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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Christine Vienna Knific
mParticle Senior Director, Customer Success - North America • January 18
The best metrics to use to justify a pay raise are those that tie to revenue and direct value impact (internally and customer-facing). I like to keep a private list (for example, Asana) of the projects I've worked on and my contributions to them so I can refer to it during performance reviews, promotion advocacy, etc. Revenue metrics - must be quatifiable: * Net Revenue Retention in my portfolio * Expansion revenue * Renewal win rate (this is a ratio or percentage, not a $ amount) * CSQLs provided to sales (Customer Success Qualified Leads) Value Impact: * Significant contributions of customer advocacy events, including customer speakers / event participation, referencability, creation of case studies * Creation of 1:many customer-facing value drivers, such as webinars, podcasts, training series, enablement materials
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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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Rebecca Warren
Eightfold Director, Customer Success • January 18
I love this question! My top 4 thoughts: * Every sales team is different. Find out how they work – in Eightfold, we have Account Executives (they are front end pre-sales deal closers), Account Managers (focused on install base after implementation), Sales Development Reps (responsible for lead generation and first connects), and Solution Consultants (demonstrating our platform to potential clients). Find out what your sales folks do and how that impacts you. * Talk to more than 1 salesperson in each department – everyone is different and has unique ways of working. I was referred into Eightfold by someone in sales and had some great conversations with that person. However, that was just one person, and it was also a friend. Looking back, I should have reached out to more folks in different areas of the sales team to learn more. * From your conversations, compile a list of what potential clients are trying to solve for – those will be the same pain points you will hear about once they go live. Do your research – take that list and run it by your leadership, professional services, product, engineering, etc. and see if it all is consistent. Learn what you can about those issues and see what ideas you might have to address some of them. * Ask the sales team what they expect from CS. You may get very different answers, and most likely won’t be able to be everything to everyone. Listen, ask questions, talk to your leadership, and decide the best way for you to work with those on the sales team.
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Brett Milstein
Narvar Director, Customer Success • February 8
This question is a bit subjective as going "above and beyond" can mean different things to different people. If a candidate truly wants a role, in my opinion, they should do whatever they feel puts them in the best position to receive an offer. I cannot remember ever walking out of an interview and thinking to myself "that candidate was overprepared." With that said, there are a few areas, I would recommend a candidate focus on: 1. Know the company/product: I highly recommend learning everything you can on a company. Some examples include reviewing their product offering, reading case studies and watching a demo on their website. 2. Know the role you are interviewing for: You should know the job description inside and out. Understand the experience the company is looking for and the day-to-day responsibilities of the position. Practice speaking about your background and how it is a fit for this role. 3. Learn about your interviewer: It can never hurt to know more about or find something in common with the person interviewing you. For example, learn about their previous companies/positions, where they went to college or some of their interests. Most of this information can be found on Linkedin or on the company website. Find a way to work this into the interview as it can make for a much better conversation and shows the interviewer you have done your research. 4. Prepare questions for the interviewer ahead of time. If you are not good at coming up with questions on the spot, it is best to have 3-4 questions written down ahead of time. Asking questions shows the interviewer you are interested in the position and want to learn more. Any candidate truly interested in joining a new company should have plenty of questions to ask.
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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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Jessica Broderick
Asana Head of Vertical Solutions Engineering • April 13
The best customer success candidates possess the following traits: * Relationship Building Skills. The ability to develop positive, trust-based relationships while adding value to the client and team. * Intellectual Capability & Curiosity. The desire to proactively seek out and learn about the unfamiliar or unknown. * Communication Skills. The ability to express themselves clearly and engage others verbally and in writing; can determine the effective means and frequency of communication to keep all parties on the same page.
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Caoimhe Carlos
Udemy Vice President Global Customer Success • February 14
The future for customer success is incredibly bright! The role of CS is becoming increasingly important both for organisations and for customers. Customer retention and loyalty are the lifeblood of healthy organisations and CS directly drives these outcomes through making sure customers derive value from their investment. Exceptional customer success can act as a core differentiator in market and by investing in CS, organisations can realise benefits not only in terms of retention and engagement but also in terms of expansion and net new customer sales as superior service can be a compelling reason to buy. For the organisation this means CS is pivotal to both revenue growth and customer experience. On the customer side customer success often acts as they key conduit for customer feedback and insight, this data informs product development decisions, continuous improvement investments and improves the organisations ability to anticipate customer needs. Customer success can also be powerful partners in terms of sharing industry best practice, connecting customers with one another and ensuring the customer achieves their outcomes and can demonstrate ROI fro their investment. The advancements in AI should also free up time for CSMs to add additional value to their customers through automation and efficiency gains in administrative tasks.
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Meenal Shukla
Gainsight Senior Director of Customer Success • January 20
Product: Is the product something I will be excited about? Ultimately, a CSM's role is to drive value through Product. If you are not convinced about the impact of the product, how will you convince others? Process: Are there tools and processes in place for the CS organization? Do they have a CCO or is CS under Sales, CFO, COO or Support? Having a CCO indicates that the CEO truly cares about CS and is invested long-term in the CS organization. Tools: Do I have the tools to do my job well? Do they have a CS solution or have they cobbled together a CS solution using Spreadsheets, chats and evernote? Just as you can't ask a legit sales rep to do their job without a CRM, you can't expect a CSM to deliver without a proper platform in place. Note, if this is a super early-stage startup, there will be no tooling and it is okay. However, it is a legitimate question to ask during your interview would be if they eventually plan to buy a CS platform. People: Your immediate leadership makes or breaks your experience in a company. What is their leadership style? Does it align with you? Do they exhibit empathy? Do they have a high bar but also provide high support? Ask your interviewers about their most hairy problems, how do they support their teams, and what the training and ramp-up program looks like. If you don't get a good answer, run!
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John Brunkard
Sitecore Vice President of Customer Success APJ | Formerly Red Hat, Symantec, Blue Coat, Intel, Dell, Dialogic • May 2
This somewhat depends on the company and its products. In general I would say that having technical skills can be helpful for a CSM…an additional plus in the trusted advisor role. The CSM's primary responsibility is to develop strong relationships with the customers key stakeholders, understand their business objectives and requirements, and ensure they are achieving their desired outcomes and obtaining value from the company's products or services. Having some technical knowledge can be an advantage if the company's products are very technical and / or complex. If the CSM has some technical proficiency then this can enable the CSM to better understand the customer's challenges / problems and provide more effective solutions. This elevates the CSM as the trusted advisor in the eyes of the customer. These skill can be particularly useful when looking for expansion opportunities within their existing assigned accounts The technical skills should be secondary to the softskills required of a CSM as I described elsewhere. I believe the technical skill should be more broad and solution oriented rather than in-depth knowledge on a product or technology. The CSM should be mindful that they don’t get pulled into areas that are out of scope for the CSM such as technical support and sales engineering.
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