What is Customer Success and how to lead your client to success with the methodology!

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The goal of every business in Digital Marketing is to make their customer successful!

Customer Success is a methodology—a company philosophy—that aims exactly at achieving its client's objectives.

Before continuing with this reading it is important that you understand the concept.

So, I start this article with Lincoln Murphy 's definition (which I put in virtually facebook database every piece of content I do on the topic) for Customer Success:

Customer Success is when your customers achieve desired outcomes through the points of interaction with your company.

Taking into account the two pillars of Customer Success, which are the desired results and the points of interaction, that is, the experience with your organization, we can begin with a broader and more complete understanding of what has changed with the arrival of Customer Success in companies.

In this post you will understand how Customer Success took customer service to another level and how companies grow with this philosophy!

The evolution of customer service
What is Customer Success?
Acquisition, sale and service must be very well aligned
You have to be less of a salesman and more of a consultant
After-sales goes far beyond the relationship
Customer Success and Revenue Expansion
The evolution of customer service
With the change in the way of producing, thinking about and promoting products, brands and companies, marketing has also changed, as has the relationship with customers.

Over the years, the way companies view consumers has changed, from a passive figure who simply bought, to being the most important figure, the center of everything for successful companies .

In the age of mass production, consumer opinion didn't count for much. The focus was on doing more with less money, selling more and more... a kind of "who doesn't want people to not buy my product, but this is how I'm going to do it" approach.

In the 1950s, advertising gained momentum and brands like Coca-Cola began to consolidate a more consumer-oriented identity.

Still, it didn't matter much how you defined who the buyer would be: the important thing was to reach as many people as possible, persuade them (regardless of whether it was true or not) and sell to them. It was a success at the time!

Advertising evolved and marketing began to link marketing information with product promotion decisions, through market research techniques and solid and compelling information for decision-making.

And then?

Well, when you stop to listen to what your consumer expects from you, from your company and from your behavior (so that they buy more from you), it will be inevitable to come across the relationship as a crucial point.

And that is what I wanted to get across: when the customer becomes the centre, their satisfaction and loyalty comes from quality and not from pure and simple persuasion .

We believe that, in fact, the era of the customer has already taken a step forward with Customer Success.

If before the focus was on making the customer happy, pampering them, working on personalization, customization and basically doing everything the customer wants to keep them, when we think beyond happiness, we must consider the success of this customer as a loyalty mechanism.

Then we are talking about Customer Success!

What is Customer Success?
At the beginning of this content, we mentioned the concept of CS, but it is necessary to understand it in a practical way, so it is essential to keep in mind that customer success is not the same as the success of your service .

This is a common mistake for those who are beginning to shift the focus from customer service/relations to Customer Success.

Think about it: the customer attending every meeting, learning how to use your software perfectly, understanding your processes, not being a guy who demands so much from your technical support, are these the only indicators your company uses to measure if it is “doing it right”?

Well, if your answer is yes, it's time to review the way you understand Customer Success.

Of course, these indicators say a lot about customer engagement , which is indeed an important pillar for success, but it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to customer success.

The successful customer begins to develop during the qualification for the sale, goes through the sale, reaches the post-sale and, believe us, it is a cycle that, to be truly successful, never ends!

That is why it is essential for companies to have a culture of Customer Success, not just of a sector, and much less of a professional who deals with customer success.

It is always important to understand and repeat: customer success is everyone’s “problem” in the company .

Do you want to know how this is possible? Well, we will show you how Customer Success can completely change the way a company operates on all fronts.

Acquisition, sale and service must be very well aligned
Capturing the right customer is the beginning of everything .

But you must be wondering: who is the right customer? The one who can afford to pay for my product or service, right? Definitely not!

If you have been “shooting everywhere” in search of potential clients, it is time to stop doing so immediately.

The right client, which we call good fit , is one who has the potential to be successful with what your company offers .

If you sell a product that doesn't meet the needs of big companies, why would you want to attract these companies? (It's worth saying that we're not saying this to stop your company from expanding, but if you're going to do that, you need to adapt everything from your product to your service!)

When defining who your correct audience is, you must understand the form of communication you will use to capture them.

Determining your buyer persona and focusing on the pain points, doubts, and problems they face on a daily basis, providing them with resources and answers to help them solve them, becomes the best way to communicate with them.

The focus is no longer on your product and becomes how your product can, in some way, help solve your buyer persona’s life!

people-generator
You have to be less of a salesman and more of a consultant
We dare say that a sales process focused on customer success is the privilege of mature companies, which have understood that in order to grow healthily, sometimes you have to say no to some customers.

We are talking, again, about bad fit clients .

Before you tell us we are wrong, understand that the customer who has no potential to succeed with your product is one who has the potential for future churn. And what is worse, they may go around badmouthing your company in the market, with the argument that they have bought a “pig in a poke.”

To ensure that this does not happen, it is necessary to have a very well-aligned marketing and sales pitch, to structure a solid and robust transition process, not made up of marketing and sales, but of respectful marketing in your company!

This mindset even changes the profile of the salesperson in a company focused on customer success.

A good salesperson is not only a “good conversationalist”, a persuasive guy who overcomes objections (these are good characteristics for closing the deal, but before getting there…), he is also a deep connoisseur of the company's business, a consultant for the client's business .

Sales become a filter for the company to serve customers with potential for success, and this generates satisfaction and loyalty.

After-sales goes far beyond the relationship
When we talk about after-sales , already in customer service, we tend to think that companies are already operating in “Customer Success” mode.

However, having a culture, an industry, and Customer Success professionals requires a greater effort than simply changing the name of the service or relationship team to the CS team (the acronym used in the market).

Onboarding
Post-sales customer success starts with passing the baton from Sales to CS, done at customer implementation or onboarding . This passage, also called handoff , consists of exchanging information about the customer and the sales process to those who will actually take care of the customer.

Furthermore, it is in the initial phase of the relationship that we must educate him so that he is successful with what he bought, in addition to giving him the first value, making him more confident and with the certainty that he made a good purchase.