SaaSquatch Help Center

Learn about the different stages of a customer's lifecycle.

The customer's lifecycle can be broken down into a number of core components. These include Acquisition, Activation, Referral, and Retention. Together these concepts help explain how a customer moves through the stages of their relationship with a business, product or service.

GA lifecycle

🔗 Acquisition

Definition

Customer acquisition is the process of gaining new customers by enticing an end-user or business to purchase your product or service.

There are a wide number of factors to consider as part of acquiring a new customer, including identifying potential customers, whether they are a good fit for your product or service, what their needs are, and whether or not you can satisfy those needs with your solution or product.

With an understanding of who these new potential customers are, and what they are looking for from your product, you can accurately promote your product or service to them. With this information you can highlight the relevant functionality of your product and how it can help them solve their problems. Knowing what drives a potential customer to purchase your product also helps you understand how much they are willing to pay. In addition to promoting the features and benefits of your product, providing a financial incentive (in the form of a discount) to potential new customers can help entice them to make the purchase.

The cost of acquiring a new customer is a huge concern for most businesses due to the large amount of money and effort spent on this aspect of the Customer Lifecycle.

The SaaSquatch Growth Automation Platform provides the ability to automate a large part of this acquisition process through programs which incentivizes potential new customers to making a purchase.

The "New Signup Promotion" program helps onboard new customers by providing any new customer with a reward simply for signing up or making their first purchase.

Want to target a specific demographic? Use our "Regional Signup Promotion" program to select a country, city, or municipality, from which any new signup is detected, to automatically receive a reward. This is a great way to promote the launch of your service in a new city, or country, without having to handle any of your own geographic segmentation.

🔗 Activation

Definition

Customer Activation is the process of creating a more established relationship with the client by motivating them to increase their engagement and spending with your product or service.

Activation is commonly driven by a customer's realization of the greater potential of your product or service, and them believing that your product or service can fulfill this need. As a result, the customers become more enthusiastic about your brand.

Often this activation results in the customer making more purchases, upgrading to a higher-tier plan, or simply using the product more.

Understanding how a customer currently uses your product is a key component of being able to help them realise its full potential. For example, maybe there is a plan that is better suited for how much the customer uses your product. Or perhaps they haven't fully explored your product and they are missing out on a key feature which relates to how they can get the most out of your product.

Another example of Customer Activation is rewarding loyal customers for making repeat purchases. The SaaSquatch Growth Automation Platform offers a VIP Program which can be configured to reward your customers every time they make a certain number of purchases.

🔗 Referral

Opportunity

Customers who are loyal to your product are both more likely to continue using your product or service, as well as more likely to refer your product or service to their friends or family.

There are a number of added benefits to customers making referrals to your business, including the fact that those who are referred are more likely to be a good match for your business as they have been personally vetted by the Referrer.

While loyal, engaged, and driven customers are likely to refer your business without prompting, not all your users are going to be as driven and likely to make a referral. One of the most effective ways to drive engagement in making referrals is through customer loyalty programs, like Refer-a-Friend programs.

These referral programs help incentivize your existing customers to refer their friends and family. For the existing user (the Referrer) a referral program typically offers added value which encourages them to keep using your product or service. The incentive could be a discount on their subscription, or you can offer them an account credit to incentivize future purchases.

For the potential new customer (the Referred User) the referral program provides them an added incentive for signing up, on top of the value proposition your product or service already provides (for example, by giving them an additional free month of service).

Learn more about Referral Programs in the SaaSquatch Referral Program 101 article.

🔗 Retention

Target

The goal of Customer Retention is to reduce the number of customers who leave or stop using your product or service.

Customer retention starts from the first interaction you have with the customer, and continues throughout their use of your product or service. Customer Retention includes accurately setting and managing a customer's expectations, personalizing their experience using your product so they feel valued, and finally, by building trust through a proactive approach to customer service.

While it is common for organizations to spent more time and money on acquiring new customers, customer retention tends to be a more effective, and less costly, way of increasing/retaining revenue.

Understanding your customers at a personal level, and being proactive about engaging with them, goes a long way to reducing their chances of churning.

The Saasquatch Growth Automation Platform can help you understand your customers better, know when they are drifting away from your product, and what kind of personalized action will help retain them as a customer.

An example of an effective way to improve your Retention rates is by using our "Days since last purchase" Program which allows you to reach out to a user after they have gone a certain number of days without making a puchase. Another example is our "Birthday" Program which allows you to offer user's a discount or credit for their birthday. By being proactive about reaching out to them, rather than waiting till they take steps to cancel or stop using your service, can not only reduce the churn rate, but also help reduce the associated cost.

Looking to grow your customer base?
We believe that these SaaSquatch Growth Automation Platform can help grow your customer base through programs specifically targeted at the acquisition, activation, and retention phases of the customer lifecycle.

Want to learn more? Get in touch with our Sales Team to start using these Growth Automation Programs!

Already a Classic SaaSquatch customer?
Please contact our Success team to learn about upgrading your program.