Get answers from customer success leaders
Stephen O'Keefe
HubSpot Senior Director, Customer Success • February 22
I've found two KPIs to be difficult to commit to: 1. Customer Health. If you have a robust algorithm to measure customer health (influenced by a number of inputs ), it can be hard commit to a certain outcome. To frame this another way, I've often observed customer health scores as being a bit of a black box where it's hard to tie the actions you take to specific outcomes when there could be a number of variables outside of your control that influence the ultimate score. I much prefer to commit to lead measures that are directly within the control of the team. KPIs related to customer engagement are a good example of things that are more directly within the team's control. 2. Upgrade rate. Many CSM teams are measured on Net Revenue Retention. As part of this, your CSMs may be responsible for identifying growth opportunities within the install base of customers. I find it's effective to measure the team on how many growth opportunities the team identifies but not the close rate or upgrade rate, especially if the Sales or Account Management team owns the closing motion.
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Georgia Glanville Harrison
Braze VP Customer Success, EMEA • January 26
Technical Support response targets! We’ve all been there, and being the first Success Hire is super exciting. You get to wear many hats, get involved all the way through the customer lifecycle and be scrappy to get customers what they need. For us at the beginning, that meant taking on a lot of Technical Support tickets for our EMEA customers, especially in the morning before our then US-based tech support team was online. On the one hand, this gives you a lot of valuable product knowledge that can help you be an impactful CSM, but on the other hand, it can mask the business need to expand technical support teams and can hurt your focus in the long term. If you can, explain early the difference between CS and Tech support KPIs and ensure that anything you take on is temporary!
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Brett Milstein
Narvar Director, Customer Success • February 8
Here are a few mistakes I see most often: 1. Not doing their research on the company/role they are interviewing for. It is surprising how many interviews I have participated in where the candidate had clearly not reviewed our company's product offering or job description. One of the keys to interviewing is to showcase why you are the best fit for the role. The best way to do this is to fully understand what the company does and what they are looking for, and to articulate how you meet those needs. 2. Not asking enough and/or not asking the right questions. I tell candidates all the time it is just as important that we interview them, as it is they interview me (the hiring manager) and our company. Accepting a role at a huge company is a huge commitment, and as a candidate, you want to make sure you know exactly what the role is, the expectations and what you are walking into. 3. Talking for too long and over-explaining. While I want to make sure a candidate has sufficient time to answer questions, it becomes concerning if they tend to ramble on for a long period and have trouble directly answering the question. When I am interviewing a candidate I am always picturing myself as one of our customers and what the zoom experience would be like for our customer, if we hired this candidate. Our customers are looking for CSMs who can provide clear and concise answers to their questions and candidates must showcase that skill during the interview process.
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Jessica Haas
Appcues Chief of Staff & VP of CX • April 27
Scenario-based questions are my favorite but I especially like this one as it breaks the ice and allows the candidate to show their personality & you can have fun with the scenarios. Three emails hit your inbox, which do you answer first, second, and last and why? No wrong answers here! 1. You ordered lunch and the delivery person is running an hour behind and asks if you still want your order. (symbolizes a higher-value downgrade scenario) 2. Your friend wants to reschedule your plans for the evening and is asking for a confirmation (symbolizes a mid-value cancellation scenario) 3. You were given an Amazon gift card that needs to be claimed (symbolizes a lower-value upgrade scenario)
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Rebecca Warren
Eightfold Director, Customer Success • January 18
Been there, done that! IMO, it’s pretty simple – start with who is screaming the loudest and why. Take what they are frustrated about, ask them to prioritize their needs, and then see about knocking them off, one at a time. You can’t fix everything overnight, but get a win under your belt, and then another win, and so on. And then take those lessons from your loudest clients and see what you can apply for other clients. · Ask lots of questions of your internal teams to see if you can solve issues or to get answers · Do as much as you can before escalating · Be targeted about who you are escalating to and what you expect from them – is it a timeline for the client, a fix for their issue, a meeting with internal experts? · Make sure you are following up diligently with your clients! · And then, add meetings in with your non-screaming clients when you can – you don’t want them to feel neglected – don’t take them for granted – quiet isn’t always good 😊
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Conor Holmes
Confluent Director, Customer Success EMEA • February 24
The best candidates can relate their experience to how they will be successful in the role. They will have thought about scenario-based questions and be ready to describe how they have tackled specific problems and scenarios. I have found that having a reasonably open presentation brief in the interview process is an excellent way to understand how a candidate unpacks a brief. It's always telling how much research and preparation they have done for the presentation round. One common trait of successful candidates is whether they have used their connections to research the company and the role. If they have no other connections to the company, they ask for the opportunity before the presentation round. If your company is public, you will want to ask questions about the annual report or the latest earnings call. So, in summary, preparation and clarity in relating their experience to the role are good indicators of successful candidates.
