Is Customer Success a service or part of the product delivery?

Is Customer Success a service or part of product delivery? This may be an important question, especially because this term was mainly used by Software as Service (SaaS) companies focused on specific digital solutions for their clients.

Nowadays, this reality has significantly changed and many other sectors have been appropriating from this approach when they have to deliver a product to handle better with customer’s expectations, needs and results. It is the reason for Customer Success being understood and used as both: service and part of product delivery ― according to the context and aim of each company.

In this article, we will analyze this question deeply, so you can have a better picture on how to use it for business growth and to reduce Customer Churn. Learn more about it with the directions below!

Are you curious to discover more about Customer Success? Check right now the subjects you will see in this article:

• Customer Success versus Customer Success Management;
• Fitting Customer Service in your workflow;
• Main organizational models of Customer Success Management;
• Find out the best concept for your company;
• Conclusion.

Customer Success versus Customer Success Management

Customer Success (CS) and Customer Success Management (CSM) are a couple of parts of your relationship with clients. We say that because, in the current society, your business’ quality is directly connected to the quality of the relationship that you are developing with the customers.

Without that, you cannot achieve consistent results in the long-term and might face difficulties to keep the growth of your enterprise. Develop better tools for interactive assessments to do it right.

Besides that, before putting CS versus CSM, it’s important to comprehend accurately what is the real meaning and purpose of each term. First off, Customer Success is not about customer satisfaction only, because it’s possible that they aren’t aware of all the issues he or she needs to overcome to achieve the growth of their business. So you need to have some things in mind when working with this approach:

• educate your customers, developing their awareness and holistic view about the strong and weak enterprise aspects;
• make sure their expectation is aligned to what you are offering to them, so both can grow in this experience and build a consistent relationship;
• do not focus only on customer satisfaction. Rather, make them understand why what you do is important to what they need for real development.

As you saw, if you concentrate just on seeing your clients’ momentous happiness, it will not be enough for their success and this might lead them to churn soon. Instead, be clear on the priorities they need to work with and show them how you are applying the best strategies to deal with that.

Now that we clarified what Customer Success is, it is time to understand what Customer Success Management is about. Here are some guidelines for you:

• it is a derivative service, which means it happens after the customer is already using your products and services;
• it is more than just a help but a productive relationship that you comprehend the customers’ needs and drive them to success in a transparent, constant and useful dialogue;
• it needs a team to be formed correctly, so don’t oversimplify to get better results with your client.

After all, CS and CSM are not enemies in this marketing field. You can use both to build more intelligent and better-asserted relationships with your customers, leading them to the success they need. Learn more about the following topics.

Fitting Customer Success in your workflow

The big question if Customer Success is a service or part of the product delivery will be clearer now. The way things have been changing in marketing and how businesses have been increasingly customer-centered is no surprise at this point, right? 

That’s why deploying your offer’s 360º view has never been so important. More than just to use a landing page to prospect, you have to look for what you can develop in your work with a wilder view.

For some of them — especially whose with well-developed business and without serious changes to be done — to develop Customer Success as a service is probably going to be enough. But for many other cases — enterprises which still don’t know where they are going to and how to achieve the results they need — to think it as a product delivery part might be quite helpful and more productive.

Therefore, you have to find ways to fit Customer Success in your workflow. Some basic tips that will be useful in the moment of defining your strategy are:

• identify common issues that your clients have been pointing out to you and solve them before new complaints or doubts comes out in the future;
• turn this process of anticipated problem-solving inherent in your workflow, rather than an urgent action to sort out a bad outcome;
• adopt a culture of constant self-improvement in your own business, following up the constant changes in which marketing is immersed in the current context;
• never dismiss the importance of good relationships in business to have a Customer Success service or product development part aligned with the best practices available in the market.

It is not impossible to get things right, you just need to know the correct path and walk it on. Now that you have the proper directions to move forward, be aware of how to apply them in your business. Keep reading to learn more.

Main organizational models of Customer Success Management

The main organizational models of Customer Success Management depends not only on the type of business you are attending but also their level of growth and complexity. There are five ways to understand it easily, and we will list it below so you may have a better picture of how it works. Check it out:

• urgent solutions CSM: referred by some as a “firefighter” due to its very specific performance guided to solve urgent problems of a client, this type of action works best in small business without many complex issues;
• sales-oriented CSM: solution finders for sales enablement are one of the key services offered by many agencies and diverse businesses but it might not be enough for bigger companies looking for outcomes in the long-run;
• service-oriented CSM: many companies still adopt this model which means offering a solutions package and a business relationship focused on certain results to please clients’ need and expectations;
• holistic CSM: big companies tend to have more complex issues and features to cope with. A 360º view can offer that bringing awareness and development to the client in the different areas of the business that they cannot realize by themselves;
• CSM as a partnership: rather than just being a service, this partnership establishes a deeper relation between vendors and customers enhancing long-run results for those matured enough to understand and invest in it.

As you saw, to apply each of these methods it will depend on the maturation of your own business and your customer’s as well. As more complex as the solution that you offer, more prepared your client needs to be to cope with the solutions you can deploy. This alignment is really necessary to produce satisfactory results.

Finding out the best concept for your company

As we have been pointing out before in this article, we are in a customer-centered society so forget about offering one same solution for everybody. That’s why it is key to find out the best concept for your company to achieve success and avoid customer churn in your business. Good strategies as content marketing can help you to approach customers in the right way and bring to your side.

The essential element to find your path is to have well-defined guidelines and aims for your enterprise. You also need to comprehend in detail what your business is all about, including its strong and weak aspects that need to be worked out to reach out to better outcomes. Do not dismiss that and you will be able to transform the reality of your work.

Conclusion

Customer Success involves different aspects that you need to be aware of to be able to produce the most interesting results. Now that you know what is relevant in this process, will be easier to do such an achievement in your business.

However, before we finish this article there is one last thing which is very important that you need to pay attention: the Return of Investment (ROI). We say that because you cannot invest in something that is not generating the best outcomes for your business. Make sure your Customer Success is leading to growth and development. That is the only way to know you are on the right path.

If you enjoyed discovering if Customer Success is a service or part of the product delivery and needs to make sure you are calculating the return of your investments properly, check out right now our ROI Calculator Builder. It is the easiest and simplest way to realize it!