Welcome to the end.
The last three months have passed by so quickly and we’ve covered a lot in this series—
- The role of Customer Success Analysts and the impact we can have, not only on the Customer Success organization, but the entire company, in bringing cross-functional collaboration and alignment.
- How to start small with your data integrity issues and the role Customer Success Operations can play in refining data and operational processes.
- The importance of taking the time to level-set and define the three letter acronyms and metrics that are critical to meeting your business objectives.
- The role that empathy can play in helping deliver value to our customers.
- The dangers and risks of using NPS as a scenario-based metric rather than using it to identify champions and advocates of your brand.
- Some of the unattainable attributes and measures we waste time chasing in Customer Success.
- Some of the variables and philosophies we should spend time chasing in Customer Success, like an assessment of your current business and maturity state, your customer’s definition of value, and the ability to operate and execute with empathy.
- The importance of a measurable, accurate, and iterative approach to how you calculate the health of your customer base.
- The relationship and accountability of forecasting in the Customer Success organization.
- How to make decisions that can drive your data to enable you to make accurate data-driven decisions.
- The importance of helping your customers adopt your product or service and steps you can take to enable them to recognize long-term, sustainable value.
So, what are you supposed to do with all this information? I’ve been ranting at you for the past 13 weeks, throwing practical and tactical approaches at you with some philosophy sprinkled throughout. In today’s world, where it’s so easy to be bombarded with ideas, information, best practices, and theory, it can become nearly unbearable to identify what we can actually influence in our Customer Success organizations. Customers want value. We want to deliver value, but also be looking for future opportunity. Customers need reliability. We want to be reliable, but also must make sure we are hitting our goals and objectives. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about your role in the Customer Success space, not knowing where to start, let me offer you some reassurance—
You are not alone
Despite how ‘together’ and knowledgeable folks may seem in the industry, I assure you there are struggles and uncertainties happening behind a wall of vulnerability.
Why not you?
If there is one certain thing this blog series has proved, it’s that anyone can do this. Anyone can choose to start learning, reading, observing, acting, applying, iterating, and doing. Imposter syndrome is certainly alive and well but each voice in this Customer Success community has something to offer. Use your voice and share. Why not you?
Step by step
You aren’t going to solve everything overnight. Solve what you can today. Document what needs to be solved tomorrow. Plan. Act. Repeat.
Identify mentors
In an industry where knowledge is so freely shared and is sometimes contradicting, it’s hard to know who to emulate. Find mentors who have actually done what you are trying to do: a leader who has built a Customer Success organization from the ground up, a Customer Success Manager who has built loyalty and advocacy in once faulty or churning customers, a Customer Success Analyst who has built customer health models that deliver accuracy to the organization, or a Customer Success Operations Manager who has effectively integrated systems together and established an operational process that drives insight to the organization.
This part is bittersweet for me. If you haven’t guessed already, two of my biggest passions in life are analytics and writing. This series has given me the opportunity to apply both of those passions in a way that I hope has provided insight and encouragement. As this series ends, I can’t help but think about all the topics I didn’t get a chance to cover: CSM assignment models and process, the importance of being bold yet humble in Customer Success, the guidance a robust capacity model can provide CS leaders, and the important role Revenue Operations plays in Customer Success.
To that end, the old cliché comes to mind: this is farewell, but not goodbye.
Until next time.