{"id":2738,"date":"2020-11-11T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/138.197.200.24\/resources\/blog\/demystifying-the-role-of-customer-success\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T10:22:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T10:22:32","slug":"demystifying-the-role-of-customer-success","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.smartkarrot.com\/resources\/blog\/demystifying-the-role-of-customer-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Demystifying the role of Customer Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/div>\n

Role of Customer Success in Organizations<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cCustomer Success is a long-term, scientifically engineered, and professionally directed strategy for maximizing customer and company sustainable proven value.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Customer Success Association<\/a>\u00a0<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n

Customer success is a method of determining performance and satisfaction based on results.\u00a0A\u00a0way to demonstrate the real-world impact of your product.\u00a0Customer success\u00a0efforts\u00a0provide an answer to a simple question:\u00a0Does your product help customers achieve their desired outcomes? This in turn\u00a0helps you retain customers,\u00a0identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities\u00a0and attract new ones through referrals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Customer success is an exciting and relatively new concept in business. The purpose of your product is to cater to your customer\u2019s requirement and help them achieve their desired outcomes. Their success ensures continued usage of your product which results in the success of your business.\u00a0To initiate customer success within an organization requires trained teams, access to meaningful insights and the ability to automate actions at relevant moments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is important that customer success is a company-wide endeavor, and that includes all teams and individuals; all the way to the top management. If an organization wishes to maximize on the transformative benefits of the customer success effort, then it must lead from the top-down. This change will\u00a0requires\u00a0aligning\u00a0the mindset and goals of everyone at an organization. Customer success efforts will require the below steps:\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Know: Understand your customer 360 i.e. persona, revenue, sentiments, usage, etc.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Identify: Ability to pinpoint accounts at risk, primed for an upsell, in need of training\/guidance, etc.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. Act: Take relevant actions by managing touchpoints, timely intervention, personalized communication, pulse feedback, etc.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        <\/div>\n

        Customer Success v\/s Customer Support v\/s Customer Experience v\/s Account Management<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n

        There is a lot of confusion in organizations with many of these words being used interchangeably. The customer support\u00a0function\u00a0is\u00a0reactive<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0in structure\u00a0and deals with customer issues. After customers reach out through emails, tickets, etc. these teams try\u00a0to\u00a0resolve\u00a0these issues and hope to keep the customer satisfied.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

        Account management\u00a0is also reactive as a function. Although they share similar goals with a customer success team,\u00a0account managers are\u00a0more focussed on renewals, upsells, cross-sells, etc.\u00a0The effort of the account managers is only to ensure that the customer\u2019s stay subscribed and not really on them getting maximum value from the product.\u00a0<\/p>\n

        Customer Success on the other hand is about being\u00a0proactive<\/em><\/strong>, and what this means is that the teams gather insights through various touchpoints, multiple systems,\u00a0monitor the data points through the customer\u2019s journey to identify opportunities and risks. It involves getting into the mindset of customers\u2019 success as opposed to viewing them only a means to generating revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

        Customer experience<\/a>\u00a0broadly covers the customer\u2019s entire journey and their satisfaction using your product to achieve their goals. Through the customer success\u00a0management<\/a>\u00a0software,\u00a0you are able to better understand the customer experience and influence their journey to improve it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

        <\/div>\n
        <\/div>\n

        Why is\u00a0<\/strong>Customer success<\/strong>\u00a0important?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n
        <\/div>\n
        \n

        \u201cIn traditional enterprise sales, the salesperson sold the customer a product once for a perpetual license and committed the customer to pay an annual service fee, often 15-25% of the price of the software.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

        Tomasz\u00a0Tunguz<\/a>\u00a0<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

        <\/div>\n

        SaaS businesses today rely on revenue generated through monthly or annual subscriptions from its customers. This gives the customers an opportunity to switch to another solution at every renewal if they don\u2019t see value in a product.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

        <\/div>\n

        Role in C<\/strong>ustomer\u00a0<\/strong>R<\/strong>etention<\/strong>\u00a0& the Renewal Process<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h4>\n

        There are accounts where the customer is\u202fnot<\/em>\u202fentirely satisfied, nor seeing enough value, but continue paying for the product for unreasonable periods of time. Such accounts\u00a0are\u00a0termed\u00a0as\u00a0\u201cprisoner accounts<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

