In a market with many vendors offering similar services, what sets a SaaS company apart?
It could be great customer service! This is true for any business, though maybe SaaS companies, since managing one code-base are better poised to spend time in building long term relationships with their customers.
Netflix, just showed an awesome example of great customer service! It left the user feeling 100X better!
With SaaS, customer truly is the king again. SaaS is a recurring revenue model and hence the vendor needs to make sure that the software, features, support, server etc. is running smoothly from month to month. The vendor is judged on a day to day basis. Each interaction with the customer is crucial and the SaaS provider must continously work to earn the customer’s business. Its pretty for the customer to take his/her business elsewhere if the SaaS vendor is seen defaulting on any of the above.
This is so unlike the tradional form of software selling - where the vendor would woo the customer for a big ticket software sale. The cheque is cashed and nothing is at risk anymore (well, the vendor brand name is at risk but you can see how after sales service and support can easily dwindle).
