If someone asked me what Customer Success is and asked me to answer in one sentence, I would say that Customer Success is a set of techniques and methods implemented to get the expected results and benefits when using services or products.
Well, it may not be a short sentence, but there are several things behind it, which I would now like to analyse one by one.
First, methods and techniques. Anyone can be involved in maintaining and growing customer success. Certain traits can be advantageous, but in general, anyone, either as an individual contributor or a team, can implement some of the tools people in the CS field use daily. These tools will include all sorts of metrics that we collect, such as NPS or CSAT, but also a communication focused on understanding the other party or the ability to explain a problem efficiently and accessibly.
Second — the customer. It would help if you answered the question of who your customer is. Obviously, the most straightforward answer is someone who pays for my company’s services. And this is, of course, a good answer but not the only one. I, in my work, consider as clients everyone with whom I interact. For me, a client is a director for whom I prepare an onboarding session and a product manager (hello, Alizeh :)) who expects me to provide some information. My definition of a customer coincides quite well with that of a stakeholder: any person with whom I interact and who wishes some value from me is my potential customer. And when I know who my customer is, it’s now a simple way for me to use some of the methods from point one.
Third and perhaps most important is a success. What does success mean for them, and when can we say that we have achieved it or, on the contrary, that we are far from achieving it? This is an individual matter, and each client will consider success differently. An example from my work, one client I work with defines success by the number of synergies planned and realised in a given year, but the on the same project, but a different person defines success by the satisfaction rate and the number of monthly active users. What I am getting at is that when working in a customer success team, it is essential to understand your customer and their needs to apply whatever techniques and tools that will enable success for our customers and us.
What do you guys think of the CS team, and do you see value in this way of working?
If you want to reach out and talk please contact me on a LinkedIn
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