) (like emails, phone calls, face to face meeting, ads on social media) to reach up to potential customers.

    Marketing automation involves market segmentation, campaigns management, event-based marketing, and promotions. The campaign modules of Marketing Automation enable the marketing force to access customer-related data for designing, executing and evaluating targeted offers, and communications.

    What information can you use to automate?

    Information you can use to automate things
    Information you can use to automate things

    Event-based (trigger) marketing is all about messaging and presenting offers at a particular time. For example, a customer calls the customer care number and asks about the rate of interest for credit card payment. This event is read by CRM as the customer is comparing interest rates and can be diverted to another business for a better deal. In such cases, a customized offer is triggered to retain the customer.

    Service Automation

    Service automation enables business to retain customers by providing best quality of service and building strong relationship. It includes issue management to fix customers’ problems, customer call management to handle incoming/outgoing calls, service label management to monitor quality of service based on key performance indicators. Service automation involves service level management, resolving issues or cases, and addressing inbound communication. It involves diagnosing and solving the issues about product.

    Service automation
    Service Automation

    With the help of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, a customer can interact with business computers by entering appropriate menu options. Automatic call routing to the most capable employee can be done. Consumer products are serviced at retail outlets at the first contact. In case of equipment placed on field, the service expert may require product servicing manual, spare parts manual, or any other related support on laptop. That can be availed in service automation.

    Who should use an Operational CRM?

    You should choose an operational CRM if –

    1. You spend too much time trying to keep contact information organized
    2. You need a clear view of each customer’s activity and profile
    3. You manually assign each task and lead to your sales team
    4. You want to scale your email marketing efforts and grow your database
    5. If you want to save time on sales and marketing and keep everything in one place, consider an operational CRM.

    Analytical CRM

    Analytical CRM helps top management, marketing, sales and support personnel to determine the better way to serve customers. Data analysis is the main function of this type of CRM application. It analyzes customer data, coming from various touch points, to get better insights about current status of an organization. It helps top management to take better decision, marketing executives to understand the campaign effectiveness, sales executives to increase sales and support personnel to improve quality of support and build strong customer relationship.

    Operational CRM and Analytical CRM
    Operational CRM and Analytical CRM

    Features of Analytical CRM:

    • Gather customer’s information, coming from different channels and analyze data in a structured way
    • Help organization to set business methodology in Sales, Marketing and Support to improve customer relationship and loyalty
    • Improve the CRM system effectiveness and analyze key performance indicators, set by business

    The biggest benefit of an analytical CRM? It does the data gathering and analysis for you. Here’s how.

    1. Data mining. An analytical CRM serves as a data warehouse: it stores your data in one central, organized, easy-to-analyze database. Data mining uses statistical analysis to find patterns and relationships in your data. One common use of an analytical CRM is cluster analysis. With cluster analysis, you can segment your customer list based on: Age, State, Education level, Gender, Marital status, Past purchases and a whole lot more! This lets you target the right people with the right messages. Other common analyses include linear, logistic, and multiple regression. Analytical CRMs do the math for you, so you don’t have to create the world’s most complicated spreadsheet to identify sales trends.
    2. Cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Analytical CRMs gives you insight into your customers’ behaviour and past purchases. This gives you the perfect setup for cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Which customers want to buy which products? An analytical CRM can help you find patterns in purchase history – so you know exactly which people to target with upsells and cross-sells.
    3. Buyer persona building. When your CRM gathers and analyzes a new piece of customer data, you can build a more complete view of your customers. Understanding your customers’ wants, needs, and personalities can help you improve your marketing. When you personalize the customer experience with personas, your customers know you understand them. This can make a big difference in your bottom line.
    4. Sales forecasting. Analyzing data on your company’s past sales trends can help you predict future demand. Sales forecasting makes sure that you aren’t surprised by predictable long term trends.
    5. Attribution. Analytical CRMs help you figure out which touch points led someone to become a customer. This helps you figure out where your best customers come from – and how to sell to them better. Touch points include viewing or clicking on an ad, visiting your website, and any other interactions a potential customer has with your business.

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    Who should use an Analytical CRM?

