An important part of customer success is enabling customers to achieve their desired outcomes. This involves providing them with the resources they need to be successful, such as training, documentation, and Support. Additionally, it is important to give customers the autonomy to make decisions and take action without going through a lengthy approval process. Ultimately, the goal is to help customers succeed independently without needing constant hand-holding from your organization.
To be successful, businesses need to learn from their customers and put that knowledge to use. After all, the customers ultimately determine whether a business succeeds or fails. By understanding the 7 Es of customer success, businesses can better understand how to achieve success.
1. Explore: Consider possible options & new directions
When exploring new options and directions for your customer success strategy, there are a few things to consider. To start, you’ll want to look at your customer data and determine where your users are most engaged with your product. This will give you a good starting point for finding new growth opportunities. Once you’ve identified some potential areas of opportunity, it’s time to start experimenting. Try out different messaging, content, or features in these areas and see how your users respond. You can build these features or roll them out to a wider audience if you see positive results. But if you don’t see the results you’re hoping for, don’t be afraid to pivot and try something else. The key is always to be learning and growing as you go. By constantly exploring new options and directions, you’ll be able to find the right path forward for your business and your customers.
2. Exploitation: Choose a direction for implementation
Once you have decided on the five focus areas for your customer success team, it’s time to start thinking about how you will implement them. This is where the “exploitation” phase comes in. During this phase, you will need to choose a direction for implementation and develop a plan for how to roll out the changes. This plan should be based on your specific business needs and goals. There are a few things to keep in mind when developing your plan:
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- Be realistic about what can be achieved in the short term. Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew.
- Develop a phased approach. Start with one or two of the most important focus areas and gradually roll out the others over time.
- Engage your team in the planning process. Get their input on what changes need to be made and how they should be implemented.
- Communicate your plans to all stakeholders. Everyone affected by the changes should know what is happening and why.
- Be prepared to adjust your plans as needed. Things will inevitably change as you go through the implementation process. Be flexible and adjust your plans accordingly.
3. Export: Ensure effective traction for the next stage
As your company grows, it will be important to ensure that you have the systems and processes to support your customers in new markets effectively. This includes having the right people and infrastructure to provide local language support and understand local cultural nuances. It also means having the ability to take payments in local currencies and being able to ship products and services to meet local regulations. All of this requires investment and careful planning to ensure that you can provide a great customer experience in each new market you enter.
4. Engage: Onboard & build initial entry points
Here, we focus on onboarding customers and building initial entry points. When a customer first subscribes to your service, it’s important to immediately engage them and get them started on the path to success. This means providing a great onboarding experience that starts them up for success. Think about what you need to do to help your customers get the most out of your service. This might include providing training materials, setting up initial entry points, or offering Support during the onboarding process. Once you’ve engaged your customers and gotten them started on the path to success, it’s important to continue building entry points that keep them coming back. This might include offering new features, releasing new content, or holding regular events and webinars. By engaging your customers and building initial entry points, you’ll set them up for success and keep them returning for more.
5. Enablement: Meet desired Customer Outcomes
The 7 Es of customer success works together to help organizations meet desired customer outcomes. Enablement is about giving customers the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to succeed. This may include providing training, documentation, best practices, coaching, or other forms of Support. By empowering customers to be successful, you can improve retention and satisfaction while also reducing support costs.
Customer success managers (CSMs) enable customers to achieve their desired outcomes with your product. A customer’s desired outcome is the result they want to accomplish with your product. Their ultimate goal might be to increase sales, reduce costs, or improve other metrics. Whatever it is, your CSM’s job is to help them get there. Your CSM provides guidance, best practices, and resources to help the customer succeed. They might also offer training or support services. Ultimately, they want to empower the customer to reach their goals independently. Enabling customers to meet their desired outcomes requires a deep understanding of the customer and your product. CSMs must see the big picture and know how all the pieces fit together. They also need to be able to see how your product can be used in creative ways to achieve different outcomes. The best way to enable customers to meet their desired outcomes is to partner with them. This means working closely with them to understand their specific needs and goals. It also means keeping in touch throughout the customer’s journey and being available when they need you.
6. Empower: Sustainability thru deeper engagement
As the world becomes more complex, achieving customer success becomes more difficult. Organizations must empower employees to think long-term and take a sustainable approach to customer engagement to ensure long-term customer success. This means creating an environment where employees feel comfortable taking risks, making decisions, and experimenting with new ideas. It also means clearly understanding the customer’s business, what they are trying to achieve, and how your organization can help them succeed. Perhaps most importantly, it means relentless in your pursuit of customer success. Organizations must also ensure that they are engaging with their customers at a deeper level. This means going beyond traditional customer engagement methods, such as customer support and marketing, to create a more holistic approach that addresses the needs of the whole customer. This requires a deep understanding of the customer’s business and specific goals and challenges. It also requires a willingness to partner with the customer and works together to find creative solutions that address their unique needs. Ultimately, the goal is to create a sustainable model for customer success that includes a strong commitment from the organization, empowered employees, and deep engagement with customers. By taking this approach, organizations can ensure that their customers are successful now and in the future.
7. Enlightenment: Learn from Customers and put it to use
As customer success professionals, it is our job to learn from our customers and put that knowledge to use. We must constantly ask ourselves, “What can we do better?” and “How can we make our customers successful?” To do this, we must first understand what success looks like to our customers. We also must be prepared to listen to feedback, even when it is critical. Sometimes, customer feedback can be tough to hear. But it’s important to remember that feedback is a gift. It’s an opportunity for us to learn and grow. When we receive feedback, we should thank the customer for their input and then take some time to reflect on what they said. We should ask ourselves if there is any truth to the feedback, and if there is, what can we do differently next time? If we want to be successful in customer success, we need to learn from our customers continuously. Only then can we hope to put that knowledge to use and truly make a difference in their lives.
Wrapping Up
A successful customer onboarding program always puts the customer foremost in its mind. It should constantly reflect and understand the customer’s goals and KPIs and work to keep delivering the desired results. Good Onboarding programs elicit a feeling from customers that it’s a collaborative effort to ensure their success. Aligning your success metrics with your clients and measuring THEIR metrics for success is key in delivering a successful program.
Reference: X-teams: How to Build Teams That Lead, Innovate and Succeed by Ancona and Bresman, (Amazon Affiliate link :http://amzn.to/2nIZqsp).