by Matthew Best, Senior Consultant
After recently moving into consulting, having spent the last decade and a bit building and running Customer Success teams/organisations, it’s been fascinating to see the different ways CS is seen in businesses and the market in general. Where does it sit in-between sales and support/service? Is it at the heart of your business, or should it be? What is the difference between sales and CS? Are your customers as confused as you sometimes are?
There is a lot of opportunity in customer success teams to grow your business, and in the next few blogs I’ll be talking through the importance of customer success teams to a business and how to uncover their real value.
Talking with a SaaS client just last month, the exec leadership team was unsure as to what a CSM does and more importantly, what value they bring to the business. This in my experience is often because a CSM’s role spans multiple capability areas and because assumptions are made about the other departments scope of responsibilities.
The danger is that if your exec is unclear, others in your business and worse still, your customers, may not understand either. This can lead to a lack of clarity over roles and responsibilities across the business and confusion for you and your client.
So how do we resolve this?
How will this bring value to your business? Getting clear on your Customer Success team’s responsibilities and allowing them to operate effectively will help them feel empowered to help and serve your customers. As we all know, happy customers buy more! Supported by the right tools, frameworks and guiderails, your Customer Success team will be positioned to help your customers, and therefore your business, grow.
Next Time – we’ll dive deeper into the potential overlap between sales/account management and Customer Success and how you can structure your organisation in the most efficient way.
To discuss how we can help with your customer success, please get in touch by emailing info@sbrconsulting.com or call us on +44 (0) 207 653 3740.
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