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Customer success is the key to business growth

Typically the responsibility for customer service is split amongst various in-house teams and there is no overarching coordinated system to manage it. A coordinated approach is very much needed for the strategic management of customers and their experience.

Photo source: istock.com

January 18, 2017

By David Brennan, customer success team manager, EMEA, Maximizer Software

Many companies would report they run an effective customer service function, yet how many can provide tangible evidence that they manage the customer or client experience through a systematic and proactive approach?

Typically the responsibility for customer service is split amongst various in-house teams and there is no overarching coordinated system to manage it. This by no means de-values the work of the managers of those teams who individually are providing brilliant results, but it is fundamental that a coordinated approach is very much needed for the strategic management of customers and their experience.

A rigorous approach provides a clear methodology and measurable KPI structure which systematically tracks, measures and manages the customer experience. This positions the company to be aware of arising issues and to implement processes to prevent those issues from spiralling out of control.

Reflecting on our own company experience, we decided to set up an individual department with the sole purpose of managing the customer experience to generate better business. This customer successteam was tasked with delivering continuous CX improvement. Since we are a CRM solutions provider, we needed to gain greater insight on how our customers' use of CRM was contributing and adding to their business, and how CRM was contributing to their overall growth strategy.

The theory behind the team’s creation was "the more successful our customers are, the more successful we are." The team provides a support network to the customer by helping them move, stage by stage, towards CRM 'mastery.' There are simple measures in place to demonstrate progress, namely: availability of improved customer intelligence, issue resolution success rates and timings, customer loyalty rates, and growth in the customer’s revenues.

The team works with customers in order to track CRM usage, satisfaction, maturity and the business value which they are gaining from the solution. This usually takes place in the form of an annual review.

The first step is for the team to get an understanding of where customers are in their CRM journey and how this measures up against where they want to be, thus making it critically important to take the customers growth objectives on board.

Secondly, it is important not just to focus on short-term operational objectives (although that's where immediate payback is coming from) but to look at strategic business goals and how to reach them.

For example a business may want to gain more insight into which aspects of their business will benefit from additional investment. Even more importantly they may want to have a better understanding of their own customers — which customers have the most growth potential, and what are their specific requirements; all of which will feed into better product and service development plans.

The customer success initiative continues to prove its worth as it provides us with insight on the areas that customers most value. The table below shows some real life examples of how the team has resolved customer's challenges resulting in measurable benefits being achieved for the business.

Customer Sector	Customer Challenge	Maximizer Resolution	Customer Benefits
Language Solutions	Time heavy resource in manually checking data quality at the point it was entered online	Adopting automated web-to-lead form in Maximizer	Saving of over 400 minutes per month previously taken up with manual (but expert and expensive) data validation
Accountancy	Data analysis difficult and time consuming in manually created spreadsheets	Designing and implementing customised dashboards	Dispensed with spreadsheets and Dashboards now providing rapid analysis and forecasting. Saving some 60+ hours per month of precious professional time.
Equipment Distributor	Tracking of customer service request and activities	Implementing an automated customer ticketing process in the Customer Service module	Reduced follow-up times by 70% and significantly boosted conversion rates.
Yachting	Data analysis difficulties	Implementing various additional capabilities in Maximizer	Improved planning for cash projections and cash-flow visibility – a strategically important capability for their working capital management and ability to invest in growth.

This approach has produced customer and business development metrics that show its demonstrable contribution to both customers' and Maximizer's commercial performance.

The key is keeping an open dialogue with the customer; regular, relevant and useful customer contact is essential to fostering deeper relationships. Not only this, but being able to a have a systematic methodology in place to examine customer experience will equip any business with the tools to understand business objectives and growth plans. Just as important, of course, is the customer success team to be able to turn customer insights and interactions into practical actions that deliver measurable added-value back to the customer.

Customer experience is all about looking at the wider context in order to help meet the real business challenges which customers are coming across on a day-to-day basis. This shifts the dynamic — no longer is the solution provider just delivering customer support; they are now offering valuable business advice which will help customers to meet their growth and success ambitions.