3 Retention Hacks for SaaS Products

Elad Simon Published: 13 Jun 2018 Updated: 29 May 2023
Person handing another person a bag and money through 2 computer screens

Churn is a SaaS customer retention killer, capable of costing you half your customers each year, with a monthly churn rate of as low as 5 percent. That means that reducing churn is the single most powerful key to sustainability, growth, profitability and of course, retention. 

But what if, even though you have an amazing, problem-solving product and an elaborate marketing strategy that successfully attracts your target customers, you continue to struggle to keep your customers engaged and active?

Cat using a Mac computer

It used to be that if you had a great product, your SaaS retention rate would be high. Not so much anymore. These days, it takes much more than great luck or a really great product to retain customers and thrive at product management. You need top growth hacking SaaS retention strategies for your products. Here are three of the best hacks to keep your SaaS retention rate high:

1. Identify and target the right audience

Lady at the grocery store saying "I want all of the things"

Churn is a customer lifecycle issue, which means that SaaS customer retention requires you to know who your target audience is and go about targeting them effectively in the first place! Before getting started, develop your ideal customer’s profile and use this profile to get in front of your customers and sell them on what you know they want and need. Once you have a customer base on board, study their cues and behaviors to learn why exactly they were attracted to you and what about your SaaS product may lead them to abandon.

2. Take advantage of technology and innovation to create easy fixes for simple, yet frustrating problems

As a SaaS product manager, you’re already knee-deep in technological innovation. Extend your offering to include additional professional tech and problem-solving services around your SaaS product that your customers would otherwise have to shop around for elsewhere. Email your customers with solutions and updates, prioritize support, track their (and your) metrics, integrate with other products, provide consultation and optimization and more. Taking advantage of these technological innovations will boost your customers’ investment in your SaaS product, making it much less likely for them to churn.

3. Use customer feedback management to get your customers engaged

Receive>Audit & Allocate>Dispatch>Retrieve>Client stages

Thwart churn threats by interacting with your SaaS customers and showing them how much they are valued. This means being present and getting them engaged. Collecting, managing and utilizing customer feedback is the way to go. Luckily, there are great customer feedback management tools <insert link to blog on feedback management> at your disposal. These help organize and automate your customer feedback management activities. At Craft, we find that these tools help us help our customers, for an overall better user experience when using our product, and a much higher SaaS retention rate than previously enjoyed.

Craft is a revolutionary SaaS product management platform that allows users to build workflows to their requirements. The single and agile place for agile teams to work, Craft helps SaaS product managers lay out their high-level product roadmaps and manage workflows, so they can complete tasks with ease and focus on employing SaaS retention strategies that work. 

Elad Simon
Elad Simon

CEO & Co-Founder, craft.io