It’s key for marketers to understand the idea behind the original intention of Customer Success. How do customers define their own success? How do we measure they achieve it? And how can we help them get there? And make this a part of customer personas and segments.
Nothing encourages success more than success.
I’ve always believed in Newton’s first law of motion. That a body in motion remains in motion unless acted on by an external force. (Which is why turnarounds are hard changes, but that’s for another day.)
The change from licensed software to online SaaS subscriptions gave birth to a newly named function. Customer Success. Depending on the goals of the company and where it reports into, the role can be part account management, part customer experience manager, part enhanced support manager, and sometimes part salesperson.
The original intention behind Customer Success was to guide the customer during their post-sales journey to ensure that the customer achieved their desired outcomes. That the customer was successful. In whatever way the customer defines success. Because when a customer is successful, a company is successful.
Marketing is positioned to increase the customer’s success
Maybe I’m biased, but I think Customer Success should report into Marketing rather than Sales. Because I think Marketing is positioned to top level own the end-to-end customer journey. But that’s my personal bias.
I believe it’s key for marketers to understand the idea behind the original intention of Customer Success. How do customers define their own success? How do we measure they achieve it? And how can we help them get there? And make this a part of customer personas and segments.
Another way of saying this is how can I help the customer see the value in using my product or service?
If we can name it and measure it, then we can create content around it, build it right into the product, and build it into our customer programs. It’s the concept behind onboarding.
Kajabi Heros turns successful customers into advocates
A real world example is Kajabi Heroes. Kajabi has a customer reward program tied to when customers achieve revenue milestones on the platform. With purchases occurring on the platform, it is easy for them to measure. Not only is this a way to celebrate the success of customers, it’s a way to create brand advocates. Kajabi heroes celebrate in the Facebook group and are quick to provide support to other users.
Other companies use the segmentation to rate customers. And sometimes give low achievers less attention. Putting energy into customers that achieve. Letting them self-select to leave. I may be important to limit our spend on people that aren’t a fit for what we provide. At the same time I think we can do that after we have exhausted efforts to help.
While a truly customer focused culture, might look deeper at people who are almost there and consider how we can help customers achieve.
Do you know how your customers measure success?
What is key is to know how your customers measure success. Then folding it into your metrics empowers you to guide them to it.
