What is the best Customer Success Management (CSM) Software on the market today?
As you might imagine, that question comes up frequently for me.
Below, I try to give you the best answer I can on this very important piece of your Customer Success strategy.
The Best Customer Success Management Software
There are about 25 purpose-built Customer Success Management software products on the market, with more coming online all the time (and some dropping off).
These include products that manage the entire Customer Success lifecycle, products dedicated to Onboarding, those with a focus on communication, and those geared primarily toward Health Scores and Task Management.
So there is probably a tool out there that will fit your situation. But you have to know your situation, first, or you will be fitting your situation into the tool you select.
I don’t worry about the tools until I understand the strategy; until I know what we’re trying to actually solve for. You want to operationalize something? Great. What are you trying to operationalize?
See, if we don’t understand our customers, our customer segments, the logical segments, the intelligent segments, based on their Appropriate Experience, then we can’t know what type of coverage we’re going to have to give those customers. We can’t know what ratio of humans to technology we’re going to need.
I can’t tell you blanket, “You’re doing Customer Success, cool, go use this specific product.”
I can’t do that because 1) I don’t know your unique situation and 2) every single Customer Success Management tool or solution has a different focus and different strengths, or may do totally different things in different ways.
You have to get clear on what it is you’re actually trying to solve for before selecting a tool for the job.
And if you ask a group of 10 CS leaders what system they use, you’ll get 5-10 different answers and you won’t be any closer to an answer that works for you. It’s best to figure out what you need and then ask specific questions to your peers, ideally peers that have similar operating environments as you.
By the way, this is no different than any other part of the business.
If I said to a HR leader, “Just go use this HCM product,” but I don’t really understand what it is they’re trying to do – other than high-level “human resources” – that’s probably not going to be super helpful. If they listen to me, they might start trying to shape their operation to whatever the tool is that I suggested.
So, what’s the best Customer Success Management software? I can’t give you that answer (no one can without understanding the operating details of your unique situation).
I can tell you to look at all the different Customer Success Management solutions.
I can tell you get demos from lots of different products to get an idea about what’s out there.
But also look at standalone workflow tools.
Look at some marketing automation products.
Some of the sales outreach tools can also be used.
Look at Async Video platforms.
You have to figure out what you’re trying to solve for, though. That’s the first thing.
Do that and then we can figure out what tools you actually need.
I hope that’s clear.
It may not be the answer you wanted to hear, but that’s the truth.
About Lincoln Murphy
