KaleHQ

We had an incredible time last night at Bessemer Venture Partners' "Cloud100: Rise of SaaS in India, 2024" event! Team Kale was thrilled to be part of such a vibrant gathering of SaaS innovators and leaders. It was amazing to connect with fellow entrepreneurs, share our journey with Kale, and learn from the best in the industry - Anirban Mukherji Vishranth Suresh Ashwini Asokan Lava Kumar Sivakumar Ramamurthy Shailesh Kumar We're fired up about the future of SaaS in India and beyond. The insights and connections we gained will definitely help us drive an even greater impact in revolutionizing customer retention for B2B SaaS companies. Huge thanks to Bessemer Venture Partners for hosting such an inspiring event. If we met last night, it was great chatting with you! If we missed you, let's connect here or over a coffee soon. Kishore V. Jahnavee Ramalingam #Cloud100 #SaaS #BessemerVenturePartners #Kale #CustomerRetention #Innovation #Networking #RiseOfSaaS

Great Scott! Outdated Customer Engagement Strategies 🚫 Great Scott! Customer engagement playbooks have evolved, leaving some classic strategies in the dust. At Kale, we decided to hop in our DeLorean and travel back to examine a few outdated tactics. We explored why these once-popular engagement strategies just don’t cut it anymore in today’s B2B SaaS landscape. Here’s what we discovered about three such strategies and why they’re best left in the past. 📧 Strategy 1 - Over-reliance on email marketing Old strategy: Regular email updates for engagement.   Why it's outdated: According to a study by Radicati, the average office worker today receives 121 emails per day. As a result, engagement rates for email have dropped, with only about 18% of marketing emails being opened on average. The over-reliance on this method can lead to customer fatigue and disengagement. 🎁 Strategy 2 - Basic loyalty programs Old strategy: Points-based rewards for purchases. Why it's outdated: According to a report by Accenture, 77% of consumers retract loyalty faster now than three years ago . Simple points systems lack personalization and fail to build long-term loyalty. 💸 Strategy 3 - Incentive-heavy engagement Old strategy: Heavy discounts and freebies. Why it's outdated: Short-term boosts don't translate to long-term loyalty. A study by McKinsey found that customers who are drawn in by incentives are less likely to remain loyal once the incentives are removed. It can also devalue the product in the eyes of the customer. What are the other popular customer engagement playbooks that have been dismissed or are on the verge of dismissal? Comment your thoughts and insights below. #CustomerEngagement #B2BSaaS #CustomerSuccess #Retention

Your non-ICP customers are churning, and that's the cause of your high churn rate. What do you do? 🤔 It's tempting to try and retain every customer, but the reality is that not all customers are created equal. If non-ICP customers are churning, it might actually be a blessing in disguise. 🌟 Firstly, it's important to understand that ICP customers are those who find the most value in your product and, in turn, offer the most value to your business. They are more likely to stick around, use your product extensively, and even become advocates. Non-ICP customers, on the other hand, might churn quickly, use minimal features, and require more support, driving up costs and distorting your product roadmap. Here's how you can tackle this: Embrace the churn: It's okay to let non-ICP customers go. Focus on your ICPs, as they will drive sustainable growth. Maintaining focus on your ICP reinforces your startup’s strengths and avoids the hidden costs of serving non-ideal customers. Refine your ICP: Continuously update and refine your ICP to ensure you’re targeting the right customers. Improve targeting and segmentation: Use insights from your ICP to refine your marketing and sales efforts. Higher quality leads lead to increased close rates and lower churn. Personalised engagement: Tailor your engagement strategies to fit the needs of your ICP. Personalised interactions make ICP customers feel valued and understood, enhancing retention. In summary, focusing on your ICP isn't just a strategy—it's a necessity for long-term success. Don't be afraid to let non-ICP customers churn. Instead, invest in understanding and serving your ideal customers better. 🎯🚀 #CustomerSuccess #CustomerRetention #B2BSaaS #ChurnRate #Kale #RetenionStack

