The New Trend in Customer Success: Strategies for Succeeding Alongside Customers at Every Stage of Their Journey
Customer success started in the SaaS industry. Subscriptions replaced one-time software purchases, so customers no longer had to sink huge sums into implementation and ongoing risk, and they could get up and running much faster. But with cost and risk now shifted onto the SaaS provider, customers can cancel with ease. Brands have to work harder to keep them, and that is how customer success was born.
Howard HuangMarketing Specialist
Do you know what customer success is? Why are brands paying so much attention to it now, to the point of building dedicated customer success teams? How can customer success help brands manage interactions with customers at different stages of the customer lifecycle more effectively? And how does it help when interpreting and applying first-party data from a Social CRM?
This article explains why customer success matters for brands running data-driven strategies today.
What is customer success?
Customer success was first introduced in the software as a service (SaaS) industry. The rise of SaaS gradually displaced one-time software purchases. With SaaS as the new delivery model and subscriptions as the new payment model, customers no longer had to invest huge sums upfront in implementation and risk management, and deployment became much faster than before.
Because these costs and risks shifted onto the SaaS vendor, customers can easily cancel their plan or switch to a competitor. Brands need to work harder to keep customers and focus on better after-sales service so customers renew their contracts. That is where the idea of "customer success" came from.
Brands only succeed when their customers succeed
As SaaS and the subscription economy become the dominant way brands generate cash flow, brands need to accept a hard truth: there is no guarantee that customer churn won't keep climbing. That makes it all the more important to build a "customer success" mindset into existing decisions.
Consider an idea from the book "Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue":
"Customers don't buy your service to use its features. They buy it to achieve their business goals."
Only when customers succeed can a brand keep them and succeed itself. To make customer success a top priority, you first need to understand how your customers define success. That gives you a clearer picture of their needs and the right kind of support to offer. How do your customers measure success? By that standard, have they succeeded yet? What challenges are they facing as they pursue their goals?
How it differs from customer service
Traditional customer service tends to be reactive and offers solutions through a limited set of channels. Customer success, by contrast, keeps a constant eye on whether customers are getting value from the service. It may even set goals together with customers, offer regular support, and hold Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) to assess performance over the past period. We expect customer success teams to bring deeper brand and marketing know-how so they can succeed alongside customers, helping the brand retain them and grow sales.
Use Social CRM predictive analytics to succeed with customers at every lifecycle stage
Responding when customers reach out is not enough to fully understand their needs. Customer success also relies on data analysis and data-driven thinking to find effective ways to help customers succeed, and delivers that help predictively. Customers are often more satisfied with the brand as a result, because their needs are always addressed quickly and effectively.
Brands can use customer relationship management tools such as Social CRM to analyze data, then determine what customers really need based on how customers at each lifecycle stage use the service and on their behavioral profiles.
What is the customer lifecycle? How do you create touchpoints with customers at every stage?Whatever your industry, winning repeat customers and building loyalty is a key business strategy. According to a 2015 survey by the marketing firm Invesp, acquiring a new customer costs five times as much as keeping an existing one, so brands need to maintain relationships with loyal customers while growing their customer base. This is even more true in software as a service (SaaS): without one-time license revenue, companies must focus on serving customers better, raising average order value, and reducing every possible churn.https://oakmega.com/blog/what-is-customer-lifecycle
OakMega Social CRM: accurately predict customer needs and build loyal fans
OakMega Social CRM helps brands build a CRM system inside messaging apps and use first-party data to build long-term, VIP-level loyalty with customers. According to HubSpot research, social media has become brands' top choice for managing customer relationships, and customers expect closer interaction with brands on social media, whether that means personalized products and services or real-time customer success support.
Customer success isn't limited to SaaS subscription businesses; it applies to any industry. As consumer journeys become increasingly fragmented, only brands that can accurately predict customer needs and tailor their services will gain a lasting competitive edge and succeed together with their customers.
