First CSM at a software company

Bayron Toruno S.

Hello everyone,

Hope you're having a great day :)

My name is Bayron, I'm from Costa Rica and recently moved to Germany to start a new stage of my life. A good friend of mine recommended me GRR and as per what I have seen so far is a wonderful community with a combination of knowledgeable professionals and people willing to help.

2 weeks ago I started my journey at a software development company as a Support Specialist. My background as JR project manager, onboarding consultant, leadership, and a little of CSM gave me enough resources/knowledge to provide them with some improvements which they liked and now they want me to start from zero a CSM process/department. I'm so excited because I really want this but I have never started from scratch. They have no more than 100 employees.

I know I first need to start with some discovery questions and based on the answers implement new processes.

Any suggestions? I'm ready to learn :)

Thanks in advance!

Chris Braddock

Greetings, Bayron. I am in a similar situation, starting the CS department of a SaaS company from scratch. I have to build everything new and it's been a struggle knowing where to focus my time. I will be lurking for other responses!

Allison Mortens

Hi Bayron! Congratulations on your move and new adventure! I've been in a similar position to you a few times, so I have some knowledge to impart. I like to start with the following:

Analyze your customer base: who are your customers? How many customers do you have? How can you segment them for engagement, measurement, etc. What does their usage of your platform look like?

Analyze your tech stack: what tools are available to you internally? What is the source of truth for customer data? Who has access to that data?

Analyze the current state of engagement with your customers: how do they ask for help? What resources are available to them? Are there self-service options or product documentation? How are renewals facilitated, within the Sales organization or elsewhere?

Once you have data from those analyses, you can start building processes and establishing goals and metrics. Understanding what exists first before you start building is critical.

I hope that's helpful! Best of luck!

Allison

Bayron Toruno S.

https://gaingrowretain.com/discussion/comment/10060#Comment_10060

Thank you a lot!

Darien Aasen

Hey Bayron,

That's an exciting position to be in.

Along the lines of what Allison said, it's important to understand where things are currently before you can truly prioritize what needs to be implemented or changed.

Is there a specific metric or goal that leadership is going to be looking for? That could be project-based such as "outline and provide data on # of accounts and value of customer base." or they may have some

Next, determine what resources you have at your disposal, while it includes technologies, it could be a budget, physical hardware, a direct channel to escalate things/tickets/customer requests/etc..

Lastly, find someone or a group of people that you can dive deeper into your unique situations. Not every situation is the same and community is invaluable but a community cannot know you as well as a mentor or a couple of close leaders who you have shared intricate details with.

Happy to help further if you'd like.

Bayron Toruno S.

https://gaingrowretain.com/discussion/comment/10065#Comment_10065

Thank you both for the help!

Happy to know that I can learn a lot!

Andy Sackley

I've done this a few times and it's a fun process Bayron - congrats on the promotion.

I'd agree with the other comments above, the one thing I'd add is that in all facets - understand what 'good enough' is for this stage of the company, your customers and your (eventual) team. I've learned that getting something 80% there and then iterating on it every 3-6 months vs trying to get the perfect process / sow / guide etc in place allows you to move more rapidly and react better to things that may change or things you learn as you implement your processes and tools.

Look for allies in other groups (support / product etc) and find a couple of friendly customers to talk to and ask them to be transparent on what's not working and what is etc.

Good luck and enjoy it - you'll be amazed at how much your learn!

-Andy

Bayron Toruno S.

https://gaingrowretain.com/discussion/comment/10065#Comment_10065

Thank you for taking the time to write your response. It helps a lot!

Bayron Toruno S.

https://gaingrowretain.com/discussion/comment/10071#Comment_10071

I will definitely keep doing some research. Thank you for your great response :)