If you are a SaaS CEO or CRO and prioritize new acquisitions over keeping and growing existing customers you are setting your company up for failure. Before the economic downturn, it was at least 5x as expensive to bring on a new customer than keeping an existing one. I don’t know where we are now but x10 at least seems to be a safe bet. Acquiring new customers and failing to keep them (long enough) is how you run your business into the ground No SaaS company can run on 36 months of CAC payback and 12 months of customer lifetime. Not a single one. 80% (at least) of your revenue and 100% of your profits come from existing customers. But unlocking it is not like switching a button. There are 6 fundamental problems you need to solve before 1. Bad-fit customers They are costing you money every month they stay. First, because their service costs exceed the revenue they bring in. Second, you are missing a lot of opportunities because your CSMs have less time to grow the value of your top-class customers. Politely show them the door. 2. Lack of ICP It would be completely useless to eliminate your bad-fit customers while you continue to acquire them in the first place. Reverse-engineer your ICPs from your most successful and profitable customers. 3. Churn Not all churn is bad. If bad-fit customers leave you should not mourn the loss. The churn you want to resolve is from customers that fit your ICP. And in the end, all churn comes down to customers failing to get enough value. Use frameworks like the 5-Why to uncover where and why things are going south. 4. Lack of CS program Customers buy your product to achieve their desired outcomes. You need to build a CS success program that LEADS customers to the promised land accurately and repeatedly. A combination of training, education, and consulting services designed to help customers build the skills and knowledge to get the most out of your product. 5. Gaps in skills and knowledge Building a world-class CS program requires a similar level of CS team. If they spend 80% of their time resolving support tickets, running demos, and putting out fires it will never work. Your CS team needs to build expertise in - the subject - problem-solving - CS plan design - content creation - data analytics 6. The wrong metrics For a decade customer success has been measured with inaccurate proxy metrics. But customers don’t give a s*** about any of them. - If you want to measure customer success you need to use the same metrics as your customers - If you want to evaluate your performance you need to measure the % of customer goals achieved - And eventually, you will see the correlation between customer success and its impact on renewals, expansions/upsells, and referrals. If your customers paid you 3x as much and stayed 3x as long, how fast and profitable would you grow? PS: Learn more --> https://lnkd.in/d5tSzwJP #saas #customersuccess #customervalueledgrowth

Here are a few things you might not know about the MOM Test. Companies that implemented ‘The MOM Test’ saw a 40% increase in actionable feedback compared to traditional survey methods. 65% of businesses reported a better understanding of their customers' needs after using "The MOM Test" for feedback. ‘The MOM Test’ reduces the likelihood of false positives in customer feedback by up to 50%, ensuring more accurate insights into customer behaviour and needs. 70% of companies that used "The MOM Test" reported faster product iteration cycles due to more precise customer insights. But wait. What exactly is The MOM Test? To know more about it, you can watch this video where our co-founder Kishore V. explains about The MOM test and why it's important. Keep a lookout on this space for more insightful videos. #MarketResearch #ProductDevelopment #Startups #B2BSaaS #Kale #RetentionStack

Customer engagement is the cornerstone of retention in B2B SaaS. Engaged customers are more likely to stay, grow and advocate for your brand. While there are multiple engagement strategies, have you ever wondered about their ease of implementation, potential ROI and overall effectiveness? At KaleHQ, we got curious and got down to figuring out the answer to this question. We took four engagement strategies namely Personalized onboarding, Regular check-ins, Value-driven content and In-app engagement. We have put our findings in the image below. Among these strategies, Personalized onboarding and In-app engagement stand out for their high ROI and effectiveness in driving customer retention. While the other strategies like Regular check-ins and Value-driven content require more resources, they also offer substantial benefits in terms of engagement and satisfaction. What is your take on customer engagement strategies and their effectiveness? Comment below! #CustomerRetention #CustomerEngagement #Kale #RetentionStack

I am thrilled to announce the upcoming launch of the Twenty-third episode of Behind the Business. Join as we delve into the inspiring journey of the KaleHQ and gain valuable insights into the world of startups. KaleHQ was founded by Kishore V. and Jahnavee Ramalingam in 2023. Initially, Kale HQ began as a buyer engagement platform for account executives working in the middle of the sales funnel. Post-pandemic, buying behavior changed radically, with people preferring a more independent approach to purchasing software. Recognizing the lengthy and complex process of buying and launching software, Kishore and Jahnavee decided to launch this platform. Despite having customers, feedback indicated that scaling in this market was challenging. A new thought process emerged around customer growth: leveraging existing customers to generate revenue instead of constantly acquiring new ones. They aimed to address why customers leave and how to either facilitate their departure or retain them. This led to the concept of the "Retention Stack," consisting of three parts: Engage, Retain, and Reactivate. 1. Engage: Visualize the customer journey to understand their needs within a platform or software. 2. Retain: Use personalized cancellation flows to retain users. 3. Reactivate: Group departing customers based on their feedback to find ways to bring them back. KaleHQ operates in the B2B SaaS space. Jahnavee and Kishore met when she wanted to interview him while building the first version of Kale HQ. Recognizing his deep understanding of the problem, they met for coffee and later brought him into the Antler Residency program. In 2021, before founding Kale HQ, Jahnavee was a designer who faced challenges in evaluating the success of ad campaigns. She built a tool to solve this problem and found a co-founder on Bumble. However, the company didn’t last long due to differing values and product visions. Her advice is, "Stop dreaming and if you have an idea, start working on it right now." Kale HQ's mission is to establish a structured customer engagement and retention system that benefits both companies and customers. This innovative approach sets Kale HQ apart in the B2B SaaS industry, making them a promising player in the market. Podcast Link: https://lnkd.in/gbrvx2jF Vakada Rohit

