In the simplest of terms, Customer Success is the practice of
ensuring that recipients of a subscription service are both
- Gaining value from the service, and
- Delivering business value for the service
provider.
These aspects are two sides of the same coin, at the heart of
which is the foundational truth that the best way to build a
successful business is to have successful customers.
The term and practice of Customer Success has recently exploded
into the forefront in the context of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
application providers and their customers. Why now? There are three
main reasons:
- "Software is eating the world." As Marc Andreessen of Andreessen-Horowitz
explained : "More and more major businesses and industries are
being run on software and delivered as online services." This trend
is massive and continual, and it's made possible by the fact that
"the cloud" is now fully functional as the go-to global delivery
system.
- The new "subscription economy" requires a new service
model. As Tien Tzuo of Zuora described when he coined the
term : "The subscription economy is a shift from viewing what
you offer as widgets to be sold one unit at a time to a service
that customers use." There's no longer a single sale at the outset
- instead, the customer must be won over on an ongoing basis by the
value they gain from the service and their overall experience as a
customer.
- Customers have a lot of choice, and switching is
easy. Due to the reasons above, there are ever increasing
numbers of application providers offering SaaS solutions to meet
customer needs, and doing so effectively, competitively, and
scalably. And there is less and less onus on the customer to shell
out significant time and money up front to purchase and implement a
newly selected software application. If they are anything other
than thrilled with the value they're achieving or their
relationship with the provider, the customer can easily pick a
different path at any time.
So where does that leave SaaS companies? With these
realities:
- Customer Success is a business imperative. You
can't fill a leaky bucket. It doesn't matter how many new customers
you are acquiring. If you can't keep your existing customers happy,
successful, and paying, you'll always be running to catch up.
- Focus on making your customers successful, and your
company's success will be the natural result. You need to
build the right teams, processes, and measures that ensure your
customers are achieving their goals for using your application.
Don't mandate your resources specifically around business
initiatives such as renewing revenue, expanding accounts, or
securing references - instead aim to deliver for your customers,
and they will deliver for you.
- Leverage customer intelligence and insights.
It's time to put the data that "the cloud" captures and the
understanding that your team embodies into focus and to good use.
But it won't happen by itself. You need to apply rapidly evolving
Customer Success best practices and hone your analysis and
operations in order to stand out as the company customers
choose.
In this guide, we'll cover…
- How to conceive the right framework to serve as the foundation
for a well-oiled Customer Success machine
- How to design and rally your team around Customer Success
- How to establish and embody the Customer Success mindset
- How Customer Success can impact company growth
Looking forward to your feedback, Customer Success stories, and
results!