Growth-oriented Customer Success
Customer Success is when your customers achieve their Desired Outcome through their relationship with your company, leading them to stay longer, buy more, and advocate for you. If you focus on Customer Success, churn will not be an issue. At least in … [Continue reading]
Sales is part of Customer Success. Like it or not. No, I don't mean the Sales organization should report to the Customer Success Management org. I mean that Customer Success as an Operating Philosophy, as a way of doing business, includes sales. It … [Continue reading]
Customer Success is when your customers achieve their Desired Outcome through their interactions with your company. As I've said before, Customer Success as a concept is very simple. Don't overthink it. But I always have to unpack one piece of that … [Continue reading]
As you can probably imagine, I'm asked all the time what the best Customer Success KPIs are. What metrics should you use to know if your Customer Success initiative is working. Here's the deal. I'm not an analyst... I'm a consultant. Companies hire … [Continue reading]
When it comes to Customer Success, I've seen a lot of things. I've seen what works (and what works REALLY works... it's amazing). Unfortunately, I've also seen what doesn't work. A lot. In 2017 I heard "Customer Success doesn't work" way more than I … [Continue reading]
Customer Success is a very simple concept that you'll really want to overthink. Resist the urge. The beauty of this concept is in its simplicity. Implementation is another story, though. But the concept is simple. My definition of Customer Success … [Continue reading]
I've been battling more and more misconceptions when it comes to Customer Success than the fewer that I expected. I assumed as Customer Success became more well-received, moved more into the mainstream, and simply became more common that we'd all … [Continue reading]
I work with companies around the world as a Customer Success consultant, I speak at events, and I do workshops. I'm constantly teaching others about Customer Success. And even more, I'm constantly learning. My understanding of Customer Success is … [Continue reading]
I've said this before, but it is worth repeating; Customer Success is not limited to one part of the customer lifecycle, and Customer Success Management is not limited to simply helping the customer get up and running at first or to save them from … [Continue reading]
There's a myth in Customer Success Management that you must conduct Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) or Executive Business Reviews (EBRs) with your customers. This myth is propagated by those who only work with high-touch customers, by software … [Continue reading]
Customer Success is not limited to one part of the customer lifecycle, and Customer Success Management is not limited to simply helping the customer get up and running at first or to save them from churning later. Rather, when a company has Customer … [Continue reading]
Most companies just getting into Customer Success start by defining roles (well, one... Customer Success Manager), then they try to figure out the size of the "book of business" the CSM should handle, etc. That's wrong. But I won't leave you hanging! … [Continue reading]
The traditional Customer Success method of simply looking at what a customer pays us and giving them a particular level of 'touch' is old and outdated. It's time to logically segment customers based on Appropriate Experience (AX). For context, on … [Continue reading]
Proper Customer Onboarding isn't done to prevent churn; it's done to ensure the customer achieves their Desired Outcome. Retention comes from that. But what is "proper" customer onboarding? Let's find out. For context, on Friday, May 19, 2017, I did … [Continue reading]
The age-old issue of Customer Success and Sales alignment, only this time focused on segmentation. This is my attempt to definitively address this eternal quandary. For context, on Friday, May 19, 2017, I did a Customer Success Ask Me Anything (AMA) … [Continue reading]
From a Customer Success perspective, this is the wrong question to ask. You must "focus" on all customers since proper Customer Onboarding is critical for all customers to achieve their Desired Outcome. The way you operationalize around all of your … [Continue reading]
One of the great Customer Success questions - regardless of how many answers are given or by whom - that refuses to ever actually be answered is who should handle upsells... sales or Customer Success. This is my attempt to definitively answer this … [Continue reading]
Carefully. One of the biggest drains on Customer Success Management resources is customers that have not had their expectations properly managed and having to work around that. Avoid that where you can by doing things correctly from the outset, but … [Continue reading]
Customer Success is when your customers achieve their Desired Outcome through their interactions with your company. Those interactions occur across the entire lifecycle. I define Customer Success Management as the process of moving customers toward … [Continue reading]
