The term customer success truly simmers down to the success of your customers. It simply does not mean retention followed up with loyalty. It is way bigger than just a mere department in that particular niche. If I put it in easier terms, it is the science behind ensuring customers to reach up to their expectations, using your services or products. That is what companies are focusing on these days to create a customer success culture altogether. 

This blog goes on to tell you about 8 such practices to incorporate if you are aiming to build a perfect customer success culture. Let these strategies speak for themselves, dive right in: 

1. Set and Stick to Expectations 
2. Build and Develop Customer Relations 
3. Better Proactive than Reactive 
4. Ask and Act on Customer Feedback  
5. Align KPIs and Targets across teams 
6. Plan on a Good Renewal Strategy 
7. Yes, to a Customer Success Playbook 
8. Fight to hold on to the Good-Fit Clients 

Set and Stick to Expectations 

The second your deal is signed; you are now entitled to the world of ‘commitment’. Ensure that both the parties understand the service or product that needs to be sold, the time frame given, and the secondary rules attached to it. 

When you set to your expectations on time, it clearly shows that you have given the relationship a priority. The customer sees that you work under a policy of responsibility and that you will not take a backseat if something goes wrong. From a prospects’ perspective, this action of yours speaks louder than words. 

Build and Develop Customer Relations 

The reality is a customer will not stay on their own with you, unless you do not work hard after that. You reap what you sow. It is you who needs to put that effort to see the real customer stickiness. It is a natural tendency of the customers to drift away from you over time. 

Therefore, it is crucially important that you build a rapport with them and eventually builds a healthy relationship in between. When they see that you too care about their existence, their retention rates organically increase. Further, this cuts down on the churn rates as well. 

Better Proactive than Reactive 

As a customer success manager, you need to know that your only goal should not be to retain a customer. Rather, it should be on growing with the existing clients. And you should approach the newer prospects with a mindset to proactively drive success and value into the company. 

Occasional touchpoints and pre-set calls might not always work in your favor. Instead, they can give rise to dissatisfaction amongst the customers and lead to churn rates. 

Ask and Act on Customer Feedback  

Show your customers that you care by soliciting feedback from them. This is one of the best ways to retain your clients, more than ever. To begin with, practice active listening. Let your customer vent out whatever they have to get off their chest. Know their pain points and act on it. 

All the hard work you do can go into vain if you do not act on the feedback. Respond to their queries immediately. Do not leave them hanging on the other side of the call. And always interact with them with the utmost respect, humility, and sincerity. This will help retain your customers on a long-term basis. 

Align KPIs and Targets across teams 

Customer retention is not the sole duty of the customer success team. For ensuring minimal churn rates, all the departments with join hands with a shared KPI for retention. This should include sales, product, and development to the marketing team too. 

When you team up, ask the following: What are the most important KPIs for each of the teams? What are their team targets for your solution? Once you have answers to these, you should now tailor the answers to what matters most to the customers. 

Plan on a Good Renewal Strategy 

Do not wait for a customer to complete 90 days for you to plan a renewal strategy for the customer. Think of a substantial renewal task from the day the customer on boards with you. Once you do that, design your entire approach should be around getting the customer experience in and around securing the renewal. 

So how do you do that? Begin with paying close attention to customer health score. Build strong customer relationships that are crafted to meet your targets. When you follow these religiously, you can easily spot a renewal risk way early too. Therefore, do not wait too long for planning a great renewal scheme. 

Yes, to a Customer Success Playbook 

Every individual in your company is entitled to know what makes a healthy client. Additionally, they should be empowered to identify the red flags as early as possible. That is when creating a customer success playbook comes in handy. 

Ensure that each member of your team is valued and has access to the playbook. Moreover, keep your customer health score visible to all on your dashboard. So that your staff can check out what percent of your customers are healthy or at risk of churning away. 

Fight to hold on to the Good-Fit Clients 

By now, you must know that the onus of a healthy, satisfied client is on you, not them. If you get to see some misfit customers, steer away from them, and start focusing on the good-fit ones. Ensure that they receive the requisite value and quality from you. Winning customer trust is vital in this stage. 

Also, there is no point in wasting time behind a customer who does not see the potential in you or makes it too difficult for you to redeem yourselves. You must try to get them back but then you must know the difference between a good fit and a misfit client. 

Final Thoughts 

Customer success culture should not be mistaken with that of a department. When you as a company embrace the culture of customer success beyond just the mundane definition of customer success, you are empowered straight on the focus of the customer base.  

The heart of a SaaS company is the customers. And customers who are happy and healthy will retain and keep your attrition rates at bay. 

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