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Manil Vasantha
Information Technology Consultant • January 18
Retaining talent is a challenge for any company at any point in time. Customer Success is only a piece of the puzzle. Employees quit because they are unhappy with the culture, compensation, growth, and manager. Let us start with culture, specifically around Customer Success. To see a company’s customers succeed, it must be goal mandated top-down. The CEO and the e-staff aim to enable and empower the Customer Success team to create a holistic positive customer experience. Without this - there does not exist a customer-first mentality within the company. When this happens - Customer Success is the first of a few teams in the firing line. Besides this, overall work culture is also essential. Overall compensation is a huge criterion I am not too concerned about as the industry has been recognizing this, and I have seen compensation now up to industry standard. There is still debate on whether a CSM should be comped on renewals. That should be slated for a more extended debate. The recognition and reward mechanism is more important than base/bonus comp. Does your manager have clear KPIs for stretch goals? Is there a monetary reward tied to it? How is it celebrated? Instantaneous recognition and reward mechanisms work best among groups. Growth - As part of success - our job is to create a roadmap for our customers and their growth. What has your manager done for you lately, for your growth? Employees are often more likely to stay with a company that provides career advancement and skill development opportunities. As you contribute your skills to the company, the company should invest in you to develop new skills. You need to be in a constant state of ‘learning.’ You stop ‘working’ when you stop ‘learning.’ Flexibility - Working from home is a significant initiative. Bring your pets or kids to work day. Every day a celebration day - is a day you want to come to work! Last but certainly not least - is the Manager. Empowering and enabling Customer Success Team to deliver top-notch service is essential. Does your manager enable you, and is your manager available when you need them? Simple things weekly 1:1. Does your manager listen and do something about your suggestions? Do they value it or respect it? Do they treat you like you want to be treated or make you uncomfortable or out of place? Ultimately, retaining top talent requires a combination of strategies that focus on providing employees with competitive compensation, opportunities for growth and development, a positive work culture, recognition, and a sense of ownership over their work. This requires constant investment, even in the best employee. That individual focus where the employee is not the most crucial asset in the company will put the company on a pedestal and thus put the customers on a pedestal. The bottom line, you always have options!
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Ben Terrill
Brex Senior Director, Customer Success • October 10
My philosophy is that I want everyone on my team to be eligible for a raise, so it’s my job to help them understand what they need to do so that I can make the case to the business. Just as they are the advocate for our customers, I am the advocate for them. It’s not just about the quantitative - there are many qualitative things I consider when recommending a pay rise. Some of the most common pieces of advice I give to my team are: 1. Make sure you are a master of your business. Exceed your metrics or have a clear explanation of where and why you fell short. It isn’t essential that CSMs are always over 100% on everything, but you should have a clear plan that addresses why you are behind. 2. Are you having an impact outside of your specific book of business? Are you helping others when you can? Are you seeking out and taking on additional projects and opportunities when they come up? 3. Are you upholding the values of the team and organization? Are you having a net-positive effect on the morale and engagement of your peers around you?
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Caoimhe Carlos
Udemy Vice President Global Customer Success • February 14
No technical skills are not always necessary to be an effective CSM, however having a basic understanding of technical concepts can he helpful particularly if working in certain subsegments of the tech industry. The level technical skill required is also to a degree dependent on the company and the scope of the role. Some CS roles in deeply technical companies may require you to have a level of familiarity with technical concepts however for many CS roles this is not the case. However in either scenario familiarity with the product or service being supported can be beneficial as as a CSM while you may not be responsible for technical troubleshooting you will be required to have a good understanding of the product offering and will need to be capable having conversations with customers about the products features, functions and capabilities.
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Jeff Beaumont
Customer Success Consultant • February 9
Two examples, one SMB and one enterprise: SMB: Theme: work backwards from what you want: customer is well-trained —> product adoption —> high retention. A long time ago I worked for a company entirely focused on SMB (think single users up to 20). With that, we worked backwards from what "good" looked like (high retention) and then determined what they would need to do (use cases in the product) and then we saw the results. Put differently, we put together a list of customers who were hardly using the product, performed outreach campaigns of phone calls for 1:1 coaching, emails, and webinar invites, and many of those customers took us up on the offer and we met with them at least once, and then followed-up with email content. It was hit or miss because many of those users who struggled in the beginning also struggled later on because they were either 1) constantly distracted or 2) were intimidated by learning a new piece of technology. However, the ones who engaged truly outperformed their peers. This was measured by 1) logins and 2) each area of the product. Enterprise: At a different company, we put together a 'maturity model' for different use cases. With this, we were able to show the customer how they stacked up against their peers, and also where they stand in terms of adopting the product. Being able to show customers how they stack against their peer group is natural and extremely motivating. Then they developed internal plans to adopt more of the product.
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