Customer Success is a massively-disruptive movement in the Subscription Economy for one very simple reason; Customer Success is good for business.
Especially subscription businesses.
Finally, what we at Gainsight have known to be true, and what we’ve been sharing, promoting, and preaching – and, frankly, have built our own business around – has been validated in a big way in a new paper by Forrester Research (download the report here) titled “An Executive Primer To Customer Success Management.”
The Customer Success Management profession is finally getting the credit it deserves! Forrester has clearly differentiated the role from other functions and outlined the importance customer success managers have in not only retaining customers but helping grow their organizations by transforming customers into advocates.” – Chad Horenfeldt, Director, Customer Operations at Influitive
In Subscription businesses – such as Enterprise B2B Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – the real economic value of a customer isn’t realized immediately, but is instead realized over time.
What this means for Subscription Economy businesses is that you can’t make the sale and then ignore your customers. Rather, you must actively manage your relationship with your customers, not just during the sales or on-boarding process, but proactively across each phase of their lifetime with you, working with them to continually achieve success with your SaaS or service.
This has always been our stance at Gainsight, but having this clearly articulated through research by an independent third-party with the level of industry trust like Forrester will help Customer Success accelerate it’s journey to being the next widely accepted layer in the core “SaaS stack” alongside technology and processes such as Finance, Support, Billing/Metering, Marketing Automation, CRM, etc.
This report by Forrester is an important milestone for the Customer Success field. It validates what Kareo and many other B2B SaaS companies have been seeing – investing in the success of your customers is a winning strategy for growth.” – David Mitzenmacher, VP Customer Success at Kareo
The ROI of Customer Success comes not just from reduced churn, but those companies that have successfully implemented Customer Success organizations can directly correlate that to increased customer retention, increased revenue and increased customer advocacy, which drives new sales.
Get all the details for yourself by downloading the full Forrester report titled “An Executive Primer To Customer Success Management” and take your understanding of Customer Success – and how it will help you grow your business – to the next level.
Nice whitepaper. Thanks. I really liked the quote about CSMs: “We make sure that our accounts are referenceable.”
Glad you liked it… good to get some back-up from a respected firm like Forrester. That’s a great quote, for sure!
I agree! There is a lot of money thrown at demand generation, awareness, media, but if we can make customers happy and successful, we have advocates to help ‘sell’ our solutions!
It’s not just about the customers you acquire… it’s about the ones you keep (and grow!) over time. And this report backs-up that sentiment.
It’s true – in this age of the subscription economy, businesses need to earn their customers continually and repeatedly. The Customer Success function has become magnified and advocacy programs are now a critical customer retention tool.
Well-said, Merry. Everyone talks about Word of Mouth, Referrals, Virality, etc… none of that happens without fully-engaged customers that are getting value from your product.
Our customers always come first. Without them, there would be no us.
Where did we go wrong that this became something we need to be reminded of? Well, the excitement around Customer Success – and the legitimacy behind the movement, especially with research like that from Forrester – just backs-up what you (and everyone in the Customer Success universe) said. I think we’re moving in the right direction.
Lincoln not even being reminded of…but the personal responsibility of actually understanding what it’s like to be on the other end of the line. On the subscription side we are a month to month subscription and from the top down we all know we need to earn the business every 30 days or our customers can Fire Us. To ensure our clients success everyone of our customers receives a dedicated client success, free online university, huge knowledge base, online training sessions plus we use Influitive to help make them better marketers. Our CEO always says, without customers you have NO COMPANY.
I am currently in Customer Support and truly understand the importance of giving that customer the best experience possible, even if it is at my own expense (staying late, working through lunch, etc.). It is certainly gratifying when customers end a call on a happy note and mention they are going to “tell all of my friends” about our product.
Every customer is a potential advocate. Every customer needs to be treated like they are your only customer. Whether a big sale or small, the power of the peer-to-peer model is that it amplifies the customer’s experience, regardless of the figures on a PO.
Thank you for sharing this white paper! I definitely agree that customer success is a vital part of B2B success.
I know that the companies we have worked with that have a strong Customer Success focus have been some of our best vendor relationships. There’s obvious value in fostering one-to-one relationships and taking the time to check the pulse and climate of your customer and their feelings toward your solution. Subscription or not, your business is absolutely shaped by the success of your customers. They are your biggest selling point. Ensuring their success should be a priority.