As I read through the posts about the “Five Organization Models of Customer Success,” I noticed that the different models were categorized by a company’s stages of growth, product complexity, or customer type. The question I kept asking myself was, how a Customer Success executive will know which model is right for them and when
Until this past month, the only safari that applied to my life was an alternative web browser that I would use when Chrome was giving me trouble. Today, I’m writing this entry from a game reserve in South Africa overlooking the Sand River in the middle of a two-week safari honeymoon. The days on safari
So, does Customer Success Need Real-time Data? The answer to that question is an emphatic “no”. This debate reminds me of one of my favorite sayings – “If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”. Customer Success requires information to be successful. Sometimes we use the word “data” interchangeably with
Some companies practice one type of Customer Success while many have multiple customer segments and align the appropriate Customer Success strategy to that customer segment. In the following blog, I will discuss the High Touch model. For businesses with high customer lifetime values, companies will often adopt a “high touch” approach to Customer Success. It
We definitely live in a complex world. No argument there. But I think there are times when we over-complicate things. Customer Success is no different. It’s not simple to help customers get value out of our sophisticated products when they have 1000 other things to do, too. It’s no wonder we get paid so much
In my experience, one of the largest gaps between opportunity and reality in business today – especially from a Customer Success standpoint – is in the area of what and how to measure. In SaaS, where measurable data represents an embarrassment of riches, the gap can be even more significant. The ability to track and
There’s an awful lot of talk these days in the Customer Success community about tracking. Tracking activities. Tracking product usage. Tracking customer engagement. Tracking survey scores. Tracking, tracking, tracking. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Customer Success is dependent on data, which obviously needs to be tracked, gathered, and turned into information. I don’t
If you’re in Customer Success, I know you do it every week. I’ve been watching and I know you do. I also know that you dread it. I know because everyone dreads it. You can’t possibly have all the answers and the ones you do have may very well not satisfy your boss/CEO. It’s no
Is it really possible to have a fulfilling, long-term relationship with a software vendor? I’m here to claim that the answer is “yes”. You may think I’m biased because I work for a software vendor but I’ve also been on the purchasing side often enough to speak confidently from that perspective, too. I’m here to
Recently Dan Steinman (CMO at Gainsight) wrote about the 3 myths about the indicators of churn when it comes to Customer Success. Dan discussed the myths of predicting churn- Myth #1: product usage, Myth #2: the need for finding leading indicators and Myth #3: if you have enough data/analytics, you’ll figure it out. My opinion