I came across the term customer success about two years ago in a company I had just joined, and I thought it was a very positive and exciting idea. Then I discovered what it means in most companies – marketing, driving more revenue from the customer, and perhaps providing some additional technical support. Not so exciting.
I want to change this, to make customer success exciting again. I believe there is a place for a true customer success approach which really focuses on what is important to the customer, helps the customer to get the best out of products and services, and does everything possible to ensure that the customer succeeds in realising value from their investment.
In this article, I want to explore the purpose of customer success from both the customer and supplier perspectives.
Defining the purpose
I feel that the purpose of CS should be:
- To set the customer's expectations, during and after the sale, for realising value and for the ways in which CS can help them to make the best use of their investment: training, best practice, maturity models, and any additional aftersales support.
- To build a relationship and understand the customer so that the customer's criteria for success are recognised and are built into the CS engagement. This relationship should be comfortable for the customer, and every touch point should add value.
- To achieve the customer's goals – whether these are modest or grandiose, whether they represent increased revenue or not for the supplier. This is almost certainly the customer's definition of success, so let's make sure it happens!
Particularly in the CX industry, we have talked about the customer being in control for years and about software vendors and service companies becoming trusted partners in a transformative journey. It's time we lived by those words. Customer loyalty comes from trust, familiarity, and appreciation of the value and reliability of products and experiences – not from extra features and discounts, and certainly not from constant pressure to renew.
Building a true partnership
A partnership should ensure that the supplier is doing everything possible for the customer - and vice versa. This means exceeding the customer's expectations, removing obstacles, and making it seem easy for the customer to achieve their goals.
What is the ideal result for the customer? That varies for every customer, changes over time, and needs to be discovered and tracked. This is a core function of CS, and it can only be achieved by building a relationship of trust with the customer.
Mutual trust and reliance
What is the ideal result for the supplier? This is often seen as more sales, more customers, more renewals – but wouldn't you rather have a customer you could rely on? We want customers who value our products and services and can't imagine doing business without them. These customers would bend over backwards to provide references or to expedite business for us. That comes from mutual trust and reliance. It is the foundation for a long-term relationship.