Luckily this type of thing is rare, but with Customer Success as our operating philosophy, or Customer Success Management as our operating model, we need to work within the confines of our customer's comfort zone... not ours. This is a … [Continue reading]
For many Customer Success Management teams, it's easy to fall into the trap of 'just let your customers figure it out.' In fact, it's easy to think that's in their best interest. Leave them alone and they'll discover what they need to on their own. … [Continue reading]
Don't hide from your customers. Don't pretend you know everything. Talk to your customers and figure out from that discovery process what your engagement model should look like. You can then extrapolate segment-based models or, for some customers, … [Continue reading]
Customer Success should drive everything your company does, including sales and marketing. When it comes to targeting customers that aren't online, first, I'd push back on the assumption that your customers aren't online. Second, I'd remind you that … [Continue reading]
On Friday May 19th, 2017, I did a Customer Success Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Facebook live. It was awesome. The video is embedded below, along with the questions that were asked and my answers. Yep, if you don't want to watch or listen, no problem! I … [Continue reading]
Customer Success is when your customer achieves their Desired Outcome through their interactions with your company. Desired Outcome is Required Outcome + Appropriate Experience. Each customer segment will have its own Appropriate Experience (AX) – … [Continue reading]
Customer Success Management, Marketing, Sales, Product, and the Executive team all have unique information about the customer. This includes how the customers talk about what they do, how they talk about and use our product, how any of this aligns … [Continue reading]
If you've been in business for any amount of time, you likely have customers that you've "Grandfathered" into old pricing tiers or feature sets that are obsolete now. How can you get Grandfathered customers to move to your current pricing model in a … [Continue reading]
Early-stage startups think Customer Success isn't for them. Wrong! Not only is Customer Success for startups (along with established companies), it's also your key to growth without the friction of churn and bad-fit customers distracting you from … [Continue reading]
How do you draw the line between Customer Success and Customer Support? This seems like a logical question until you understand the reality behind operationalizing Customer Success Management. Let's dig in... For context, on Friday, May 5, 2017, I … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
The goal of Customer Success for your company is to get customers to stay longer, buy more, and advocate for you. So it's critical to remember that Customer Success begins at the first interaction with prospects by your sales team, continues across … [Continue reading]
So, do Setup Fees jibe with Customer Success? Are they mutually exclusive? Can they play well together? Is there a time or place where they're more appropriate? The answer is, of course, yes. And no. Don't worry... I unconfuse it all below. For … [Continue reading]
Spoiler Alert: The biggest mistake you can make in Customer Success is not putting the customer first - this is CUSTOMER Success. If what you're doing isn't designed around the customer's Desired Outcome, I have no idea what you're doing. You're … [Continue reading]
A persistent question in Customer Success Management is what the ideal organizational structure is. A great example of this is this question I received: In a large enterprise platform with a high-revenue customer base, do you see any pros or cons to … [Continue reading]
Customer Success Management is about ensuring customers achieve their ever-evolving Desired Outcome. Regardless of the model - two-sided market, partner model, direct-to-customer, etc. - every entity in the value chain has a Desired Outcome. It's up … [Continue reading]
Customer Success Management is about ensuring customers achieve their ever-evolving Desired Outcome. It's not about adoption. It's not about the breadth and depth of use of your product. These are big ideas you need to move past if you want to be … [Continue reading]
Customer Success is defined as our customers achieving their Desired Outcome through their interactions with our company. Think of that definition of Customer Success as your Operating Philosophy. That philosophy can be extended to the greater value … [Continue reading]
Customer Success is not about making customers happy. In fact, there are 8 other things Customer Success is not if you're so inclined. But for the sake of this post, just know that we're here to make customers successful, not happy. But how do you … [Continue reading]
In Customer Success, customer segmentation should be logical (take a step back and really think about it) and done from the customer point of view (think: Appropriate Experience segmentation) rather than from an internal-focused view (i.e. ARR, … [Continue reading]
Customer Success is not Account Management. In fact, there are 9 things Customer Success is not, and Account Management is one of those things. Traditional Account Management is old, outdated, and will hurt your relationship with your customers while … [Continue reading]
