The correct answer from your employees should be, “We are.”
This answer is the one recommended by Guy Nirpaz, author of Farm Don’t Hunt: The Definitive Guide to Customer Success. In his book and on his blog, Guy elaborates on the vital shift from “customer management” to “customer success.”
Pop Quiz II: What’s the difference?
While customer management today typically hinges on CRM tools, the customer success paradigm focuses on attitudes of the people in your company. It’s true that a high-quality CRM package can present customer data to everyone on your team. But if each team member isn’t invested in a customer success mindset, data won’t help much.
Another distinction of this new paradigm is the primary concern with what happens after the purchase. Are customers able to use what they bought? Are they getting a good ROI on their investment? These are the kinds of questions a customer success team attends to.
Pop Quiz III: Who needs a customer success team?
Yep–another trick question. The answer: you already have one. Each employee on your payroll will ideally recognize that they are part of the customer success team. They each have an important impact on customer experiences with your company. Guy Nirpaz points out that this attitude requires some adjustment from the default division-of-labor we usually rely on. Rather than a specialized team that is assigned all the customer support efforts, each group should contribute. It’s still true that your people in the front office, in the warehouse, and on the plant floor all have unique talents and responsibilities. But if people assume customer success falls only to an official Customer Success Team, things aren’t going to work as well.
Pop Quiz IV: Who’s customer service are you competing with?
One implication of e-commerce on the World Wide Web is that users compare their experience with your company to every other online shopping experience they have. You might not be in direct competition with Amazon, Walmart, or Macy’s, but these companies set a standard for customer experience. So when people do business with you, they’re evaluating you based on expectations set by other companies. Your organization’s customer success mindset is one way you can stand out from the crowd.
Leadership in your company needs to establish a culture that promotes a customer-centric organization. Having this as your mission, with clear values and accountabilities for this goal, is becoming essential in our digitalized economy.
To help you maximize the effectiveness of your customer success efforts, you also need a CRM solution that provides quote-to-cash visibility, plus automation tools to increase your business velocity: aACE 5.
