Customer Success: A Moving Target for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Tokyo 2126 by tokyoform | CC BY 2.0

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and the growing number of companies embracing cloud computing have created new challenges for service providers.  Customer loyalty must be earned every day, and that means playing a more proactive role with the customer, not just that of a traditional customer service role. There are also increasing demands on Customer Support teams who must now fill multiple roles, including:

• Acting as the liaison between software engineers and customers to solve both technical issues as well as industry/client-specific challenges
• Educating the customer on how to optimize their solution
• Providing proactive guidance to minimize any negative impact from changes in the technical landscape

In a subscription-based economy, customer loyalty must be maintained every day, meaning it is crucial to remain proactive with customer needs. These elevated expectations have led to the evolution from Customer Support into Customer Success (CS). But what does “customer success” mean and how do you measure it?

What is Customer Success?

1. Definition

I like to define the role as the liaison between engineers and the public. He explains that customer success is “framed from the customers’ perspective—it’s not about selling more ‘stuff’—it’s about understanding the business problems we’re helping to solve and ensuring our engagements are aligned with them.”

2. Areas of Responsibilities

Customer Success Managers (CSMs) are not directly responsible for service delivery; they’re responsible for maintaining a relationship with a customer once the selling process has begun. Often times, the earlier the CSM can be brought into the conversation between a sales rep and customer, the stronger the relationship will be. The CSM becomes the point of contact for the account, while the sales team can focus on cross-sell and upsell opportunities. CSMs are tasked with ensuring the company’s products/services are well received by the customer as well as taking the necessary steps to solve any customer issues that may occur.

Traditionally, Customer Support has been more of a reactive role. For example, if a customer is having an issue with software, they contact the technical support team to fix it. With a subscriber-based economy, this process is not as straightforward. The ultimate goals for any solution provider are to increase adoption and fuel innovation. The product roadmap and ongoing improvements should take into account the company’s vision for the product and customer feedback. In order for CS teams to successfully monitor customer relationships and become more proactive, they need certain tools to help them meet their objectives.

3. Tools for Measuring Success

With data-gathering and analytics tools, CS teams can anticipate software issues and tackle them before they become impactful. For example, using tools to aggregate responses for each account allows CS teams to monitor software usage by geography. If usage in one particular region is unusually low, CS can work with the account to determine why. Customers will value the attention that a vendor pays to their success, which, in turn, helps to improve or further adoption of the vendor’s software.

Before the right tools can be put into place, however, it is crucial to properly define the success metrics that your CS team will track. The way you choose to establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)—how you define ‘successful’ in every category—will have everything to do with how your team operates.

Core Success Metrics

Are we enabling our customers’ growth? Are we giving them the knowledge they need to understand their own customers? If so, how are we measuring that?

It’s crucial to ask these questions for every software user. Measuring customer success starts by first developing an understanding of your customer’s use case and their motivations behind it. These details are essential when making improvements to your product/service that customers find helpful. Without a firm grasp on your customer’s goals and pain points, it can be difficult to put customer use cases in the proper context.

Ryan Engley, President of Customer Success at Unbounce, recommends that CS teams build out their own set of customer-specific KPIs. He explains that every customer relationship is different, and therefore won’t have the same definition of success.

Here is a brief list of some common customer success metrics that can be tailored to fit the needs of each customer:

• Trial-to-Pay Conversion
• Upsell and Cross-sell Rate
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Customer Effort Score (CES)
• Average Revenue Per Customer
• Customer Churn Rate

Once KPIs are identified, the next step is to build a team around the core success metrics. The CS team needs clear goals of how their client defines success in order to effectively perform the job.

What to Look for in a Customer Success Team Member

The job of a CSM is to “go to bat” for their customers, according to Jeremy Malander, Director for Customer Success at BlueJeans Network. “Post Sales…the reality is us; we’re the advocate [for the customer].” The ideal CS team member must be customer-focused with enough empathy to see every problem from the perspective of the client, and work with them to find a solution. This does not necessarily mean that the customer success team believes “the customer is always right,” but rather that the customer’s difficulties are always legitimate and deserve to be taken seriously.

CS team members need to be effective collaborators and problem solvers. Nils Vinje, Vice President of Customer Success at Jhana, explains, “CSMs may need to collaborate with sales for an upsell and executives on a QBR.” With software, any number of unforeseen issues could arise, making it imperative that a CS team member has a high degree of empathy and emotional intelligence.

Even if a solution turns out to be straightforward, the customer will always appreciate that their issues have been handled with care. Gone are the days where a traditional “Help Desk” is enough. CS team members represent the face of a brand—that all-too-important human element that can become lost in larger organizations. If you’ve ever spent hours on the phone with a support team member, you’ll know what we mean. The personal touch that is demonstrated by a team member will create a ripple effect that carries over to every department of an organization. Your customers will thank you for it, and the rest of your company will hopefully emulate it.

Does your SaaS company have a dedicated customer success team? 

Lou Jacob
VP of Customer Success

A “Flyer” since 2011, leads the customer success organization. His responsibilities include all areas of customer support including pre-sale engagements, implementation planning, professional services, technical account management, and customer service. He is successful and consistent at delivering a greater value to businesses, thanks hugely to his personable approach to every customer issue. At Mediafly, Lou applies his 25+ years of industry experience to implementing technology to deliver strategic business goals, dramatically reducing costs, and strengthening customer relations through the improvement of the overall user experience