Customers are the building blocks of any successful business. Without them, a business can’t survive. One of the biggest challenges with maintaining these building blocks is retaining customers. A customer buying a product or service is great, but if they don’t buy again you remain on this hamster wheel of constantly chasing down new customers.
We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.Jeff Bezos
This means high spending on marketing and advertising and significant time spent bringing a customer through the sales funnel. Ideally, a company wants to retain their customer base while slowly adding onto it with new customers.
The trick is reducing customer churn and increasing customer loyalty. One of the most recent methods for accomplishing this is through customer success software.
Customer success is starting to become an essential function in companies–in particular, businesses in the software world. At its core, it manages the business and technical relationships with customers. The end goals are two-fold. The first is to increase the value the customer can provide the vendor, making corporate growth and profits rise. The second is to ensure that customers are receiving the utmost value for the product or service, allowing the customer to be more productive and profitable.
The customer success process begins immediately after the initial product or service sale and is carried out for the duration of the customer lifetime. Enter customer success software.
Who Customer Success Software Helps
Yes, customer success software has been designed to provide a better experience for the customer and better information for the company, but it often provides more benefits to a wider variety of teams in a company than first meets the eye.
Executives
The executives of an organization can use the customer success data to be better at their job. When they are in a customer meeting, they’ll avoid getting blindsided. Instead of walking into a meeting and not knowing where the customer is in their use of the software, customer success software enables them to understand a customer’s ‘health score’ and the other data tied to them.
They can know how frequently the customer has been in contact with the support, what their frustrations have been when they need to renew their subscription and how engaged the customer has been with the software. Executives can also use the software to identify the top clients and regularly reach out to them to get valuable feedback so that they know where they need to concentrate their efforts.
Product Development
The product development teams can also utilize customer success. The software enables the team to see customer requests for changes and enhancements. These can then be reviewed and prioritized to allow the team to provide customers with exactly what they want and need to derive true value from the product.
In addition, the development team can pick apart features and identify which customers most heavily use which features. From this information, they can invite top users to focus groups. And often times the software will allow the development team to announce upcoming product releases, patches and add-ons to customers.
Support
The support team is likely the most obvious group that will benefit from customer success software. Like the executives, the support team can avoid being blindsided by customer problems. They can use the metrics that are built into the software to evaluate the usage, customer health, and other indicators to ensure that they are appropriately serving the customer. They can also use the software to prioritize the customer tickets that need to be addressed first.
Service
Services teams will find customer success software to be an excellent tool also. If multiple support tickets are submitted by customers in a short period of time, all relating to the same aspect of the software, this can serve as an alert for a needed training session or workshop.
The services team can also use customer success to identify which customers don’t have designated administrators and therefore aren’t ready for onboarding. The team will then be able to provide managed services to the client that are catered to their specific needs.
The services team has the additional benefit of being able to monitor the onboarding process. They can work with the project manager to get feedback and keep the project on track.
Finance
The finance department is able to both see where Customer Service Managers are spending their time and drive collections. Finance has the ability to see a customer’s health score and when they are deriving value.
If their bill is overdue, the department knows to wait to contact them if they are having a customer health issue, or, if they are struggling to reach the customer, they can have the Customer Service Manager reach out to them.
When it comes to how CSMs spend their time, it can be difficult for finance to appropriately classify their work. Customer service software provides a clear picture of how each CSM is dividing their time, which makes finance’s job much easier.
Sales
The sales team arguably benefits as much as the support team from customer success software. The first benefit is the same that the support team and the executives receive, better visibility. Sales professionals can look up how customers are doing, including their onboarding status, adoption trends and health scores. That way, when they call customers up, they know what to expect–what their needs and frustrations are, what they might be looking for, and much more.
Sales teams are also able to see when their sponsor at a customer company is changing jobs. This provides new opportunities. They can both follow that sponsor to their new company and they can reach out to the new sponsor who is taking their place. The customer success software also allows the sales team to see who they should be prospecting, who they can upsell to, and who are the most at-risk clients.
Marketing
Marketing, like sales, is another division that can take serious advantage of customer success software. It helps them to identify advocates and get referrals from them, both proactively and reactively. The software also allows the marketing department to get a clear idea of how they drove return on invests for various customers. This type of repository for customer success stories is invaluable when reaching out to prospects.