        This is definitely not a way companies would get far anymore. Companies have to understand that their customer accounts churn due to lack of involvement with their product, and this could be due to poor onboarding experience, where they don\u2019t quite understand how the product is beneficial and what needs to be done by them. As a result, most customers would run the course of current subscription i.e. a month, quarter or year and then move to another product.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

        It is crucial that they see value in the product and understand how to implement it in their strategy and processes.\u00a0That\u00a0can be achieved through personalized experience which can be delivered through\u00a0relevant\u00a0training,\u00a0timely guidance,\u00a0accurate and simple instructions.\u00a0It would also be extremely\u00a0valuable\u00a0if\u00a0customer success managers\u00a0are able to gather meaningful\u00a0feedback from customers.\u00a0Based on this feedback and other information about the customer\u2019s engagement and adoption through their journey, a customer success manager ensures that\u00a0issues are addressed even before they arise, and a customer\u2019s subscription renewal is mere formality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

        <\/div>\n

        Revenue Generation<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h4>\n

        Traditionally, upselling and cross-selling was merely done by account managers with the core focus on revenue expansion. Today, customer success managers also have goals to expand the revenue from existing customers, however, keeping their desired outcomes in mind. The customer should understand the value of the core product and also if subscribing to a higher tier or another complementary product adds value to their operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

        As a customer success manager works with customer\u2019s very closely through their journey, they are in a position to notice opportunities which can be resolved by another solution offered by them or their extended teams internally.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

        <\/div>\n

        Source: McKinsey & Company<\/a><\/p>\n

        <\/div>\n

        How to implement Customer Success?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

        As we\u2019ve seen and understood that the entire organization contributes to the success of a customer and a change in the mindset internally is pertinent. This includes bringing about a customer-centric culture and a focus on the product. In other words,\u00a0product success<\/a>\u00a0will help customers appreciate your product and build a deeper relation with them. In addition to this change in the culture, a strategy, relevant technology and trained team will be required to successfully operationalize customer success.<\/p>\n

        <\/div>\n
        Relevant technology to support the customer success strategy<\/strong><\/h5>\n

        As a SaaS business you know that ensuring customer success can help retain subscribers. But how do you measure customer success? What metrics are essential for your product, and what results are critical for your customers? A customer success solution provides a single platform with relevant insights, a mechanism to execute or act appropriately, and better way to scale the customer success efforts efficiently.<\/p>\n

        <\/div>\n
        Trained Customer Success team\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n

        Every SaaS company relies on customer success for their own success. A trained team of customer success professionals can help in achieving this by understanding the customer\u2019s objectives and fitting it with features of their product or solution that help with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

        In most organizations, the role of these professionals ends up being that of a firefighter, as they are reacting to escalations and complaints from customers and trying to resolve them.<\/p>\n

        As the customer-facing resource, the customer success teams will need to establish communications with customers and connect to create and nurture a positive relationship and rapport. A trained team aims to become trusted advisors of the customers; they listen to the customers, understand their desired outcomes, and propose solutions that guide them towards success.<\/p>\n

        <\/div>\n

        Food for thought\u2026<\/h3>\n

        The role of customer success is extremely crucial in all businesses. The mindset change across all internal stakeholders can ensure the success of all customers, right from the beginning of their journey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Role of Customer Success in Organizations\u00a0 \u201cCustomer Success is a long-term, scientifically engineered, and professionally directed strategy for maximizing customer and company sustainable proven value.\u201d\u00a0 The Customer Success Association\u00a0 Customer success is a method of determi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2737,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Demystifying the role of Customer Success - SmartKarrot","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"The role of customer success is to assess if your product helps customers achieve their desired outcomes and are you able to retain them for longer term.","footnotes":""},"blog-category":[19],"class_list":["post-2738","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","blog-category-customer-success"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDemystifying the role of Customer Success - SmartKarrot<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The role of customer success is to assess if your product helps customers achieve their desired outcomes and are you able to retain them for longer term.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smartkarrot.com\/resources\/blog\/demystifying-the-role-of-customer-success\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Demystifying the role of Customer Success - 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