SaaS customer success: How the Payhawk team prioritises customer satisfaction

According to a Zendesk trends report, good human customer service is a big decision-making factor — and despite our robot counterparts, it isn’t going anywhere. In fact, 54% of customers share that their biggest annoyance is lengthy Q&As with chatbots before they get transferred to a human. Meanwhile, 40% of customers said they still prefer human interaction for resolving issues over chatbots and automated systems.

Problem-solving humans are irreplaceable then. However, some minor or repetitive issues can and should be easily handled by bots, with 89% of customers agreeing that they expect to deal with a self-service portal when dealing with everyday problems (CX today).

The key to supporting excellent customer success? Getting the perfect mix of AI support for repetitive issues and real human interactions for more complex urgent challenges. Something our customers have praised us for at Payhawk since the beginning.

SaaS customer success: When service goes the extra mile

At Payhawk, our complete spend management solution supports customers in controlling spending with corporate cards, expense management software, procure-to-pay automation, accounts payable, subscription management, and more.

Beyond our award-winning software, we also have a first-rate in-house customer support team. Multilingual and experienced, they work hard to support our customers, leaving no questions unanswered. And the numbers here speak for themselves. We have:

• 98% customer satisfaction rate
• 24-hour average issue resolution time
• 36 seconds average chat response time

Although Payhawk virtual corporate cards are available in seconds, many businesses still want to use physical company cards. Kristine Enkov, our Customer Support Director, recalls several times when the team went the extra mile with card delivery and shipment.

This is a bit of a rogue case, but it sticks in my mind. We had a new USA customer who needed cards super fast for a company event in the UK. Normally, cards need to be shipped to the customer’s HQ, which in this case was the USA. But as the event was in London, we helped ensure the cards got there instead. We had to pull a few strings, including updating the shipping address to London, changing the timezone, and expediting the delivery — but we got them there, and the customer was thrilled.

Supporting on-the-go spend

Our spend management solution is very easy to use. As Tanya Aleksandrova, HR Business Partner at AiOps Group, describes:

From an end-user perspective, Payhawk offers a really user-friendly platform that makes invoice processing very easy. Our teammates are happy with the platform and tell us that the mobile app is super user-friendly and easy to use.

Even so, there are times when customers have new starters who need some advice, and our customer team is always on hand.

Senior customer support specialist Antoni Zulyamski recalls: “We had a time when a customer had a new account admin, and they weren’t sure how to increase available funds. They reached out to ask how to do it. So we gave them instructions on where to click, and it was instant and seamless.”

Customer support goes hand-in-hand with businesses looking to simplify travel expenses. As a finance leader who’s busy supporting non-finance teams, the following example might sound familiar to you. A plucky sales team member is on the road; he’s got meetings planned all over the place and is itching to create new revenue. The problem? He’s run out of funds, and his head’s too full up with meeting calendar slots and pitches to remember how to organize his business travel expenses.

Kristine remembers a time when the exact scenario above occurred. A sales lead at one of our customers was on a business trip, forgot how to increase his card limit, and reached out to the team at dawn.

Kristine says:

From the beginning of the conversation, when he asked the question to the end of our quick explanation, the whole call took about two minutes. I remember him saying, ‘This was very helpful — I expected to speak to a bot this morning.

Making integrated international spend a breeze

As they grow, many of our customers move to us from their incumbent expense management solution (or multiple solutions). These customers find that once they hit a certain size and go international, they need a solution to support them across different regions with features like cost-effective international bank payments (in partnership with Wise), multi-entity management, direct ERP and accounting software integrations, and more.

Kristine shares an example of help the support team gave after introducing a new integration:

A customer contacted us seeking assistance connecting Wise Platform for international payments and asking how this would work with their accounting software, Exact Online. Our customer support specialist, Alexandra, addressed the customer's inquiry about setting up the connection for international payments and posting those to Exact Online.

Alexandra provided prompt assistance and exceptional customer support. She explained how the international payments would flow through to Exact Online as smoothly as any other payments via the integration. Alexandra also talked the customer through the standout feature of "automated journal entries for international bank payments" and how they can save time and improve visibility across both Payhawk and Exact Online.

Knowledgeable, unrivalled customer success support

At Payhawk, we're really proud of our G2 reviews and recognition. And, in the last month, we received the following sought-after Winter 2023 badges:

• Expense Management Momentum Leader
• Expense Management High Performer
• Invoice Management Momentum Leader
• invoice Management High Performer
• Payment Card Issuance Leader
• Spend Management EMEA High Performer
• Travel & Expense

Customers love our easy-to-use solution. And for the times when they need a little human support? They also rate our customer support, saying it saves them time, effort, and annoyance.

There are loads of great reviews of our SaaS customer success team; here's a handful of some of our favorites:

1. "The customer support is top-notch. On the rare occasions we've had questions, the Payhawk team has been responsive, knowledgeable, and eager to help."
2. "Their customer service is rapid, and they seemed very knowledgeable about the product. I only needed to speak to one person, and I didn't get moved from pillar to post to solve my problem."
3. "Amazing customer support, not a question they couldn't answer."
4. "The customer service at Payhawk is unbeatable. They have built their entire business around a customer-first model, meaning help is only a few clicks away. It's incredibly reassuring that a real person is available on the website, ready to help if we have any issues. The app and website are straightforward to use and our organization uses Payhawk daily."

Global digital agency (and Payhawk customer) FFW agrees that despite being a forward-looking digital agency, there's no substitute for engaging with a real person when it comes to support.

Krasimir Angelov, Finance Manager Europe & Managing Director at FFW says:

The Payhawk customer success team is the best. Always fast and responsive, providing quick and precise support and instructions in case we need help or assistance.

As if that's not enough glowing praise for our support superheroes, we also topped the SoftwareAdvice list for "Best Customer Support." And became the only provider to receive this badge within the Travel Management Software category.

Putting the ‘service’ in SaaS

Boasting a complete suite of spend management features, a strong rating on G2 (and Capterra), and several sought-after G2 badges, it’s easy to see why many finance leaders want to work with Payhawk. What if you take all of that and add exceptional customer service? It’s a no-brainer.

But don’t take our word for it. Watch the Essentia Analytics customer story to see how we became a game-change for their finance team, halving month-end-close and helping them become a revenue-driving engine. Watch now.