AMA: Adobe Director Customer Strategy & Success, Aishwarya Dwivedi on Customer Success KPIs

I wouldn't say that there are universally worst KPI's as what works or does not really depends on the industry , product maturity , customer base and the specific outcome you are trying to achieve via the Customer Success team. The key here is to understand the context in which you are operating and to maintain flexibility.   A KPI that makes perfect sense for a high-growth SaaS startup might be irrelevant  or even counterproductive for a mature enterprise organization. The danger lies in commit ...Read More

Entering a new market without historical data or benchmarks can feel like stepping into the unknown.In this scenario we should start with the most important and fundamental question. Why are we here ? Why is this market important ? Is the priority brand awareness, revenue growth , customer acquisition or loyalty? Once you know the "Why" the " How" becomes clearer and you can define the leading & lagging indicator next.   During the initial phase be transparent and embrace a growth mindset to ...Read More

NPS is widely used across organisations as an indicator of customer loyalty and satisfaction but its reliability can fluctuate based on factors like product , industry, stakeholder persona, customer lifecycle stage and  timing of the survey. NPS becomes less insightful unless it is tied to a specific persona and feedback is requested for a similar experience or program of work from customers within the same lifecycle stage. NPS is generally sent to all customer contacts and not all recipients re ...Read More

Three C's - Customer Outcomes , Customer Experience and Curiosity. Customer Outcomes : CSMs must first deeply understand how the product capabilities address  customer problems and delivers measurable value. This requires connecting product features to real world outcomes and ensuring customers clearly see that impact. Communicating value realised back to the customer on a regular basis is equally important where CSM's turn insights into tangible proof of success that reinforces partnership and ...Read More

Predictive models can be a powerful tool specially when you are managing the long tail of customers.  However , CSM insight should complement use of predictive models for key accounts. While the algorithms can highlight patterns and give directional guidance to CSM's , the models cannot capture nuances like key stakeholder turnover, customer re-org's , customer sentiment , market trends or disruptions like the pandemic and geo political  events. A hybrid approach can reflect both data driven ins ...Read More

When you launch a playbook the introduction point becomes your baseline. From that moment onwards you can track shifts in key metrics against the baseline and assess if KPIs are trending positively or regressing. Equally important, is to capture qualitative feedback from early adopters that can provide more context behind the numbers.Their insights validate whether the playbook is driving meaningful change and reveal opportunities for refinement. Combining quantitative trends with qualitative in ...Read More