I landed the Head of Customer Success role, now what?
Congratulations! You landed your dream role, Head of Customer Success, for an up-and-coming SaaS company. Now what? Over the next few weeks I’m going to outline steps on how to build, integrate and grow a Customer Success organization. I have been fortunate to be in a position to build, integrate and grow 3 Customer Success organizations during my career, all from the ground up. ... |
Step 1 - The OODA Loop
OODA Loop? What is it and why is it important to customer loyalty and retention? I was first introduced to the OODA Loop model by my good friend Wayne Reynolds. The OODA Loop is the cycle observe–orient–decide–act, developed by military strategist and United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd. Boyd applied the concept to the combat operations process, often at the operational level... |
Step 2 - Engage directly with customers
When should the Customer Success team engage with prospective customers or customers who have signed contracts? While all organizations will have different CS needs based on resources available, the earlier in the customer lifecycle the better for CS engagement. Customer Success can also be leveraged as a sales tool late in a pursuit to demonstrate an organizations commitment to the customer. A CS leader speaking to tangible outcomes from their teams’ engagement can be a powerful tool to help close a new customer... |
Step 3 - Document the Customer Journey
Why do you need to document the customer journey/lifecycle? Documenting your customer journey is an important tool in uncovering insights and understanding pain points that your customers experience. A smooth customer experience across your entire organization will lead to customer loyalty and retention. If you read our article on the OODA Loop and implemented the practice, you will already have most of what you need to document... |
Step 4 - Create / Modify the Onboarding Process
As with any relationship, the first 30/60/90 days are critical. The initial experience your customers have will lay the foundation for your ongoing relationship and adoption rate. Customer satisfaction, churn prevention and product option growth starts day 1 of the onboarding process. A structured onboarding process is important to ensure... |
Step 5 - Develop a process to engage customers during key points of the customer journey Now that you have documented the customer journey from Step 3 of our series, identify the key steps that are most impactful to the customer experience and satisfaction. As you engage with the customer at various stages of the customer journey, document and learn from their feedback... |
Step 6 - Document customer feedback to be shared across the organization (NPS, custom surveys)
Once you have mapped the customer’s journey and have established a cadence for interacting with your customer, it is critically important to capture their feedback so that adjustments can be made to improve their experience. Pain points and inefficiencies can be eliminated utilizing... |
Step 7 - Create/Modify customer self-service documentation with easy access Today's XaaS customers expect to be able to get the information and support they need quickly and easily. This is especially true for SaaS customers who are often using a product or service for the first time. In addition, customer success... |
Step 8 - Segment the customer base
Managing the needs of a XaaS customer base can be complex. With so many different customers with different needs, it can be difficult to provide them with the level of service they expect. That's where customer segmentation comes in. Customer segmentation is the process of dividing your customer base into groups based on shared... |
Step 9 - Develop the organizational structure that meets/exceeds customer expectations
In today's competitive business landscape, it's more important than ever to have a customer success organizational structure that meets or exceeds customer expectations. A well-structured customer success team can help you retain customers, increase revenue, and... |
Step 10 - Develop appropriate KPIs and automate measurement where possible
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential for both your customer and your customer success organization but they are not always easy to implement and report on. Good KPIs will provide your customer with tangible quantitative information which helps them realize the value that your XaaS provides such as... |
Step 11 - Define Roles & Responsibilities
In today's complex XaaS business environments, it is more important than ever to have a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each department within an organization. This is especially true for the sales, sales engineering, customer success, customer service, product, and... |
Step 12 - Develop compensation strategies that align with organizational goals
In order to be effective, CS compensation plans must be aligned with company goals. This means that CS professionals should be compensated based on their ability to achieve key performance indicators (KPIs) that are important to the business. For example, CS professionals might be compensated based on... |
Step 13 - Implement the appropriate Customer Success tool that aligns with your business goals
A customer success tool is a software application that helps businesses improve customer success by providing them with a centralized platform to manage customer data, track customer engagement, and automate customer workflows. There are many benefits to using a customer success tool, including... |