Top 7 Myths of Customer Success – Busted!

This Article is devoted to busting top 7 customer success myths which might be misleading to customer success leaders and executives.

#1 There is a Perfect Ratio of CSMs to Customers

Conventional wisdom says that you need a CSM for every $2 million in annual recurring revenue. However we believe it depends heavily on your product, your customer segment, and your CSMs. The goal is to have enough CSMs to adequately service your accounts without spending unnecessary resources, the number circulating in the market should be used as an initial guidance, at best.

#2 You can Predict Customer Loyalty Through NPS

NPS can be useful as an indicator only if you can get a heavy percentage of your customers to respond, or at least a good spread. Unfortunately, many customers show dissatisfaction by not participating in the NPS survey itself, hence skewing the nos. So unless CSMs have great connect to get enough NPS poll responses, this metric can not be counted upon (at least in SaaS) as a leading & independent indicator of retention.

#3 You Should Track Your Success Milestones with Rigor

Your milestones are designed to track your progress, to ensure you are making meaningful progress towards your goals. As a Customer Success Manager, try instead to spend time tracking your customers’ success milestones, and help them in any way possible to monitor, stay on track and achieve their Milestones.

#4 Great Support = Customer Success

Some think that Customer Success should be high-touch great support all the time. But that’s missing the point entirely. The best support is when the customer doesn’t need your support at all. Well designed products and customer education that helps customers fend for themselves most of the time, is what one should try to achieve.

#5 You Should Follow Specific Best Practices

Best practices can often help hasten your learning. But, when it comes to what works best with your specific customers, there is no ‘one size fits all’ playbook. Customer Success is a mindset, not a recipe. Your Best Practices should be 100% unique to your company, formed around helping your target audience achieve their ideal outcomes. 

#6 It’s all About the Customer Journey

The change in vocabulary from “sales cycle” to “customer journey” was useful as it indicated that customers start long before they reach your website or your product page. However, the more appropriate term to focus on might be “adoption journey” which covers the ground after the consumer has purchased, following their lifecycle to improve retention through customer success.

#7 You Should Hit 0% Churn!

There are two situations where you might not want to control customer churn:

1. They weren’t right for product in the first place (poor fit). Wish the customer well, let them move on, and work with Sales to ensure that you are working on only getting customers with the right fitment in future.
2. They never achieved the value they expected with your product. As tempted as you might be, don’t hold on to prisoner accounts through contracts, instead let them move on to a solution of their choice, whenever they want.

Do read through and share with us on any customer success myths we may have missed in comments below. You can also download a copy.

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