The entire nation is celebrating the Indian cricket team’s victory in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. Each and every player in the T20 World Cup 2024 squad had a crucial role to play and a strategy to execute. Similarly, when you think about retaining a customer long-term in B2B SaaS and making sure that they get value out of your product, each and every process has to be executed to perfection. How would it look like to compare these processes with our favourite cricketers? Our team at Kale let their creative juices flow and we came up with a comparison. 1️. Rohit Sharma (Customer engagement): The Captain who sets the tone with initial touchpoints. Engaging customers early is crucial for long-term relationships. 2. Virat Kohli (Customer support): The dependable middle-order batsman. Excellent customer support keeps your users engaged and confident. 3. Suryakumar Yadav (Feature adoption): The innovative playmaker. Encouraging feature adoption keeps customers excited and invested in your product. 4. Hardik Pandya (Customer feedback): The all-rounder who adds value everywhere. Gathering and acting on customer feedback drives continuous improvement. 5. Ravindra Jadeja (Customer retention): The agile fielder. Implementing strategies to retain customers is vital for long-term success. 6. Jasprit Bumrah (Customer reactivation): The death-over specialist. Effective reactivation campaigns can bring back churned customers. Studies show that optimizing these strategies can reduce churn by 20% and increase CLV by 30%! 🏆 What's your team's strategy for customer success? #B2BSaaS #CustomerSuccess #ChurnReduction #IndianCricketTeam #CustomerRetention #CustomerEngagement #Kale #RetentionStack

Your non-ICP customers are churning, and that's the cause of your high churn rate. What do you do? 🤔 It's tempting to try and retain every customer, but the reality is that not all customers are created equal. If non-ICP customers are churning, it might actually be a blessing in disguise. 🌟 Firstly, it's important to understand that ICP customers are those who find the most value in your product and, in turn, offer the most value to your business. They are more likely to stick around, use your product extensively, and even become advocates. Non-ICP customers, on the other hand, might churn quickly, use minimal features, and require more support, driving up costs and distorting your product roadmap. Here's how you can tackle this: Embrace the churn: It's okay to let non-ICP customers go. Focus on your ICPs, as they will drive sustainable growth. Maintaining focus on your ICP reinforces your startup’s strengths and avoids the hidden costs of serving non-ideal customers. Refine your ICP: Continuously update and refine your ICP to ensure you’re targeting the right customers. Improve targeting and segmentation: Use insights from your ICP to refine your marketing and sales efforts. Higher quality leads lead to increased close rates and lower churn. Personalised engagement: Tailor your engagement strategies to fit the needs of your ICP. Personalised interactions make ICP customers feel valued and understood, enhancing retention. In summary, focusing on your ICP isn't just a strategy—it's a necessity for long-term success. Don't be afraid to let non-ICP customers churn. Instead, invest in understanding and serving your ideal customers better. 🎯🚀 #CustomerSuccess #CustomerRetention #B2BSaaS #ChurnRate #Kale #RetenionStack

Do not reach out to all churned customers. We repeat! Do not reach out to all churned customers with your reactivated campaigns.  Your reactivation campaign must be very precise and targeted to show any value. Target your churned customers who fit in your ICP. But for how long? How long should you target a churned customer who fits in your ICP with reactivation campaigns? 🤔 One of the toughest challenges is figuring out how long to keep trying to win back churned customers. It's a delicate balance: invest too little effort, and you might miss out on valuable reactivations; invest too much, and you could be wasting resources. Research suggests that personalised, well-timed reactivation campaigns can significantly boost your chances of winning back churned customers. Here’s a strategy that we would recommend: Initial contact (1-2 weeks after churn) 📅: Send a personalised email addressing their departure. Highlight any recent updates or new features that might interest them. According to Bluecore, personalised content based on past behaviour can significantly increase engagement rates. Follow-up (1 month after churn) 📧: Offer a special incentive to encourage them to return. Keep the message friendly and emphasise how much you value their business. Check-in (3 months after churn) 👀: Reach out with a survey asking why they left and what could bring them back. This shows that you care about their feedback and are willing to make improvements. Final attempt (6 months after churn) 🗓️: A last effort with a compelling offer or exclusive access to a new feature. If they don’t respond, it might be time to move on and focus your efforts elsewhere. Remember, not every churned customer is worth reactivating. Focus on those who had high engagement or fit your ICP. After your final attempt, you can keep sending them a personalised email once every quarter that highlights your product updates. Reactivation efforts should be data-driven and tailored to each customer’s behaviour. By following a structured approach, you can optimise your reactivation campaigns and bring back valuable customers. Have you tried reactivating churned customers? Share your experiences in the comments! 👇 #B2BSaaS #CustomerRetention #ReactivationCampaigns #Kale #RetentionStack