Essential Customer Success

Customer Success, as a role, has existed for well over a decade but demand has exploded over the last few years. This lecture is part 1 of 3 that explains where customer success began and why it is set for continued growth.

Customer Success, as a role, has existed for well over a decade but demand has exploded over the last few years. This lecture is part 2 of 3 that explains where customer success began and why it is set for continued growth.

Customer Success, as a role, has existed for well over a decade but demand has exploded over the last few years. This lecture is part 3 of 3 that explains where customer success began and why it is set for continued growth.

Let’s wrap up what we have just learned about XaaS, the move from product to subscription and changing customer loyalty.

How you organise your customers matters. This lecture outlines the common ways that the SaaS industry classifies customers.

The lecture might sound like it’s semantics. It’s not. Understand leading and lagging indicators is the key to getting ahead of what you need to do as a Customer Success Manager well ahead of retention or churn at the next renewal event.

Understanding the difference between Customer Success Managers, Customer Success Management and Customer Success will put your role, the function and the principles into perspective.

A CSM should always know the health of all of their customers. This lecture will introduce you to how to measure health routinely.

This is a reflective lecture. It examines how you asses customer health today and how you prioritise which customer or customers gets your focus.

This lecture outlines the dimensions of health measurement. The perspectives that will accurately assess the long term health of your customers.

Wrap-up on customer health perspectives so far and setting the scene for traffic lighting.

Defining traffic light indicators in a way that is clear and unambiguous.

Defining traffic light indicators in a way that is clear and unambiguous.

At the heart of this course is a comprehensive Customer Success Framework. This is a tour around the The OR(A)EO framework.

The OR(A)EO framework, the OUTCOME perspective, activities and tools.

Value articulation, lecture 1 of 3, value drivers.

This lecture will help you distinguish features, benefits and outcomes because it is important to focus on your service outcomes. These are what you will ultimately connect to value.

Value articulation. Connecting Service Outcomes to Value Drivers.

Value articulation. This lecture outlines the six qualities of a Service Outcome. Is it identified, connected, quantified, operational, socialised and aligned.

The OR(A)EO framework, the RELATIONSHIP perspective, activities and tools.

Creating a relationship map to unambiguously document customer relationships and identify areas that need your attention as a CSM

The OR(A)EO framework, the Adoption perspective, activities and tools.

Adoption assessment part 1 of 3. Introduction.

Adoption assessment part 2 of 3. Activity.

Adoption assessment part 3 of 3. Feature assessment.

Adoption assessment wrap-up.

Expansions should be treated just like a sales process. This lecture explains how.

The OR(A)EO framework, the ORGANISATION perspective, activities and tools.

Red flag tests

The OR(A)EO framework, the EXPANSION perspective, activities and tools.

Portfolio tracker downloadable resource.

Standard customer meeting presentation template and downloadable resource.

Essential metrics introductions.

Understanding revenue metrics.

Understanding retention metrics.

What are industry standard retention rates to help you assess your performance today.

Essential metrics wrap-up.

Section introduction.

In an ideal world every CSM would rigorously carry out every activity embodied within the OR(A)EO framework for every customer every time. However, in the real world, we will find that resources are limited. In a rapidly growing SaaS business, for example, customer need can often outstrip the resources we have even though the team is growing too. This is why we segment. To make pragmatic decisions about which activity is going to have the most impact. This lecture explores segmentation and recommends an approach that has been proven in practice.

Much of this course is about being proactive but, as a CSM, you need to be more than that. You need to plan for the long-term which will undoubtedly require support from others in your business. This lecture introduces you to the Strategic Customer Success Workshop, a quarterly (or half-yearly) assessment of each key customer, where you are with them, what are the risks and opportunities and what does everyone need to do to mitigate the risks and maximise the opportunity.

Let’s wrap-up the section and the course with a summary of what we have learned and the new skills we can now put into practice. 

The workbook summarised the materials taught in this course and is the only place where there is liberal use of bullet points to structure the key concepts and lessons.

This is an 'apropos of something' lecture and entirely optional. These are professional workplaces tips to help you develop and grow. In this lecture I discuss comfort, panic and stretch zones.

This is an 'apropos of something' lecture and entirely optional. These are professional workplaces tips to help you develop and grow. In this 'appropos' I discuss one of the reasons your role in any growing SaaS business will evolve quickly and encourage you to embrace and love the change.

I am often asked the question. What do you look for when you are hiring new CSMs?

Customers will ask for free services from you. Perhaps because they are thinking long-term and don’t want the relationship to be simply quid pro quo, perhaps because it would be too difficult for them to access additional budget or perhaps because they are not aware that little is ‘free’. There is likely some cost, somewhere, for someone. Before you jump in with a yes or no, explore what it is the customer is looking for.