    You should consider an analytical CRM if –

    1. You want to better understand why customers are (or aren’t) buying your products
    2. You want to gather more data about your target customer
    3. You want to build customer personas based on data
    4. You want to figure out which touchpoints drive the most revenue
    5. You spend too much time poring over spreadsheets — and not enough time selling
    6. You want to track your sales KPIs
    7. You want to improve your sales process or strategy based on business intelligence data

    Collaborative CRM

    Collaborative CRM, sometimes called as Strategic CRM, enables an organization to share customers’ information among various business units like sales team, marketing team, technical and support team. For example, feedback from a support team could be useful for marketing team to approach targeted customers with specific products or services. In real world, each business unit works as an independent group and rarely shares customers’ data with other teams that often causes business losses.

    Customer interaction - Collaborative CRM
    Customer interaction – Collaborative CRM

    Collaborative CRM helps to unite all groups to aim only one goal – use all information to improve the quality of customer service to gain loyalty and acquire new customers to increase sales.

    What are the features and benefits of a collaborative CRM?

    • Interaction management. Like an operational CRM, a collaborative CRM helps keep track of each interaction a customer has with your business. Every customer-facing team — sales, support, community management, vendors, and anyone else who so much as sends an email — has access to a log of customer interactions and team notes. Each team has information about your customers. A collaborative CRM helps break down silos and share that information across teams.
    • Relationship management. A collaborative CRM helps you manage relationships with your customers. When a new customer comes on board, your sales team shares that customer’s preferences, goals, and any other information on their contact profile. Keep all teams aligned and up to date before they interact with each customer. This gives people a better, more personalized experience across the board.
    • Document management. If your team needs access to a contract, technical documentation, or proposal, a collaborative CRM can help. CRMs with document management systems help keep every document from every team organized. You don’t have to search through your desk or pester your finance team to hunt down a pricing agreement — it’s all in one easy-to-navigate place.

    Who should use a Collaborative CRM?

    You should consider a collaborative CRM if –

    1. You need to improve communication between departments
    2. You want to focus on customer retention and loyalty
    3. Your customers often have specific preferences and needs
    4. You need to share customer information with vendors
    5. You want to organize and align customer-focused efforts across your business

    Conclusion

    Different types of CRM systems have different features and advantages. So before implementing CRM system, it is very much important for a business to decide future goal and strategy. Make sure that your new CRM checks these boxes:

    • Integrates with your existing technology
    • Gives you live, talk-to-actual-humans support
    • Makes it easy to migrate contacts and automations from a previous CRM (if you have one)
    • Creates less day-to-day work for your team — not more

    With all of the above met — no matter which type you choose — you’ll be well on your way to CRM bliss. Let us know about the CRM you use in the comments section below.

    FAQs

    What is CRM?

    A customer relationship management (CRM) system is an IT technology that allows you to manage the business relationships you have with your customers, service users and suppliers.

    What are some examples of CRM software?

    Top Rated CRM Products

    • Pipedrive. 8.5.
    • Salesforce.com. 8.3.
    • HubSpot CRM. 8.3.
    • Freshworks CRM (formerly Freshsales) 8.3.
    • Insightly. 8.2.

    How does CRM work?

    CRM solutions include functionalities that allow users to track customer and company interactions through various available channels. These channels include contact forms, emails, phone calls, and more. CRM software provides sales and marketing teams with a set of tools to manage the entire sales and marketing funnel, from lead qualification to opportunity management, forecasting, and deal closure. It enables customer service teams to manage customer requests and automate service operations by following pre-defined processes for customer care excellence.

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    StartupTalkyRishabh Rathi

  • Why did RBI restricted American Express, Diners Club from adding more customers

    On 23 April 2021, the Reserve Bank of India had barred American Express and Diners Club International Limited from onboarding new customers to their platform. The ban is expected to come into effect from May 1. Let’s look at why both the payment system operators American Express and Diners Club International Limited were banned by RBI from adding new customers.

    About the RBI Ban
    American Express Banking Corp
    Diners Club International Ltd
    Why did RBI restricted American Express, Diners Club from adding more customers
    FAQ

    About the RBI Ban

    The Reserve Bank of India had initiated a ban for the payment system operators from onboarding new customers into their network as they were not able to follow the norms with the data storage put forth by the RBI.