Conclusion
Having the ability to fully utilize customer success software can allow companies to have a much fuller picture of their customers. They know when to reach out, when to help, when to sell and much more. The software also allows each customer to feel that you know them and their needs on a more personal basis.
However, to really take full advantage of the software, every department needs to understand how they can adapt it to be helpful for them. An effective way of accomplishing this is through creating a unique checklist for each department and team. You can go through your customer success software, identify the areas that various departments can use and develop unique checklists.
To create the kind of checklist that will be useful and measurable, you should work with appropriate software. Tallyfy is one company that provides a SaaS app for workflow. Organizations are now able to develop advanced and thorough checklists that are interactive. The checklists can then be tracked and audited. This type of visibility allows everyone in the organization to see just how useful the customer success software is for them and how they could even better integrate it into their relationships with customers.
Related Questions
What is customer success management software?
Customer success management software is a digital tool that helps companies ensure their customers achieve their desired outcomes while using their product or service. Think of it as a friendly guide that tracks how customers use your product, spots any problems they might have, and helps your team step in at just the right time to help them succeed.
What is the difference between CRM and Customer Success Software?
While CRM systems focus on managing sales and tracking customer interactions, customer success software goes deeper into the customer’s journey after the sale. CRM is like keeping track of your first dates, while customer success software is about building a lasting relationship. It monitors product usage, customer health scores, and helps prevent customers from leaving by spotting early warning signs.
What is the best CRM for customer success?
The best customer success software depends on your specific needs, but popular options include Gainsight, ClientSuccess, and ChurnZero. Rather than focusing on a single “best” solution, look for software that matches your company’s size, budget, and specific customer needs. The right choice should feel like a natural extension of your team’s workflow.
Is Salesforce a customer success tool?
While Salesforce started as a CRM, it now offers customer success features through its Service Cloud and Experience Cloud products. However, it’s more like a Swiss Army knife – good at many things but not specifically designed for customer success. Dedicated customer success platforms often provide more focused tools for managing customer health and driving adoption.
What does customer success software do?
Customer success software acts like an early warning system for your customer relationships. It monitors how customers use your product, tracks their progress toward goals, alerts you when they might need help, and helps you step in proactively to solve problems. It also measures customer health scores and provides insights to help reduce customer churn.
How does customer success software help a business?
This software helps businesses reduce customer churn, increase revenue through renewals and upsells, and create more loyal customers. It’s like having a crystal ball that shows you which customers need attention before they even realize it themselves. This proactive approach typically leads to higher customer satisfaction and better business outcomes.
What are the essential features of customer success software?
Essential features include customer health scoring, usage tracking, automated alerts, customer journey mapping, and reporting dashboards. The software should also offer communication tools, goal tracking, and integration capabilities with other business systems. These features work together like a well-oiled machine to help you understand and improve customer experiences.
How do you measure ROI with customer success software?
ROI can be measured through reduced churn rates, increased customer lifetime value, higher renewal rates, and improved customer satisfaction scores. The software should help you track these metrics automatically and show you clear improvements in customer retention and expansion revenue over time.
Can small businesses benefit from customer success software?
Absolutely! Small businesses can use customer success software to provide a more personal touch at scale. It helps them compete with larger companies by delivering consistent, proactive support without needing a huge team. Many providers offer scaled-down versions perfect for growing businesses.
How does customer success software integrate with existing tools?
Modern customer success platforms typically integrate with CRM systems, help desk software, communication tools, and billing systems. Think of it as the conductor of an orchestra, bringing together different instruments (tools) to create a harmonious customer experience. Good software should connect easily with your current tech stack.
What role does AI play in customer success software?
AI in customer success software works like a smart assistant, predicting customer behavior, identifying at-risk accounts, and suggesting next best actions. It can analyze patterns across thousands of customer interactions to spot trends and opportunities that humans might miss, making your customer success team more effective and efficient.
How long does it take to implement customer success software?
Implementation typically takes between 4-12 weeks, depending on your company’s size and needs. The process involves setting up the software, importing customer data, configuring metrics, and training your team. Think of it like moving into a new house – the basics can be done quickly, but making it feel like home takes a bit more time.
