Successful SaaS companies consistently lead consumers to a ‘wow’ moment – and in this week’s blog post, we decided to take a look at some of the best examples.
Before taking a look at specific examples, let’s briefly consider the why and how behind using a “wow” moment to more effectively attract and retain clientele for SaaS products.
As developers and entrepreneurs, we are in the business of doing the work for consumers so that they can use our software for maximum results – SaaS continues to rise in popularity for good reason.
From our perspective, our product value is a no-brainer. However, SaaS businesses must also consider their software from the user’s point of view. Doing this means we know where to meet them to clearly demonstrate why they need our services. These intersections are where we create an impactful “wow” moment.
Onboarding and Beyond
“Wow” moments can occur during the onboarding stage, and hopefully many will! The sooner the customer realizes the benefits of the service, the more likely they will be to try it. Speed and ease of use will help to ensure that they are captivated and willing to try the software in the first stages of exposure. But successful SaaS companies realize that they can wow their users throughout multiple stages of the product experience. This leads to better customer retention and displays a commitment to assist clientele through all stages of business development.
Five SaaS User Experiences That Demonstrate a Clear ‘Wow’ Moment
1. Slack: Design and Innovation
Slack is a messaging platform for workplaces, with built-in tools to streamline operations and increase connectivity. It is wildly popular and highly valued. Slack first wowed customers by offering what few were offering, and by making it eye-catching. There were other chat platforms available, but not with the same usability and features.
Design mattered too, as Slack developer Andrew Wilkinson explains “…To get attention in a crowded market, we had to find a way to get people’s attention. Most enterprise software looks like a cheap 70’s prom suit—muted blues and greys everywhere—so, starting with the logo, we made Slack look like a confetti cannon had gone off.” Slack’s current look is still bright and engaging.
Slack understands good design, and this is a big part of its ‘wow’ factor.
But the software is also highly functional – their one-click email login, for example, makes it super easy to bring another team member on board. After that, you can communicate through the platform, and that first message, delivered in a stylish, simple interface, is the primary ‘wow’ moment.
2. Spotify: ‘Made for You’ Moments
Spotify retains its users with diverse content, now including things like podcasts and audiobooks among its varied music content. Built-in algorithms work hard on their own, but also give users opportunities to help cultivate listening preferences. Customers have tailor-made choices at hand all the time but are also free to browse large amounts of various content created by Spotify and other users.
This approach to customer service shows how offering a “wow” moment via free trial will leave customers feeling like they can’t live without the service. Spotify always offers a select amount of content for free. But with just a couple of clicks, users can enjoy a month-long free trial. Premium service includes no ads and access to much more content, as well as the ability to download, create, and share playlists. It is very simple to slide from the free service into the free trial and the conversion rate is high. All of these features are excellent but what customers really want is to retain their tailor-made listening experiences.
Spotify extends the “wow” moments to artists and content providers. It attracts a steady stream of new artists. As a provider for podcast users, Spotify puts the content in front of potential listeners much more efficiently and effortlessly than other podcast providers, many of who rely heavily on listener reviews to be featured.
The “made for you” approach to delivering content is highly appealing to Spotify listeners as well as content providers, and its industry value is soaring as it delivers on “wow” moments.
3. FreshBooks: Full Service
FreshBooks is an industry leader and highly rated in customer service. It offers extensive options centered around invoicing, expense tracking, time management, collaborative projects, payments, accounting, and tax help. FreshBooks is a great example of how SaaS can appeal to business owners at all levels. Beginning entrepreneurs will be glad to use the free trial or low payment option to invoice new clients easily. Once this type of user sees how simple it is to invoice clients, with quick response rates due to ease of use, the “wow” moment is getting paid, and quickly!
Customer satisfaction is an ongoing experience, as this FreshBooks dashboard effectively illustrates. The user is provided with updated, comprehensive data regarding invoices, expenses, and profit.
This is only one aspect of what FreshBooks has to offer, but a great example of how “wow” moments should occur across the customer life-cycle.
4. Square: Just so Easy
Square is a SaaS that allows for instant payment anywhere while offering payroll services. Like Freshbooks, the ease of use and speed to payment is a huge “wow” factor. In a matter of minutes, a small business owner can be equipped to take payment on the go. This allows for many more opportunities to get the product in front of customers. Consider the impact this can have on a small business owner whose storefronts are always changing, perhaps from one farmer’s market to another.
With SaaS products like Square, no cash is no problem. Built-in features allow customers to build loyalty points, encouraging repeat business. Ease of sales means better profits for small business owners, period. However, Square is equipped to help businesses through all stages of growth through its payroll and invoicing services.
Square was at the forefront of making transactions and payroll accessible from any mobile device and the ease and speed of use is a “wow” factor to admire.
5. Mail Chimp: Measured Results
Mailchimp allows people to send email campaigns and newsletters without automatically getting flagged as spam. It has high success rates with reaching inboxes and actual views. In addition to all of its other great features, users immediately see the benefits of using the service after they send their first message. Since pivoting to focus heavily on ecommerce, the Mailchimp dashboard has been redesigned to report who received, who opened, and who clicked through the messages sent, while illustrating revenue earned from the campaigns. What an incredible “wow” moment for an ecommerce user!
In addition to providing user-friendly content, Mailchimp quickly and clearly demonstrates how their services are benefitting clients. This is an aspect of customer service we can aspire to.
The Reach of ‘Wow’ Moments in SaaS
These examples highlight only a portion of the interactions between SaaS providers and consumers, but all together provide a framework for how to stand out, captivating and retaining customers with great content and quality service at the key point in the product life-cycle – when the user is just getting started.
Meanwhile, such moments are paired with the usability of cloud-based software, cultivating a thriving trade of SaaS technology from which we all benefit! The smaller “wow” moments create momentum and contribute to an industry culture to amaze us all. For this reason, the art of “wowing” consumers should be woven into SaaS content at all levels of development and provision.