    The Reserve Bank of India in a statement said that both the entities have been found to be non-compliant in respect to the directions on storage of data of the payment systems. The RBI has added that the action towards both the entities was taken based on the powers which are under Section 17 of the PSS Act.

    American Express Banking Corp and Diners Club International Ltd are payment system operators in the country who has the authorization to operate card networks in India under PSS Act (Payment and Settlement Systems Act), 2007.

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    American Express Banking Corp

    American Express Banking Corp is a multinational company that focuses on financial services. It is located in New York, the United States. The company was founded in the year 1850. American Express is considered to be the 23rd most valuable brand in the world according to the Forbes 2017 list.

    Some of the products offered by the company are Charge Cards, Traveler’s cheque, Credit Cards, corporate banking, etc. In India according to a report by Financial Express, American Express has a market share of around 2.53 % of the total market with around 15.6 lakh credit cards outstanding.

    Diners Club International Ltd

    Diners Club International is also known as DCI is a charge card company. It is a finance-based company that has its headquarters in the United States. The company was founded in the year 1950. Diner Club International was the first payment card company in the world.

    The company is owned by Discover Financial Services. Some of the products of Diner Club International are charge cards and credit cards. In India, Diners Club International distributes its cards exclusively through HDFC Bank and the exact number of active users is unknown.

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    Why did RBI restricted American Express, Diners Club from adding more customers

    In the year 2018, in a notification, the Reserve Bank of India had noticed that all the payment system providers did not stored the data of the payments in the country. The notification said that there was a significant growth witnessed by India in the payment ecosystem and such systems depend completely on technology.

    The notification added that such an ecosystem has a necessity for a continuous measure of safety and security that were best in class.

    The Reserve Bank of India had then directed all the system providers to ensure that the entire data which are related to payment systems should be stored in a system that is only in India.

    The data which are stored should include the full end-to-end transaction details, information, carried, collected, and processed as part of the message or payment instruction. This was mentioned by RBI in its notification.

    If there is any foreign transaction, those data can be stored in the foreign country if it is required. The compliances with the new rules were supposed to be followed by the system providers within 6 months and they had to report the same to the Reserve Bank of India.

    In addition to this, they were also required to submit a report which should be approved by the board a System Audit Report (SAR). It should be conducted by the CERT-In empanelled auditor within the time duration that is specified.

    The ban of American Express Banking Corp and Diners Club International Ltd by RBI is because they have failed to follow the statement given by RBI in regards to storing the data which was issued two years ago.

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    FAQ

    What does American Express do in India?

    In India, American Express offers a full range of travel, financial and network service products.

    What type of credit card is Diners Club?

    Diners Club is an International Credit Card.

    Who owns RBI?

    RBI has been fully owned by the Government of India since its nationalisation in 1949.

    Conclusion

    The ban on both the entities would not affect the existing customers. The Reserve Bank of India had clarified in a statement that the ban will have no impact on the customers of both the companies.

  • Top 10 Customer Support Solutions for Startups for 2020

    We all are familiar with the business mantra, “Customer is King”. But what does it imply? It asserts the importance of customers and their satisfaction for any business.

    When it comes to startups, you need to go the extra mile to win customers and it undeniably starts with strengthening your customer support. So, we have listed some customer service solutions for startups or online support solutions for you to solve any customer support problem.

    Customer Support for Startups
    Customer Service Solutions For Startups

    Customer Support for Startups

    Let’s look into some points that illustrate the significance of customer support:

    1. Customer Loyalty and Repurchase
      Every business wishes for customer loyalty, and the only way to build that is by ensuring customer satisfaction. You can ask your customers to rate your product, and the higher the ratings are, the higher are the chances of repurchase.
      Through this, you can always keep an eye on your customer’s choices, and when their rating starts to fall, it’s an indication that you need to modify your product or customer service for startups.
    2. Standing Out in the Market
      These days, the availability of products or services is not a problem for customers as multiple companies are into similar businesses. In such a case, the only way to win over them is by offering reliable customer support.
      Companies that provide excellent customer support create an environment where a customer feels much more comfortable and safer. This way, customers will not only repurchase your product but promote it as well. As it is said, “A satisfied customer is the best strategy to ace the market”.
    3. Tackling Negative Publicity
      Many times, brands bear the brunt of negative publicity in the market, either spread by their unsatisfied customers or competition. With the help of customer support, a brand can directly reach out to their customers and clear the cloud of negativity that’s been building around them.
      Many players like Pepsi, ICICI Bank, McDonald’s, to name a few, have adopted this method to tackle negative publicity.

