First Year of Customer Success

2015 SuccessCon West Breakout Session

First Year of Customer Success

Paul ReevesCo-founder, BetterWorks

Session Overview• Round table discussion based on topics selected from a list

relevant to starting a customer success department/team• “First year” refers to earliest days/years of a Customer Success

(CS) group• 26 attendees• Average age of CS group was approximately 6 to 12 months• Average years of experience of attendee: 7 to 10

Topics• Creating value—internally and externally• Hiring builders• Building the playbook/process• Productizing the service: developing collateral/tools• Technology

Creating ValueBesides owning/supporting renewal and upsell, the first CS members can be strong generalists that

build valuable processes, while augmenting staffing

Staffing Efficiencies• Sales engineers• Trainers• Support agents• Product managers

Measuring Effectiveness• # of customer quotes captured/insights published• # of power users/promoters created/recruited• # of best practices documented• # of newsletters, webinars, case studies supported• # of onsite visits conducted this quarter• SLAs: Achieving question response/resolution targets

Opportunities• Creating/managing process to provide

feedback to:• Product: UX/Features• Marketing: Messaging• Sales: Perfect customer profile

• Creating and managing NPS process• Developing and capturing product and

domain best practice

• Proactive self-starter that demonstrates good consulting skills—strong in enquiry as well as advocacy skills

• History of growth in previous roles• History of being in roles for more

than 2 years*• Watch for:• Builds rapport instantly• Detailed research evident by

insightful questions in interview • Has insightful questions about

challenges you face • LinkedIn recommendations from

managers/customers• Sends thank you note/email

What’s the profile?

Hiring BuildersBuilders will help you create the playbook and processes while getting results from day 1

• Hire CS professional unless advanced degree or esoteric knowledge is required

• SME may struggle with bigger picture/relationship requirements/needs

Hire SME or CS professional?

Homework Required• Relevant onsite/in-person presentation or

challenge demonstrating CS skills• Watch for:• Instantly build rapport with

interviewing team• Handles tough questions confidently• Asks questions in advance of onsite via

email/phone• Leverages knowledge learned in

interviews

• Capturing steps to produce a reliable outcome helps you understand effort/time/complexity to execute• Helps you develop your own best practices• Helps educate colleagues on effort required to do CS—a little understood domain• Helps you reduce onboarding time/effort as you recruit new people

Builders don’t need a playbook, but build it anyway

Building the Playbook/ProcessIterating on capturing successful paths to delivery is a process

• Start simple and build a table in wiki, Google docs• Document steps, expectations of outcomes, links to resources, and tips• Capture costs information (time/money) to monitor cost/benefit• Each new team member required to review and propose changes/updates• In team meetings, acknowledge improvements made by teammates

How do you build it?

• Designer-created/polished presentations and supporting documents• Customer implementation process illustrated• Support and resource infographic

• Polished templates for standard content/presentations/emails• Logos/branding for programs/services• Dedicated page(s) on the web site• Sales training on your offering to ensure consistent messaging around offering,

benefits, pricing guidance

Treat your service/offering as a product, not an afterthought

Productizing the Service

• Your product• Usage data• Feedback

• Email• CRM• Web conferencing• Phones• FAQ• Community• Screen capture/image editing• Surveys• Tickets

Recommended first year

TechnologyLeverage affordable technology that integrates with other solutions to support processes you own

Beyond the first year• Customer Success solution• Customer portal

Build the feedback loop immediately• Customer enters feedback into your product• Support team receives/triages the feedback• Support team sends feedback into change

management system Product Management owns• CS team educates Product regularly on

insights/requests• Our example: BetterWorks Product > Zendesk >

Jira and Salesforce (CRM, Health, Goals, Tasks/playbooks)

• LinkedIn: Other CS professionals like you• SaaStr Blog by Jason Lemkin

• Jason is a successful entrepreneur and VC and has the top rated blog for SaaS entrepreneurs. He knows a lot about customer success. Customer Success topics

• Tomasz Tonguz• Redpoint Venture partner who blogs insightfully about

customer success

Resources

• LinkedIN Group: Customer Success Forum: Started by Mikael Blaisdell• Relevant discussion in the forum started by

Jamie McDonnell: Creating a new Customer Success Strategy for a SaaS start up

• www.TheCustomerSuccessForum.com: Info page for LinkedIn forum

• www.CustomerSuccessCommunity.com: Map of all of the known vendors.

• www.CustomerSuccessLibrary.com: CSA library• www.CustomerSuccessStandards.com: The

Standards committee page• www.CustomerSuccessCon.com

Customer Success Association

Great insight from thought leaders• Bluenose blog• Gainsight blog• Totango blog• Frontleaf blog• Preact blog

Vendors

Experts

Send comments/corrections to paul at betterworks.com@bohappa

Thank you