Net Revenue Retention (NRR) in SaaS: Why It Should Be Your Customer Success North Star

Net Revenue Retention (NRR) in SaaS: Why It Should Be Your Customer Success North Star

Here is a write-up that discusses the importance of Net Revenue Retention from the customer success perspective.

Net Revenue Retention (NRR) in SaaS: Why It Should Be Your Customer Success North Star
Net Revenue Retention (NRR) in SaaS: Why It Should Be Your Customer Success North Star

Net Revenue Retention is a metric that indicates the stickiness of a SaaS product to its customers. It also acts as a parameter for the customer success teams on when to take a step towards retention, upsell or cross-sell. 

A healthy NRR ratio indicates a company’s ability to successfully renew customers and deliver a strong proposition to build a robust business relationship. When you track your NRR, it gives an idea of whether the revenue model is working for your company or not. An NRR ratio of more than 100% indicates revenue in terms of pure growth. 

So, how does the customer success team increase the NRR accountability? We’ll cover this and much more here.

Your customer success team’s role in increasing NRR accountability

Your customer success teams have a direct association with your customers. This association means they’re in the perfect position to maximize customer satisfaction and build a better relationship—hence increasing NRR accountability. One area that your CS team can look for ways to increase it is through your customer health. By actively monitoring their health score, they can promptly identify any issues and remedy the situation.

Showcase value to a customer by building a solid foundation

You need to reiterate and show your customers the value they’ll get from your product. They already had an idea of what they’d get from it when they signed up, so emphasize it. Highlighting the product value will help your customers get a full picture of what your product can do for them. And by helping your customer get a complete view of your product’s value, they’ll always have a strong foundation in what you offer.

Offer your team incentives

You need to incentivize customer success teams with stock options, bonuses, etc., which can be tied with customer success goals like focusing on account expansion and health score improvement.

Correlating NRR ratio with customer health scores

The net revenue retention ratio offers some specific insights. You can understand NRR better when compared with customer health and the health score reflects the customer’s account. Note that both NRR and customer health scores help determine customers at risk and those who are healthy.

Reasons that make Net Revenue Retention your customer success north star 

A strong NRR shows that the company can deliver value, renew customers, and engage with them. If NRR is more than 100%, the business is in great shape and will grow even if there are no new customers. NRR is the valuable North Star as it shows your product stickiness. You know how engaged users are with your product.

Connects customer health with revenue performance 

NRR streamlines customer success and customer health with revenue performance. You can improve your NRR by paying attention to upsells, cross-sells, marketing efforts, and product improvements. You can minimize customer and revenue churn to increase NRR. You need to design programs that help adoption, engagement, and customer retention to boost customer health. This will automatically improve revenue performance.

Concentrates on the customers while creating account success plans 

NRR puts the spotlight on customers while creating account success plans. A customer account success plan is used by customer success teams to engage with customers. The strategy ensures that resources are matched with the customer’s needs, and they get maximum value. Improving customer experience is the most significant necessity. customers- the better the chances of them staying invested in you are.

The lethal combination of marketing and customer success results in better NRR 

Your marketing efforts need to optimize customer journeys and enhance customer success results by setting realistic expectations for better NRR. One way you can do this is through customer-focused marketing. Customer-focused marketing helps retain and engage with customers better by creating targeted content.

Helps in measuring certain customers’ account health

NRR helps in account health measurement. You can target accounts you want to deep dive into and see how they are perform and how many resources your customers are putting into your product You can also look at data patterns, identify highlights, and craft a customer journey accordingly.

Final Words 

Net Revenue Retention ratio is essential for customer success teams. While we’ve covered various reasons why NRR is your CS north star, more are likely to arise as the customer success field evolves. So, tell us below, what do you think the relationship between NRR and customer success be in the future?

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