The world of B2B SaaS products is ever-expanding, and the market is swelling with software products for almost every functional area – marketing, HR, operations, security, device management, financial tracking, and so on. In fact, every enterprise today leverages some or other kind of software to achieve specific business goals.
Most B2B SaaS products focus on being feature-rich and value-driven to keep up with the fast-paced competition in this sector. But the question here is – how easy the products are to use, and how seamlessly the features can unlock the functions without any technical expertise. This is where the importance of a powerful Product User Experience can be felt.
Why is SaaS UX Design Difficult to Achieve in B2B?
It is not that the product developers don’t care about the product’s user-friendliness. It’s because the team that builds the product from scratch generally includes engineers who exhaust their intelligence in creating a flawlessly feature-rich and functional product that would solve the major business pain points of the target users. However, sometimes they miss anticipating how the users will perceive the product and how easy it would be to use it. This is why they must create fictional buyer personas representing future users and customers, better known as user personas in UX design.
Another problem is once the software product, with a wide range of features, is already developed, it doesn’t only become difficult but also risky to re-examine and revamp the product design for UX’s sake. Oftentimes, a B2B SaaS product tends to accumulate close-knit and complicated business mechanisms to meet the specific needs of a high-paying client. Hence, overhauling the product’s design to imbibe UX aspects becomes a daunting task. And on top of that, existing users might sound resistant to unfamiliar (although user-friendly) changes in the product interface.
Another reason why product user experience often gets sacrificed is that the buyer of the product is not the end-user, and hence the factors influencing IT or operations get more attention than usability. As a result, the buying decision doesn’t include the end-user’s experiences and expectations of the product. Also, most B2B SaaS product companies lack the expertise to actualize a UX review even if they want to. Achieving top-notch product UX in the software becomes even more challenging when the product undergoes changes in an agile environment.
Also Read: B2B SaaS Security Risks and Concerns5 Ways to Enhance Users’ Experience With Your B2B SAAS Product
Absolutely! Let’s look into the top 5 intrinsic (yet overlooked) ways to ensure that your end-users have a seamless and excellent experience while using your product.
1. Ease Out the Entire Onboarding Process
Ensure that your customer onboarding process surpasses their expectations of your SaaS product. A positive and simple onboarding process makes your customer/user stick to your product for a long time. At the same time, an improper onboarding process can make you lose a customer who is otherwise interested. Ensure that your user/customer onboarding process makes a great impression about the product, makes it really simple for them to start using it, and sets a positive tone.
Most importantly, adopt an agile yet strategic communication flow wherein you describe the top 2-3 values your product will deliver and how to start leveraging them. Talk to your customers and understand the major business challenges they are looking to solve through your product, and then talk about the top product features that will solve those pain points. Guide your customers clearly and patiently about how to set their accounts and profiles.
2. Connect UX With Customer Success
Back your SaaS product with a dependable and always-approachable customer support system. Remember, the product can’t speak for itself, and customers wowed by a wonderful customer support team seldom go for another alternate product. Encourage your customer support team to build a strong relationship with the product users or customers, so much so that they will think multiple times before moving out of the much-appreciated comfort zone created by trust, loyalty, patience, quality product customization, and 24/7 support.
A SaaS product tends to be complicated, with several features and functionalities loaded with varied technical and operational aspects. On top of it, a SaaS product keeps updating its capabilities according to technological advancements, market demands, and competition. It is essential to keep your customers abreast of upcoming feature releases and product enhancements to fill the knowledge gap so they don’t have to confront sudden or untimely surprises. Conducting empathy mapping exercises can help you better understand your customers’ needs, desires, and pain points, allowing you to create a more user-centric product and support experience. Healthy and consistent customer interaction, engagement, and extra support always have long-lasting benefits.
Also Read: Importance of robust customer support for your B2B SaaS3. Drive a Seamless User Training Process
As mentioned previously, your B2B SaaS product might possess multiple advanced features and capabilities to fulfill different business operations and functions. It is critical to ensure that your end-user finds it effortless and logical to use your product to successfully ease out their business challenges. Your marketing agenda might convince the buyer to purchase the product, but only a good UX will make your end users vouch for your product.
An organized and smooth user training process can help end-users feel confident while using the product and understand all its features and benefits. This training can be in the form of a virtual/online meet-up, a well-rounded product demonstration, easily accessible product help, support documents, how-to articles, instructional videos, FAQs, etc., which can be instantly found whenever the users need them. This process can be complemented by a great customer support team that can sincerely and enthusiastically help users/customers solve their troubles or queries around the product anytime.
4. Add Simplicity to Your Product Features
Some SaaS products are meant to be complicated, especially when they tend to solve highly technical IT issues with in-depth analysis and troubleshooting mechanisms. However, to conquer the UX game, it is advisable to keep the features as simple and easy-to-use as possible. The ideal SaaS product can be comprehended even by non-IT personnel. A well-focused B2B SaaS product doesn’t try to achieve multiple purposes simultaneously. It generally tries to solve one or a few core challenges of the target market.
Focus on the core features that will add value to your product and your start-up’s vision, and try eliminating the rest. Remember, adding more features requires an in-depth thought process and planning and when done without any research or relevance, it can lead to a hefty cost increase. So, in short, having simple, easy-to-use, and truly helpful features strengthens your overall user experience in the long run.
Learn about: How a Product Roadmap Can Help Your Startup5. Build a Product UX Roadmap Over Time
While user experience is imperative, a SaaS product cannot be overhauled at one go to adhere to the UX, as there are high risks involved in this process, especially when your product has already built a considerable buyer base. Also, that level of change will need some persuasion to obtain management’s permission. In this case, it is wise to have a UX roadmap that can be achieved over some time in small and affordable measures. One-time investment can be replaced with phased investments to track the progress and outcome of rebuilding the UX.
Creating a logical UX roadmap will show how the product’s usability can be enhanced within particular phases and the possible positive results expected. It shows how the software can evolve to meet modern UX standards. In the meantime, try accumulating all the feedback from important stakeholders, including your customers, marketing, sales, and support teams, while creating this blueprint for these well-timed UX improvements. Utilizing the right product planning and UX research tools to organize accumulated feedback into actionable items is also imperative.
Keeping these 5 aspects in mind while rethinking your B2B SaaS product will help your users have a great experience with your product. But there are a few more things you can do with your software product for UX’s sake. Make the interface of your product witty, engaging, and interactive for your end-users. Let the users enjoy the experience that excites, inspires, and emotionally connects with them while using your product.
Implement intuitive hints, nudges, and prompts to make the users click to discover new feature additions or give them a ‘high-five’ or some ego boost for successfully accomplishing something! Also, keep the communication alive through regular release emails, newsletters, blog post updates, and other announcements, and always keep the door open for feedback and replies.
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