saas north 2016: customer success, cx, messaging & bots
TRANSCRIPT
Customer Success, Customer Experience,
Messaging, & Chatbots
#SaaSNorth
Why Customer Success? How much to invest in Customer Success?
Credit: Andrea Abbondanza
What if the aviation industry could invest in reducing headwinds? Or increasing tailwinds?
How much are you investing in the headwinds and tailwinds impacting your business?
Jet Engine
Headwinds
Tailwinds
New Customer / MRR Acquisition
Churn
MRR Expansion
MRR (or MAU) growth is important, but so is how you get there.
Company A Company B
$74K $64K
MRR after 12-months from launch
MRR expansion and churn are key drivers of not just MRR growth, but CAC & LTV
Company A = $74k MRR Company B = $64k MRR
~1.5x rate of new MRR growth 75% lower rate of churn
-$10
-$5
$0
$5
$10
$15
New+ExpansionMRR Churned+ReducedMRR
-$2
$0
$2
$4
$6
$8
$10
New+ExpansionMRR Churned+ReducedMRR
$107k MRR
($33k) MRR
$70k MRR
($6k) MRR
MRR & SaaS Quick Ratio over 1st 5 Years, both with equal revenue in Year 5
Company A Company B
3.2
2.2 2.2 2.1 2.1
-2.5
-1.5
-0.5
0.5
1.5
2.5
3.5
4.5
-$6,000
-$4,000
-$2,000
$0
$2,000
$4,000
$6,000
$8,000
$10,000
$12,000
Yr1 Yr2 Yr3 Yr4 Yr5
(Thousands)
New+ExpansionMRR Churn+ContractedMRR QuickRatio
10.9
6.5 5.9 5.8 5.7
-4.0-3.0-2.0-1.00.01.02.03.04.05.06.07.08.09.010.011.012.013.014.015.016.0
-$2,000
-$1,000
$0
$1,000
$2,000
$3,000
$4,000
$5,000
$6,000
$7,000
$8,000
Yr1 Yr2 Yr3 Yr4 Yr5
(Thousands)
New+ExpansionMRR Churn+ContractedMRR QuickRatio
Quick Ratio of 2 likely unfundable, no path to profitability with CAC < LTV
Opportunity to dramatically increase investment to to drive increased growth
Great in depth guides to SaaS metrics (&
ultimately importance of Customer Success) beyond simple MRR:
• http://www.slideshare.net/03133938319/saastr/14 • http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/
Why Customer Success? • Reduce headwinds & harness tailwinds • Increase your SaaS Quick Ratio • Increase your LTV:CAC ratio • Increase revenue & earnings growth
Credit: Andrea Abbondanza
Customer Success relies on winning at Customer Experience
Credit: Gilles Lambert
“How customers perceive their interactions with
your company.”
- Forrester ResearchCX
“How customers perceive their interactions with
your company.”
- Forrester ResearchCXproduct or^
Interacting with your customers on their terms.
When and where it is most convenient to them.
Dean Bubley, Disruptive Analysis
“We are past the point of peak telephony.”
Dustin Moskovitz, via Wired Magazine
“The next big thing you missed: Email’s About
to Die, Argues Facebook Co-Founder.”
How are we spending our digital time today?
59% 9%32%Mobile Apps Mobile WebDesktop
Source: Comscore
But not all apps are created equal. Messaging apps have over 4B MAUs.
Interacting with your customers on their terms.
When and where it is most convenient to them.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook
“I don’t know anyone who likes calling a
business. And no one wants to have to install a
new app for every business or service that
they interact with. We think you should be able
to message a business, in the same way you
would message a friend.”
Customer Engagement over Messaging
Credit: ClemOnonjeghuo
Wired Magazine
Already, Messenger is morphing into a 1-800
number for Hyatt’s digital customers, a quick
way to get any question answered—and the
hotel chain has done nothing so far to promote
it. “That’s all people finding on their own,” says
Dan Moriarty, Director of Digital Strategy,
“Clearly, our guests want to converse with us
over Messenger.”
Amir Shevat, Developer Relations, Slack
“Bots are digital users within a messaging
product. Unlike most users, they are powered
by software rather than by a human, and they
bring a product or service into a given
messaging product via conversation.”
Ted Livingston, Kik
“Chat is the new browser, bots are the new
websites.”
Understanding the broader bot enablement landscape, between “chat” (browser) and “bots” (web sites)
Messaging Platforms
Understanding the broader bot enablement landscape, between “chat” (browser) and “bots” (web sites)
Messaging Platforms
Assistants (aka AI agents)
Apple Siri
Google Now
Amazon Alexa
MSFT Cortana
Facebook M
Understanding the broader bot enablement landscape, between “chat” (browser) and “bots” (web sites)
Messaging Platforms
Assistants (aka AI agents)
Apple Siri
Google Now
Amazon Alexa
MSFT Cortana
Facebook M
Bot frameworks / deployment platforms
Understanding the broader bot enablement landscape, between “chat” (browser) and “bots” (web sites)
Messaging Platforms
Assistants (aka AI agents)
Apple Siri
Google Now
Amazon Alexa
MSFT Cortana
Facebook M
NL & AI-as-a-service
Google Cloud Platform
Amazon Alexa Voice
IBM Watson Conversation
MSFT Cognitive Services
Bot frameworks / deployment platforms
• CX is key to your SaaS business
• Messaging is where your customers are
• Rich messaging opportunities can deliver a significantly enhanced customer experience - from emojis and videos to integrated payments
• Bots can automate many customer interactions (like an IVR, but WAY BETTER!)
• Bots can provide a low friction, instant interface into your product without any app download
• Bots do not require AI to be effective, but don’t neglect the AI-as-a-service platforms available to you
• Bot frameworks and conversation platforms like Smooch make it easy to start messaging with your customers!
Recap & Parting Messages
thank you
any Qs, feel free to contact me
or keep the conversation going with @smoochlabs