In this post, I want to talk about the emergence of Customer Success. The Customer Success Association has defined this as “a long-term, scientifically engineered and professionally directed business strategy for maximizing customer and company sustainable proven profitability.” They further define this as integrating the functions of Marketing, Sales, Professional Services, Training, and Support into a new profession.
Customer Success is not a rebranding of your “customer service.” It is a fundamental shift in strategy. If you are a SaaS company, this the most important investment you will make to deliver maximum value to your customers and protect your CLV Customer Lifetime Value.
The buyers’ journey!
You invested in Marketing that brings your Sales team the right leads. Sales then position your product and close the deal. Professional Services implements the solutions. Your Training team teaches the Customer how to use the product. Then your Customer Success takes over. Here is a very simplified review of the buyer’s journey.
Research and Join.
- Prospect learns about your Company and service.
- A demonstration of your product or a prospect completes a trial to validate your solution.
- You have captured the Company’s needs and how your solution will reduce/eliminate the problem. (this includes the identification of their priorities and goals to create the fastest solution path).
- Close the deal
Onboarding meeting,
This meeting transitions the Customer from Sales to the Onboarding team
- Professional Services meets with the customers’ team to review the implementation, with expectations set and an agreed-upon framework for Success.
- Fundamentals Training begins for end-users, while the implementation continues (data set up, system configuration)
- End-User training completed, with an on-going training plan if required for additional users.
- Complete implementations and prepare to “Go Live.” Introduce Customer Success team and transition to Key personal:
Success & Adoption (On-going touchpoints)
- Quarterly Review
- Annual Business Review(s)
- On-going customer marketing campaigns & customer review of the roadmap
- Renewal
Grow & Scale.
- Customer advocacy and peer share program introduced.
- Adoption – Meeting and exceeding initial customer goals.
- Retention – Customer renews and reduce potential churn.
- Expansion – Upsell or Cross-sell to the Customer.
Who the key players are in your Customer Success Organization and their role.
Professional Services Organization.
Professional Services engineers or Solution Architects are experts of your product or service. They understand not only your product but the entire ecosystem (third-party tools, technologies, and software environments that connect with your product. These engineers have well-developed skills in project management skills that help drive the Customer towards a successful implementation.
In some cases, these engineers must write code using API or a specific development language to connect with other systems.
Learning Instructors aka Trainers
The Learning Instructor is the “Super-User” or “Power-User” of your product or service. They manage a wide range of resources, including classroom training, to on-line instructor-led training to the in-app knowledge base.
Customer Support
Your support team is also “Power Users.” This group is reactive to a customers’ needs and will answer “how-to” questions, responded to reported issues, and provides technical direction or fix problems.
Customer Success Coaches
Coaches anticipate potential problems and connect with the Customer before they occur. The coaches provide the Customer best practices, process guidance, educate the Customer on benefits to derive from your product.
So why Customer Success and what is the role of the Revenue Operations team?
Customer Success has three core charters: Adoption, Renewal, and Expansion. To meet these charters, Revenue Operations needs to apply the four critical principles of their responsibilities; Operations, Enablement, Insight, and Tools, which help Customer Success support the Customer in getting the maximum value out of your product service.
Revenue Operations provides the strategy, process, workflow, data, analysis, and technology for the Customer Success team to focus on the Customer.
You have as Revenue Operations defined and developed Customer Success playbook that provides effective adoption practices, which will include metrics that track time-to-value, product “stickiness,” and so on. The playbook will consist of proactive activities, customer journey maps, customer success plans, workflows, and adoption metrics.
What are the results from a performing Customer Success Team?
Reduced Churn:
What is your current churn rate? As discussed in the Cobloom article authored by Ryan Law, You should have your gross retention at 3-7%. With Customer Success, you have the methodologies to effectively adapt your product or service to the customers’ needs, leading to higher renewal rates and expansion opportunities. With a solid playbook and automated alerts set in your CRM to make your team aware that a Customer is at risk for churn
Decrease Acquisition Cost:
With documented success plans to align value and have time-based triggers to reach out to your Customers, you are on the path to help them achieve their goals and increase your customer retention rates.
They then will see you as a partner and become advocates for you. For example, they would provide customer stories or case studies for your marketing team to leverage, and become a source of referrals for you, reducing your CAC.
Increase Revenue:
Upselling and Cross-Selling Opportunities, when coupled with a robust gross retention rate, Customer Success will provide your Company with a more substantial net retention rate. The Customer Success team, when alerted to an issue, will proactively reach out to the Customer. This heightened communication level to the Customer should result in the Customer seeing your Company as a trusted partner. As a trusted partner, you would be more likely made aware of opportunities, such as a “hiring surge” at the Customer. You then are well-positioned to provide additional upsell or cross-sell products or services to these customers.
Now the focus of the RevOps team.
Operations, You are tasked to develop and manage consistent processes and procedures that create your on-going customer engagement foundation. Including new Rep onboarding, customer playbooks, hand-off SOP’s, SLA’s and FAQ’s for the Customer Success team
Enablement, You manage the entire tech stack in your Company and are the subject matter expert on all tools, and provide internal training for your Customer Success team, including training materials and documentation on these tools.
Insight, You ensure that data quality is maintained and pertinent data is recorded and reported with detailed analytics. You understand the team KPI’s and your reports and dashboards quickly identify risk to the revenue stream. You know and understand CLTV, Net and Gross retention, you have enabled survey for NPS™ and Customer Satisfaction Scoring.
Tools, You are responsible for managing and maintaining the tools that your internal stakeholders will use daily. Using tools such as Gainsight, Totango, or Service Hub, automates your customer success efforts and provides rich metrics. The use of these tools accelerates and keeps track of customer progress.
When Revenue Operations supports an effective Customer Success team, you will have a business methodology that drives towards the Customer desired outcome for your product or service. Leading to quicker adoption, fend off competitors, reduce churn and expose opportunities for upselling or cross-selling. The other tangible benefit is you now have turned your Customer from users to advocates.
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