Caveat emptor – ”let the buyer beware” – is an age-old warning to consumers that not all sellers are to be trusted. It’s only natural that we rely on those closest to us – our families, friends and peers – to determine if we’re buying a reliable product at a fair price. This is why word-of-mouth marketing is so highly valued by businesses and can have far greater impact than advertising. So how can a sell side firm track client satisfaction metrics?
The Importance of Client Satisfaction Metrics
Word-of-mouth marketing, by definition, has limited reach. Most of us will need to look beyond our inner circle for recommendations on the vast array of products we use in our daily lives, and customers are increasingly turning to online reviews to guide their purchasing decisions. This also applies to B2B buyers, with 92% more likely to purchase a product or service after reading a trusted review. Having satisfied clients can be one of the most effective marketing channels for your firm.
For vendors, the impact of positive reviews is clear. According to research by Harvard Business Review, for every one-star increase received on Yelp, a business sees a 5-9% increase in revenue. And the likelihood of products with five-star reviews, such as a review of our sell side research CRM listed below, being purchased increases by 270%.
Powerful, flexible and great support!
“We have been using this product for our sell side Research department for almost two years now. It is light years ahead of our old tool, and is highly configurable. Integrates well with other vendors which is a nice bonus. Everyone at Tier1 that we are in contact with (including their senior management) is accessible, responsive and puts solutions into action. They have some real ‘wizards’ on their team that we are fortunate to work with. Highly recommend[ed].”
Negative reviews, on the other hand, can be detrimental both to a company’s reputation and its bottom line, and it has been estimated that it could take up to 40 positive reviews to counteract the damage of a single negative one. Fake or self-serving “astroturfing” reviews can also hinder efforts to build trust – or even diminish it.
What Metrics Should You Use to Measure Success?
Trusted, verified reviews are a useful barometer of the effectiveness of a firm’s client success efforts – which may be evaluated against a range of indicators, including client satisfaction, retention rates and revenue generated. Client satisfaction plays a crucial role in growing revenue from existing clients and depends on a product or service meeting the client’s expectations.
Success in the SaaS software world is a multi-dimensional problem. How do you get a client live on the software as efficiently as possible? How do you make sure that clients derive new value from the constant stream of new features, releases and configurations available in the software? How do you ensure clients get their basic issues dealt with in a way that builds a long-term relationship that isn’t focused on closing out a ticket as quickly as possible?
Metrics We Use
At Tier1 we’ve done a few things to help manage this. We don’t have customers, we have clients. Add in the wrinkle of Tier1 operating in the closely-knit capital markets industry servicing clients with highly unique needs and the issue of getting a glowing review becomes even more important.
We’ve doubled down on our investment in staff that explicitly focus on our client’s success, using client satisfaction metrics to guide them through the long-term journey of making them successful on our software. We have a regular cadence with our clients with activities such as regular QBRs, bespoke and group client trainings, and even a Tier1-to-You model where we bring the best of what industry leaders are doing directly to our clients.
We’ve also built a model where we regularly track ROI, business value and software adoption to make sure we’re able to quantitatively measure the KPIs that correlate with client success. Finally, our team brings something no other vendor can – 15 years of deep vertical expertise focused on solving some of the most difficult challenges in the ecosystem. It’s our job to monitor the changing regulatory and business landscape, bring a best-of-breed perspective to those problems and help our clients translate that into technology.
Whether your customers are B2B buyers or individual consumers, feedback on their experience is vital both for the business, which may see its reputation strengthened, sales soar and client retention rates boosted; and for prospective clients, whose decision to buy may be swayed – one way or the other – by trusted online reviews. To find out how our clients rate Tier1, read their independent reviews on Salesforce AppExchange.
For more information on Tier1’s client relationship management and workflow solutions give you actionable client satisfaction metrics for capital markets and investment banking, or to request a Tier1 demo, contact us today.