This $8 Million SaaS Company Nails Customer Service

How Convertkit wins at customer support, and how you can, too

Have you ever heard of Nathan Barry?

He’s a blogger, turned ecommerce operator, turned SaaS CEO.

His biggest and most profitable claim to fame?

Convertkit, an email service provider that hit $8 million in revenue just 4 years after its launch.

For all the Saas startups out there, that’s kind of a dream.

You can probably relate to Nathan.

He didn’t start with any big investments or partners backing his software.

He simply started with a goal, and a limited amount of money from his very own bank account.

After realizing the SaaS business model was one that could give him a recurring revenue (rather than constantly pushing sales on his ecommerce products), he decided to develop software and try to hit $5,000 in monthly revenue within 6 months of launch.

Since Nathan knew firsthand how frustrating most affordable email service providers (ESP) on the market were (he was using Mailchimp to sell his ecommerce products), he decided to create one of his own.

And so, Convertkit was born.

Upon reaching the 6 month mark, though, Nathan was only hitting $2,000 in recurring revenue (and it only went down from there).

He wasn’t sure whether or not it was worth it to move forward.

Fortunately, though, instead of calling it quits, he decided to simply work harder instead.

And that $2,000 in monthly revenue turned into $5,000, and then quickly grew to multiple 6 figures a month.

Now, Convertkit is a huge competitor in the market, even despite its newcomer status.

Nathan did a lot to keep pushing the company forward, but one key tactic that really turned Convertkit into a well-known (and very profitable) brand was his customer service.

Whether you’re building your own SaaS startup, or another type of app altogether, there’s a lot to learn from someone who can take $5,000 of his own money and turn it into millions in just a few years. -Click to Tweet

1. Do What Works for Your Niche

What really pulled Convertkit out of the hole was the fact that Nathan not only knew his niche, he knew how to give them what they wanted. Or rather, he learned how.

After constant “boots on the ground” interactions with his target market, Nathan realized one very important thing:

It wasn’t the price or features that were holding people back from signing up for Convertkit. It was the fact that migrating an email list from their current ESP to a new one was a huge pain.

Nobody wanted to do it.

In fact, they were so against going through the process, that even though they had huge complaints about their current ESP, they were willing to stick it out and just deal with them.

So you know what Nathan did?

He reached out to key players in his niche (people making money from their blogs and websites), and pitched his service to include free email list migration from a prospect’s existing ESP over to Convertkit.

From that point on, sales were constant.

And yea, Nathan had a ton of work on his hands (most ESPs charge a lot of money for this), but he realized exactly what was holding his sales back, and then provided the service his customers needed.

2. Look for Feedback

It’s not enough to have a contact form on your app. You need to look for feedback. Seek it out and then really use it.

Instead of just creating features and functionality that made sense to himself, Nathan, and now Convertkit as a company, seeks out feedback for new feature implementation.

This is the perfect example of following the Lean Startup Method’s Build, Measure, Learn approach.

Convertkit wasn’t just created and released. It’s constantly being iterated in order to meet demanding market needs that other ESPs simply aren’t providing.

Once your app is launched, the work is far from done. Remember, you’re providing a solution to a certain market’s pressing problem. That means you don’t know what’s best — they do.

So let them tell you, and then follow through by adding updates, features, and functionality that’ll keep improving your app (and the size of your user base).

3. Offer Live Support

If you’re bootstrapping your app startup and don’t have the funds to invest in a customer support team, you probably won’t be able to provide live customer support. And in that case, timely email support can be your fallback.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do everything in your power to work toward offering instant customer support. Because people don’t have time to wait around for answers to their pressing questions.

And if they do, they won’t want to.

Convertkit offers a mix of support types, with live service available during their business hours, and email response as an option when support is offline.

What sets them apart from other SaaS companies, though, is the speed at which they respond to queries, even outside of business hours.

I know this because I’ve reached out with questions a number of times, and they always respond way sooner than expected.

So even if you don’t have live support, you can (and should) offer the best email support possible. Your users will appreciate it.

4. Use Content to Help

Whether live support is online or not, Convertkit nails it with their content support.

You might call it an FAQ, but in reality, it’s much more than that.

Convertkit’s content support answers most questions on its own — without human services ever needed. And that’s huge. Because it means customers can help themselves.

While it might sound contradictory (aren’t we supposed to do as much for our users as we can — human interaction and all, right?), more often than not, users would rather be shown the answer they need instead of having a conversation.

When you type a question into Convertkit’s customer support form, a list of helpful resources comes up.

In my own experience, 90% of the time, my question is answered via one of their blog posts or guides.

I love that, and my guess is, your users would love it, too. Wouldn’t you?

Adding valuable content to your app (with the purpose of serving user needs) is something that can help both you and your current/future customers. It’s worth it to invest the time into creating “help” resources to supplement your main support line.

5. Show Users What to Do

One of the best ways to offer customer support is by removing your users’ need for it from the start.

The less support a user has to seek out, the more seamless their experience is.

Convertkit excels when it comes to guiding users through the platform, and you should, too (especially if you’re going the SaaS route).

And although it’s important, I’m not just talking about user onboarding.

Convertkit offers a wealth of resources for new users, from articles and a Slack channel, to full-blown, live workshops.

Not only can you browse through tons of guides on getting started (you don’t have to be a paying user to access these), you can also sign up for one of Convertkit’s weekly (free) trainings where a real, live person walks you through the entire ESP’s platform.

If that’s not golden customer service, I don’t know what is.

I mean, it’s live. Every week. For anyone.

Whether you have the capacity to offer live training or not, the fact of the matter is, you should be setting your users up for an easy experience from the very beginning — before they’ve even paid you.

The more help they get upfront, the more comfortable they’ll feel using your product or app (and that’s a very, very valuable thing).

Customer Support Means Customer Success

If there’s one thing we can learn from Nathan Barry and Convertkit, it’s that customer support is really about ensuring their success (this holds true, no matter what type of economic climate you're in).

So don’t see your support offerings as a way to solve problems — see them as a way to prevent them in the first place.

Sure, troubleshooting will still come up. But giving your users the resources and knowledge they need to succeed from the start can vastly improve their overall experience.

Aim for offering success, rather than support, and you’ll be able to nail this side of business, too.