Following the financial disarray, economic disruption, and personal uprooting caused by COVID-19, major trends focusing on cutting through the noise and capturing customers’ attention emerged, making it necessary for SaaS businesses to go back to the drawing board to address the changes in consumer behavior.
By effectively tracking and monitoring consumer behavior data, businesses can develop meaningful approaches to drive growth on several levels. For customers, SaaS has evolved from simple cloud functionalities to complete platforms offering advanced features, which is ideal for small businesses and large enterprises.
Thus, SaaS businesses need to explore the upcoming SaaS customer trends for 2024 and beyond and how users continue to use such technology to enhance their business operations.
11 SaaS Customer Behavior Trends to Follow
Customer success and satisfaction can’t be separated from retention, acquisition, churn, or in simple terms, sales and marketing. It’s a highly collaborative and dynamic field. But the goals remain the same regardless of the changing trends; to provide the best customer experience and support and provide customers with the best solution at the right place and time.
Sustaining an effective relationship increases customer trust and loyalty. And this is only possible when you offer valuable products and services. To establish brand expertise and authority in SaaS, you have to create products that customers need and use often. If your product or service isn’t their go-to solution, then you will lose several successful customers as well as a high product adoption rate.
Knowing the consumer behavior trends before they become apparent helps your SaaS business prevent this and gives you an unprecedented advantage over competitors.
Here are some of the top SaaS customer behavior trends you should watch out for in 2024 and beyond:
1. SaaS for hybrid and remote work
As the pandemic progressed, so did the perception and approach to work. Workers’ expectations changed, with most of them opting to change jobs in pursuit of more flexibility or better work-life balance. According to research, 70% of full-time employees in the US have worked remotely, and many continue to adopt the trend. As a result, employers started to adjust their workplaces to accommodate remote and hybrid work models.
Research on the availability of remote work since the pandemic’s beginning also found that 25% of all professional work in North America will shift to a remote model by the end of 2022. It’s clear that remote and hybrid work opportunities will continue to grow through 2023.
For several companies, this means a quicker adoption of SaaS along with other cloud services. For instance, a 2021 survey by the Information Services Group (ISG) found that 46% of enterprises are using HR SaaS services, a 20% growth from two years ago. The study also projects that roughly 57% of companies will utilize cloud-based or hybrid SaaS by 2023.
Screen sharing, video conferencing, and other collaborative software are some of the early successes in the SaaS software landscape. Sales platforms, CRMs, and other core business applications have adapted as well. And as technology advances, companies will continue to shift their entire operations online through productivity platforms, people management tools, and remote delivery systems.
2. Acceleration of analytics-driven SaaS
This is a data-driven trend. As industries continue to adopt digital transformation, businesses across various sectors rely on data to streamline their operations while gaining valuable insight into their consumers. More companies are expected to invest in Analytics-driven SaaS.
In fact, experts in the industry believe that the value and investment in SaaS models that are analytics-centric will grow by 23.3% in 2022. Beyond 2022, analytics will be a central aspect of almost all service-based software platforms leading to more effective data-driven decisions and business intelligence for anyone seeking to top the competition.
The centralized analytics allow consumers to access their data from a central point, discovering valuable insights by leveraging modern solutions like performance dashboards that enable every team member to access the most critical business data.
Additionally, the centralized SaaS models enable consumers to access data using any device. This is made possible through modern business intelligence along with online channels and advanced software capabilities to allow each team member to access their analytics.
3. AI and ML acceleration
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have impacted every aspect of modern companies, including SaaS, over the past few years. This rising trend is partly attributed to the global pandemic as operations and business functions shifted online.
Consequently, there is too much data and too little time to manually sift through it. Customer success software supported by AI and ML can process massive volumes of data in a few minutes. This allows businesses to map the customer journey, user behavior, and engagement actions to reduce churn rates and predict what activities can lead to better customer retention. It also helps automate repetitive tasks like upselling, training, marketing campaigns, and customer contacts. AI and ML are generally at the next level of customer care.
As a SaaS company, learning and understanding this concept will help you tailor your product and services with personalized messages for a positive user experience.
4. Increase in automation
As AI advances, automation increases as well. It’s not surprising that several businesses automated their manual and repetitive tasks after the global pandemic to create more space and time for more complex business functions. Automation helps evaluate previous activities of your customer base to create campaigns and content that engages and re-engages them.
Automation makes it possible for companies to leverage AI chatbots, welcome and follow-up emails, automated actionable tips or engagement content to increase product usage, as well as automated workflows to increase customer lifecycle.
Focusing on automation is a strategic solution to ensuring successful customer retention, and you can also minimize the back and forth with an effective tool.
5. Customers seek flexible payment strategies
Today, companies focus more on convenience, particularly when it comes to payment. While payment preferences have always varied across regions and countries, users are looking for flexible payment methods, and they understand which methods are suitable.
The options continue to grow from digital wallets, credit cards, prepaid vouchers, and direct debits to crypto. 49% of global eCommerce expenditure was paid through digital or mobile wallets. This made it one of consumers’ most popular and preferred online payment methods worldwide. Moreover, ACH debits are becoming more popular since they are more cost-effective than credit cards and require little effort from the user.
With the payment options, SaaS companies must keep their payment methods flexible to align with the latest trends and users’ changing needs.
