Disengaging from a customer...

chris.mclean
chris.mclean Member Posts: 5 Navigator
Name Dropper First Comment
in Customer Success Leadership Community

Hey folks,

New here...from a quick looks looks like a great place for customer success professionals. I have a question on disengaging from a customer. We have customers that we will be disengaging from in the new fiscal year so wondering if you have done that before and what messaging did you use. I've looked online and haven't seen a lot out there. I know that "digital channels" need to be in place (working on that now) but struggling a bit on what sort of messaging would work best to "soften the blow" of a customer losing a CSM. Thanks in advance.

Chris

Comments

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 8 Seeker
    5 Comments First Anniversary Name Dropper

    @chris.mclean what's the reason for disengagement?

  • Anita Toth
    Anita Toth Member Posts: 245 Expert
    Third Anniversary 100 Comments Photogenic

    Great to see this post @chris.mclean 👍️

  • chris.mclean
    chris.mclean Member Posts: 5 Navigator
    Name Dropper First Comment

    Hey Melissa, the reason for the disengagement is scale- to move on to work with other customers. So, nothing to do with them not being a customer any more, or a bad fit...just simply scale. They're in a "good place" today and we (CSMs) need to "move on".

  • Dhenig
    Dhenig Member Posts: 2 Navigator
    Name Dropper Photogenic First Comment

    Hi Chris - I have a question for you. How frequently does the customer contact support? Dependent on this question It may be that you can 'drop' the account without disengaging and still be seen as the 'CSM' without even having to let them know. If they need support ad hoc, can you still help out and be reactive?

  • Amanda Flurry
    Amanda Flurry Member Posts: 11 Navigator
    10 Comments First Anniversary Name Dropper

    Hi @chris.mclean,

    I echo @Dhenig's comments about not letting the customer know. You may be able to lessen the individual support more naturally.

    You mention that the customers are in a good place and the CSMs need to move on. Tell me more about that! Where are the CSMs spending their time with these customers? Is that time being used effectively? The example that comes to mind is meeting cadence. For example, are your CSMs meeting biweekly with these customers when once a month or once every other month would suffice? Are the meetings valuable or are CSMs meeting with customers just to say they met? If the later, it may be as simple as the CSM saying, "You are in a great spot! I want to respect your calendar. Let's shift our meetings to monthly. You can always reach out to me (or support / knowledge base / etc.) if you need help between meetings!"

  • Dhenig
    Dhenig Member Posts: 2 Navigator
    Name Dropper Photogenic First Comment

    Good shout @Amanda Flurry! This has worked well from my experience.

  • LouiseC
    LouiseC Member Posts: 7 Seeker
    First Anniversary Photogenic First Comment

    Hey Chris,

    We went through a bit of this when scaling, as our low-value accounts, we just couldn't justify the amount of 1-2-1 time they were taking up. Here's what I put in place:


    • Made it really easy to contact support - we use intercom with live chat
    • 'Personalised' but on mass communication to the smaller accounts to 'remind' them how easy it is to contact support and what types of queries support can help them with and that they can pre-book 15 minute working time with support to walk through any challenges
    • In that same message, let them know that support is main POC, but i'll 'keep an eye on the account from a distance and let them know if i spot anything they should be doing different'
    • Following on from this, i then created an automated journey with a series of emails that comes from one of the CSM's basically just checking in and giving them the ability to book a 15-minute quick call if there's anything to discuss on a 6 monthly basis

    We've not quite nailed it 100% i'd say, but it's getting better as it goes. We still have ownership for renewals and alerts of risk etc which we split equally among the CSMs based on industry sector for our client base.


    Thanks,

    Louise

  • chris.mclean
    chris.mclean Member Posts: 5 Navigator
    Name Dropper First Comment

    hey folks, still getting used to this platform sorry for the delay, really appreciate the input. @Dhenig the customer contact to Support varies...some it's very rare ...others it's more often. If these customers have a lot of open tickets then we wouldn't disengage. @Amanda Flurry yeah, good point...most of our cadence meetings are quarterly. Most. So our touch points are not often unless a hot issue comes up. So, not much more we can deviate from as far as meeting cadence. @Louise Cunningham "digital channels" is something I'm chasing I think is along the same lines is what you are referring to. We have some things in place but I'm actually part of a "tiger team" to delve into this more to make sure we (the company) can make sure the customer is kept up to date with the latest and greatest. All this might fall in the "digital CSM" model...where a "touch" is warranted every now-and-again...but for the most part...we're "disengaging". The "15 min. follow-up" might be worth exploring though.

    Thank you all.

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