Defining ‘Customer Success’ With Cloud-Based Software

Many definitions of customer success have been proposed, but few are clear about what it actually is and how software can help achieve it. Customer Success is not just about making customers happy, and it’s more than just the sum of Customer Service and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

Speaking with Emily Yellin, author of “Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us”, she points out that “feedback, surveys, [and] customer satisfaction scores are a start. But the problem is that most companies stop there… those reactive means of getting in touch with your company’s customer experience are not enough.”

In simple terms, Customer Success is a proactive way to manage the customer experience, using technology and real-time visibility to help solve customer issues before they arise. Taking a more holistic approach to customer ‘health’, customer success management makes use of a variety of tools to stay on top of the customer journey and achieve a positive outcome for customers at every touch point they encounter.

“Feedback, surveys, [and] customer satisfaction scores are a start. But the problem is that most companies stop there…”

Considering this variety of touchpoints, trends in cloud-based business apps for CRM, Customer Support, and Call Center point to some of the most important functions of an application when thinking about a customer success strategy.

Automation

Automation is one of the easiest ways to be proactive, giving customers what they want before they ask for it. Things like subscription renewals are a perfect example: if you’re confident that your customers want to continue using your services, you can easily keep them on board without having to ask.

In this context, however, it’s important to stay engaged with customers and continuously monitor customer accounts to make sure that they’re getting exactly what they need. Having oversight provides good opportunities for upselling, and keeping contact ensures that you maintain a relationship with customers.

Analytics

One of the biggest trends in the business apps industry is big data, and its usefulness for customer success cannot be overlooked. Laurie McCabe, co-founder and partner of SMB Group, says that it’s important for a software “to provide really good visualizations of data so that it’s easier for whoever is using the package to really understand more intuitively what’s going on and how to take action.”

Big data and analytics have become important for businesses looking to track the history, and future trajectory, of its customers. Instead of just a set of numbers, analytics can really become a decision-making tool. There’s enough data out there– and enough ways to track it– for businesses to be able to make really good assessments of their customer’s needs. By knowing where the customer has been, a company is more likely to know where they’ll go next. Known as predictive consumption, keeping an eye on customer movements means being able to predict what they’ll need from you, and when.

Some of the most useful data includes things like direct customer feedback, engagement, and a comprehensive view of the customer.

Autonomy

Giving customers the ability to be help themselves is just as important as a company being able to help them. In fact, research conducted by Nuance Enterprise found that 67 percent of customers prefer self-service over speaking to a company representative. Similarly, Shep Hyken, Customer Service and Experience expert, said that “self-service is really important: if you train your customers to use self-service options, they’ll get answers faster.”

“Self-service is really important: if you train your customers to use self-service options, they’ll get answers faster.”

The idea here is that where there are opportunities for customers to help themselves, both the company and the customer save time. Having a comprehensive online knowledge base, or giving customers more autonomy to access their accounts, are beneficial self-service options.

Working in conjunction with automation and analytics, autonomous actions can be recorded to help give more information about the customer’s journey and any potential issues that could arise.

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The biggest achievement when it comes to Customer Success is being proactive, not reactive. Getting a good handle of customers before issues arise is imperative, and using software with the appropriate tools is the first step in getting there.

Defining ‘Customer Success’ With Cloud-Based Software