6. Migrating to PaaS
Although businesses often share some common operations, each company is unique. As most business operations move to the cloud, their needs shift as well. They now need custom applications that will align with their specific needs. Enter PaaS (platform as a service) –empowering businesses to develop custom applications to their original services as add-ons. For example, Box and Salesforce launched PaaS services in their niche, aiming to hold a substantial market share, and this SaaS trend among customers is expected to become more prevalent.
While SaaS offers users complete and immediate service, they usually come with features that are built to function outside the box. This limits customization opportunities. In contrast, PaaS allows users to develop custom apps that live on the cloud focusing on full-cycle automation. Thus, customizability and complete flexibility make PaaS different.
The migration to PaaS has been evident in the growing demand in the last few years. The global PaaS value in 2020 was at approximately $44 billion and is expected to increase to $319 billion by 2030. This growth is due to the pandemic as businesses shifted online and cloud platforms. In addition, the drastically growing demand for online shopping is forcing SaaS customers to leverage PaaS to enhance their online presence.
7. Widespread adoption of Vertical SaaS
While horizontal SaaS targets a wide range of clients across any industry or sector, vertical SaaS aims to satisfy industry-specific needs. They are entirely customizable and target clients within specific supply chains and industries.
Customers seeking to benefit from specialization find vertical SaaS a more cost-effective option with industry-specific solutions allowing them to customize particular features. For instance, healthcare management software comes with features and functionalities that enable facilities to run their operations, like patient care, documentation, and more.
These specialized functionalities are attractive to customers across various industries, making vertical SaaS a rising trend to watch out for.
8. Mobile-first SaaS
In most cases, mobile SaaS is simply an afterthought for most developers. Providers spend lots of resources and time to create an effective and efficient desktop version of the products they offer. However, according to experts, failing to implement a mobile-first SaaS approach makes these companies lose valuable opportunities.
In the United States alone, 85% of people own a smartphone. In addition, 95% of adults between 30 and 90 years of age own similar devices. It is, therefore, safe to state that several employers, business owners, and customers have access to mobile devices throughout the day.
The global pandemic also caused an increase in mobile app downloads throughout different industries. In 2021, there was a 60% increase in mobile ordering application downloads in the US.
9. Companies Upgrading their Marketing Technology (Martech)
Marketers are adjusting their budgets for Martech in order to modernize their marketing organizations and enhance the customer experience. The pandemic further put pressure on organizations to upgrade their marketing technology.
In 2021, some of the vital marketing tools replaced included CRM (23%), email distribution (23%), and marketing automation (24%). These reflect the necessity for digital engagement now that users mainly stay at home. 53% of the businesses that replaced Martech reported that they opted for marketing SaaS with more useful features.
Companies are now looking for specific features that can give their marketing team a competitive edge and enhance their productivity. 51% of marketers prioritize data analysis and insights, underscoring the benefits of data-driven business decisions. Data centralization, real-time processing, and systems integration are also among the functionalities customers demand most, highlighting the demand to generate more with less.
10. Customers Find Niche USPs More Attractive
The United States records the highest number of SaaS companies worldwide, with over 15,000 active companies currently in the space. This makes the competition fierce, and it extends beyond the national competition. Therefore, to stand out in such a competitive market, SaaS companies need to refine their unique selling proposition (USP), focusing on customer satisfaction and success. This is the best way to increase customer retention and drive revenue growth. The most effective strategy is to isolate what consumers need by integrating the data and using the information to attract ideal customers to your SaaS applications.
11. CX and UX continue to determine customer satisfaction.
It’s not possible to have a successful customer base without an efficient customer experience (CX) or user experience (UX). Typically, your customers will likely switch to a competitor brand for solutions without the inspiration and efficiency promised with your product or service. In simple terms, customers will leave due to a lack of satisfaction if your SaaS company doesn’t involve customer-centric solutions.
While UX and CX have varying measurements, they both aim to ensure customers feel satisfied and successful.
12. Proactive engagement is becoming a priority
To top the competition, it’s not enough to simply release a product, provide support, and conduct periodic checks on your customers. You have to ensure customers are happy through customer-centric business approaches.
Today, customers expect SaaS companies to nurture their needs, keep proactive communication channels operational and open, and improve their unique value propositions. Thus, knowing how to enhance customer satisfaction efforts is a great way to improve growth opportunities and work on churn rates.
Final Thoughts
These inspiring customer behavior trends in the SaaS industry promise that the industry has a progressive future. Today’s consumers and businesses demand valuable, accessible, and robust software-centric solutions for various tasks, outcomes, and goals. As digital transformation across the globe continues to increase, the SaaS industry can only grow stronger, supported by the kind of creativity that offers a smarter, simpler future for all.
Because of these trends, the next generation of SaaS will aim to help small and medium-sized businesses build and run their stacks easily. Large enterprises are similarly seeking to streamline their operations. Thus, SaaS platforms need to be fully integrated, focusing on centralizing customers’ assets and operations.
Beryl Odhiambo is an SEO and ghostwriter with over 4 years of experience in the SEO content writing industry. Her areas of expertise are diverse spanning from Digital Marketing, Pregnancy and Parenting, Legal, Personal Finance, SaaS and tech industry. She has a strong background in crafting engaging and informative content, including blog posts, articles, and website copy. Beryl is also a celebrated fiction author and Ghostwriter. She holds a Bachelors and PGDE in English and Literature and is a certified Teacher. Beryl has successfully helped agencies gain massive organic traffic through her high ranking content. She is passionate about helping businesses succeed online and enjoys helping readers by providing valuable insights and practical advice.