Conceptos Básicos
By refocusing on customer health as a leading indicator for revenue and product organizations, the author argues that fixing customer success involves aligning the CS team's activities with the customers' needs hierarchy. This approach aims to drive positive business outcomes and efficient growth.
Resumen
In recent years, the concept of customer success (CS) has gained popularity among businesses, leading to the creation of large CS teams comprising various roles. However, amidst budget scrutiny, companies are questioning the unique outcomes CS should deliver. While some advocate for eliminating CS departments due to perceived inefficiencies, others believe that properly configured CS organizations can significantly impact post-sales revenue. The key lies in maintaining a laser focus on customer health as an indicator for overall organizational success.
To address common issues faced by CS teams operating as remedial units, it is crucial to realign their focus on customer health and away from filling in gaps left by other departments. By ensuring that CSMs concentrate on guiding customers towards achieving agreed-upon business outcomes pre-sale, companies can enhance their understanding of account health and improve renewal rates. Moreover, by connecting CSM activities to customers' needs hierarchy layers such as technical health, feature completeness, key relationships, customer sentiment, outcomes, and commercial health, businesses can effectively drive value delivery and expansion opportunities.
Ultimately, retraining the CS organization's focus on customer needs hierarchy and operationalizing this framework through data-driven approaches is essential for revitalizing post-sales operations and unlocking sustainable growth.
Estadísticas
Once you’ve reached around $100M ARR level; you’ll generate more revenue from post-sales org than landing net-new logos.
Refocus your CS org on your customers’ hierarchy of needs.
Your CSM team should provide a data-driven perspective on overall account health.
Commercial health: are your customers set up to renew or expand?
If you don’t size your CS org appropriately; you’re probably tanking your gross margins.
Citas
"If you configure your CS org correctly, you’ll unlock the easy momentum of that post-sales org."
"Your CSM team should be the only team that can provide you with a data-driven perspective on the overall health of your accounts."
"Identifying when your CS org is broken and refocusing it on driving the right outcomes is a critical first step in revitalizing your post sales org."