If your SaaS business is not seeing the kind of growth you want or expect it to perform, you need to change your strategy when it comes to resolving customer issues. The hybrid support model is one of the most effective ways to address all business support needs while simultaneously turning your company into a high-performing business.

So, what exactly is SaaS?

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which application software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It’s slowly becoming the preferred method for large and small businesses to distribute software. The benefits of this model are that it is easy to access, can be easily understood, reduces IT maintenance, and reduces the capital expenditure (CAPEX) for the user.

What Are The Types Of Service Support Models?

As more and more businesses are investing in the cloud, it becomes increasingly necessary to offer support for customers who are not sure of how to use it properly. Here are the two traditional service support models that businesses use:

Internal service support

This is a service that is offered by SaaS companies to their customers. It provides a superior level of customer support for resolving issues that the customer may have. This is because the in-house team will be the best source of knowledge for the product and can also act as a single point of contact for the customers. However, the training time and cost along with lesser capacity may lead to the employees being unable to update their knowledge in case of product updates.

External service support

Certain businesses rarely have the resources to provide support to their customers. Sometimes, they don’t have the option but to outsource their customer support services. Most SaaS businesses use an external service provider to realize a better return on investment. This model is more workable for some businesses since they can rely on more product experts and enjoy a more efficient support process. Unfortunately, using this model means that the focus won’t be on improving the product.

Interestingly, there is a way to counter the drawbacks associated with these models- The Hybrid Model.

How Does The Hybrid Model Work?

The hybrid model or the shared service model is an innovative way of combining the best qualities of the internal and external service support models. Hybrid support models vary depending on the client and what they expect from their support team. Typically, the model will consist of an in-house team that will take care of core issues and an external team that will provide expertise and consultation whenever required.

SaaS products can be deployed all around the world and that means that there are a lot of issues that need to be dealt with when it comes to time zone differences, different languages and dialects, cultural differences and technical differences among others. Larger companies can use multiple partners for regions and specific expertise.

Who Should Opt For The SaaS Hybrid Support Model?

Hybrid support is a great way to get help from your customer support team at a fraction of the cost. Businesses that may benefit from hybrid support include:

  • Startups and SMEs that want to try and test SaaS support solutions to see how it works for their business. This way they don’t have to instantly migrate their entire operations to the cloud right away.
  • Businesses that don’t have a large number of users want to make sure that they don’t overpay for SaaS support.
  • Businesses that want to increase productivity and help their staff adopt the use of the SaaS application.

Advantages Of The Hybrid Support Model

Hybrid support models are gaining popularity among SaaS companies because of the advantages they bring to customer support. Implementing the hybrid model means that you can get help from human agents for your customers (internal and/or a third party) or you can also use software for ticket management.

It enables the business to expand its internal capabilities and applications to handle expanding data but still capitalizes on the expertise third parties can offer.

Of course, there is an angle of cost efficiency since it majorly reduces hiring and training costs. It also means that the in-house team can spend more of their working hours addressing more serious issues and raise tickets for product improvements.

It can also improve the user’s experience since the external team will be more suited to address critical issues and offer upgrades that suit the customer’s requirements.

Opt for a hybrid support model for your SaaS business

With the introduction of the hybrid support model for SaaS products, businesses can now focus on their core competencies and outsource some of the critical tasks to external service support. The hybrid support model for SaaS products is based on both internal and external service support, where the internal IT team delivers the maintenance & basic support services of the product while the specialist external provider takes care of more serious issues.

This is definitely the future of delivering top-notch service support for successful SaaS businesses as it goes a long way in streamlining complex processes.

 

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