Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Besides lamenting life’s romantic complexities, The Clash sums up a customer’s decision whether to renew their software subscription remarkably well. And just like in the song, science shows relationship history matters when making the choice. It’s all in the β … Continued

Customer Benchmarking Motivates Action

Electric utility companies promoting power conservation programs discovered that simply informing consumers of their electricity usage relative to their neighbors lowered overall consumption. This type of normative social comparison has produced the same effects in other domains. Why does this … Continued

How Customers REALLY Decide

Conventional wisdom in Customer Success says that customers renew or expand their subscriptions based on the value they obtain from their software, such as cost savings or productivity gains. But neuroscience suggests there’s more to it. Individuals make decisions based … Continued

My Churn Story

As a consultant helping SaaS companies battle customer defections, I recently experienced firsthand the view from the buyer’s side of the table. After a year of frustrations, we canceled a contract with a PEO and moved our business elsewhere. My … Continued

Getting the Gist of the Customer Experience

Neuroscientists say we tend to remember the meaning and forget the details. When the time comes to make a decision, we naturally rely on our general impressions gained through experience. Because of this, doing essentials right is all that really … Continued

Olark: Textbook Service Recovery

Part of doing business in the cloud computing industry is handling outages. Salesforce, Twitter and Google have all had their share. Service disruptions impact customers, ranging in severity from annoyance to halting the gears of business. How companies handle these … Continued

Want Loyalty? Accumulate More Dopamine!

Neuroscience offers new insights on what causes customer retention. Experimenters have recently studied the brain activity involved when positive experiences sway the decision to stick with one option rather than switch to another. Since subscription-based companies must keep their customers … Continued

Lyfe Lessons for SaaS

There’s more to retaining customers than having a good product. Lyfe Kitchen seems made to order for progressive Boulder, Colorado.  There’s the enviable location on Pearl Street. There’s the tasty, healthy food, favorites like the Quinoa Crunch Bowl and the … Continued

Too Much of a Good Thing is a Bad Thing

We’ve all experienced walking into a fast food restaurant and being faced with myriad choices. “What can I get you?” the employee behind the counter asks. “Ummmm…” You stare at the menu trying to make sense of an overwhelming number … Continued

Proof, not Marketing, Grows Loyalty

Leading companies plant seeds of trust Bombarded by thousands of product claims each day, we’ve become jaded. While we consider genuine those recommendations we get from people we know, most of us don’t believe ads and find salespeople only moderately … Continued