Customer Success Scalability Model

Hi, all! I'm a new member and stumbled upon this community while searching for solutions/best practices on scaling our Customer Success function. We are currently on a hiring freeze and, as sales continues to close deals, our need for a scalable success model is expedited. We have implemented process/engagement-related solutions like office hours and lunch and learns to drive our new one-to-many model. However, I would love to hear from others on lessons learned or successes found in scaling CS. My CSMs are currently focused on renewals, business reviews, and act as the main point of contact for their customers. We'd love scalable ways to identify risk, proactively address customer sentiment, scale communications, etc. Members of my team generally have anywhere from 30-50 accounts. Would love your thoughts!

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Ed Powers

One approach that's worked well helping my clients scale their Customer Success operations is to first examine the financial ramifications of tiering customer engagement experiences. Doing high-level "what if" analysis and estimating churn, NRR, and ROI impacts by tier helps to provide guardrails and goals throughout the scaling initiative. It also helps get consensus and commitment from your CFO and CEO to fund the changes you propose. Attached is my template, updated with the most recent KeyBanc study benchmarks. Happy to talk through it and discuss how to tailor it for your specific needs.

The other thing to remember about productivity is that it's about doing the right things, then doing things right. