Why Ever Business Should Prioritize the Success of Their Customers
What It Is
In a traditional sales funnel, the buyer’s journey ends after the initial purchase. While this may be considered conventional wisdom, Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin defied it and suggested that the model definition fails to explain the realities of businesses today. Customer success manifests when customers achieve their desired outcomes while using products. An effective customer-success strategy can challenge the foundations of your company. It enhances the interactions of the customer with your marketing, sales and after-sale services you provide over the warranty period of a product.
The process can be challenging, and there are traps that you should avoid along the way. The conventional wisdom, in this case, would be to work with a team that has experience dealing with many SaaS companies. That is especially true if you are considering taking this on as a new approach or even an experienced practitioner. UserIQ has built a customer success road map for new businesses and can help to streamline your efforts to increase up-sell opportunities.
Why It Matters
The success of your business is tied to the success of your customer. A satisfied customer will keep on using your products and thus keep you in business. This is really what it is about regardless of whether it is B2B, B2C or SaaS. Companies operating under the subscription-based model obviously have a higher need for customer success monitoring. SaaS companies are always on their toes because customers can switch to the competitors at any time.
Achieving customer success requires people, processes and data. Lincoln Murphy argues that the success requires:
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Technology implementation.
• Real-time visibility into your customers by using data and contextual inputs.
• Adoption of outcome-based metrics and processes.
All the above can be leveraged to help the business take an approach that is proactive, holistic and pro-organization. It is as simple as integrating a system like that employed by UserIQ into your business processes. It is safe to say that it can make or break SaaS companies. If businesses use it well, it can increase customer loyalty and retention, and maximize growth.
Not all customers are good for your business. Some are bound to generate negative reviews. It is more profitable to focus on those who benefit the most from your products and move away from those who don’t. Establishing an ideal customer profile will help you to find the perfect products to offer and sell to your clients. You can use UserIQ surveys to address points of friction proactively to reduce negative word of mouth and churn while still improving your revenue influx.
Success in handling clients helps you to understand the customer’s experience. That is why during the on-boarding and adoption process, your customer services team must ensure that the first-time users enjoy all the marketed benefits and much more.
It is more expensive for any business to acquire new customers than it is to retain the existing ones. However, it is still not easy to retain your customers when your competitors are doing all they can to lure them away. Customer success teams bear the responsibility of knowing and understanding the needs of each account. Delivering the right expansion package when it matters to the customer will make the customer hungry for more.
Customers who have been successful with your product can become its advocates. They can educate new users and drive new conversions just out of excitement.