    Customer Service Solutions For Startups

    Now let’s explore some amazing customer support solutions that’ll facilitate you to offer a great experience to your customers:

    1.  ProProfs Help Desk

    customer service solutions for startups
    ProProfs Help Desk | Customer Service Solutions For Startups

    It is a subscription-based online software that facilitates ticketing of service requests and helps desk management. It helps businesses to manage customer service requests promptly and proactively. The salient features of this robust tool are:

    • Management of e-mails from a single point so that agents don’t miss any service request.
    • Knowledgebase where customers can find most of the solutions instantly thereby reducing tickets by 80%.
    • Live Chat whereby agents can answer the queries of customers in real-time.
    • Customer Surveys and reports to track the performance of agents and find valuable feedback.

    Price: Starting from $39/user/month.

    2.  Aircall

    customer service solutions for startups
    Aircall | Customer Service Solutions For Startups

    It is a cloud-based phone system that caters to the needs of modern-day businesses. It takes customer support to another level with:

    • Bundle of call features like Virtual call centres, power dialing, call conferencing, call routing, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), extension, business hours, and blacklisting.
    • Integration with CRM and other help desk tools to allow agents to call from the app and have a well-informed conversation with customers.
    • Tracking of agents’ performance and their status in real-time.
    • Scalability to add new teams, workflows, and numbers according to business needs.

    Price: Starting from $30/user/month.

    3.  Sprout Social

    customer support for startups
    Sprout Social | Customer Support For Startups

    It is a comprehensive social media management and social publishing tool. It allows businesses to build strong relationships with customers. Some of its key features are:

    • Gathering of actionable data from various social accounts of the business to create customer-oriented business strategies.
    • Publishing tools to help business in planning, developing, organising, and delivering content on multiple social platforms.
    • All in one inbox to manage all social accounts and enhance the responsiveness of business.
    • Advanced analytics to study data from social platforms and make strategic business decisions.

    Price: Starts at $99/user/month.

    4.  ChurnZero

    customer service for startups
    ChurnZero | Customer Service For Startups

    As the name connotes, ChurnZero is a powerful tool that mitigates customer churn. It helps businesses to comprehend the product usage trends of users and their health to enhance the overall customer experience. Some of the main features of this tool are

    • Command Center that acts as a single point to manage all activities.
    • Integrations with other CRM, communication, and analytics platforms to drive meaningful insights to enhance customer experience.
    • Reporting and analytics tools to find customer statistics on various metrics like churn rate, growth, etc.
    • Receive customer usage trends in real-time.
    • Tools like NPS survey to monitor the health of customers.
    • From onboarding, expansion, engagement to advocacy, customer journey across all verticals can be created and monitored.

    Price: Users can request a quote based on their business needs.

    5.  TeamSupport

    customer service for startups
    Team Support

    It is an all-in-one customer support tool offering functionalities such as ticket management, customer management, reporting, and analytics. It is regarded as one of the best customer support software for startups. Its salient features are:

    • Tracking of customer details and their management.
    • Service ticket generation and management.
    • Product database to allow agents to see the products that customers are using and issues pertaining to them.
    • Shared calendar and internal chat option to enhance team collaboration.
    • Knowledgebase where customers can get answers to their questions 24/7.
    • Reporting on various customer metrics to improve the overall support.

    Price: Starts from $50/user/month.

    6.  ProProfs Chat

    customer support system
    ProProfs Chat

    It is a robust tool that allows businesses to capture quality leads, initiate chat with customers, close sales, and enhance customer support. Some of its amazing features are:

    • Track service requests and initiate live chats to create an excellent customer experience.
    • Integration of Knowledge Base and Help Desk with live chat to empower agents with customer-centric data.
    • Real-time monitoring of activities of visitors.
    • Pre-chat forms to capture quality leads and post-chat forms to gather feedback from users.
    • Integration with Google Analytics to facilitate tracking of PPC campaigns.

    Price: $8/user/month.

    7.  Keap

    best customer support software for startups
    Keap | Best Customer Support Software For Startups

    Keap is a powerful CRM tool that empowers businesses to foster a bond with their customers through superior customer services. Some of its chief features are:

    • Automated greetings, reminders, text, and emails to capture new leads and to sustain a bond with existing customers.
    • All-in-one platform where appointments can be set, leads can be tracked, quotes can be accepted, and invoices can be processed.
    • Automation of marketing and sales.

    Price: $49/user/month.

    8.  Trello

    best customer support software for startups
    Trello

    It is an amazing team collaboration and project management tool that allows businesses to boost their team’s productivity to enhance customer support. Its key features are:

    • Based on cards and boards concept where cards represent tasks.
    • A task can be created, edited, delegated, and monitored using the tools.
    • Powerful integrations with other apps like CRM, help desk, etc. to enhance the team’s productivity.
    • Team members can chat with each other and add attachments in the chats.
    • Automate tasks to enhance efficiency so that agents can focus on offering better customer support.

    Price: Starts at $9.99/user/month.

    9.  Salesforce

    online support solutions
    Salesforce

    It is one of the top-rated and most popular CRM software. It is even the best solution for startups as they can get started with minimal investment and infrastructure. Its major features are:

    • AI-powered personalized solutions that create a gratifying customer experience.
    • Tracking of customer interactions and information.
    • Updated information empowers businesses to make insightful decisions.
    • Automation of marketing and personalization of emails to enhance customer engagement.
    • An Impactful social experience by integrating social platforms with the tool.

    Price: Starting from $25/user/month.

    10.  ConnectWise

    online support solutions
    ConnectWise

    It is a cloud-based CRM tool acting as a centralized platform to track all customer data. With this tool, businesses can create an amazing customer experience. Its chief features are:

    • Deployed on-premise and its ticket encapsulates all interaction with users (email, live chat, phone call).
    • Reporting tools to measure performance on various metrics and enhance customer experience.
    • Monitoring sales activities and prediction of future trends.

    Price: Users can request a quote based on their business needs.

    Customers prefer a clean experience, and businesses can provide this in the best way by integrating customer support tools. Understand your customer base and identify their preferences and zero down on that support tool that meets their needs and aligns with your business. Eventually, the support you extend to your customers defines the growth of your business.

    This article was contributed by Vineet Gupta. Vineet is an online marketer who loves to study Google search algorithms. He has been helping businesses in brand building and improving sales for more than 8 years now. He has also made contributions to various online publications by sharing his experience in the field of SaaS product marketing and UX optimization. In his free time, he likes to play with his Dog, watch Cricket and listen to Luis Fonsi.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is live chat support?

    Live chat support allows customers to have text-based conversations with support teams via the web. Using live chat software for startups embedded on the company’s website, customers can send their questions to a person (or sometimes an AI bot) who can quickly reply to them in the same small window.

    What are the best live chat solutions for websites?

    Best Live Chat Software for startups:

    • LiveChat.
    • Pure Chat.
    • JivoChat.
    • Olark.
    • SnapEngage.
    • Userlike.
    • Tidio Chat.
    • Smartsupp.

    What is online customer support services?

    Customer Service is defined as any service that helps customers solve problems. Such a service is usually connected to a business or brand which sells products and offers online support solutions.

    What is the best way to provide customer service?

    Ways to deliver great customer service:

    • Know your product.
    • Maintain a positive attitude.
    • Creatively problem-solve.
    • Respond quickly.
    • Personalize your service.
    • Help customers help themselves.
    • Focus support on the customer.
    • Actively listen.

    What is good customer service examples?

    Good customer service includes remembering and appreciating repeat customers, forging a local connection with shoppers, putting your product knowledge to good use, and more.

    What is a customer support system?

    A customer support system helps an organization to manage customer service requests and interact with the customers to resolve their support tickets. A customer support system is the backbone of your business, and the right help desk software will assist you to position your customer service as a competitive advantage.

    What is the difference between customer support vs customer service?

    The difference between customer service and customer support is that customer support teams support a product, while customer service teams provide service to a customer. The customer has everything they want, but there’s no other feedback or information that goes into the experience.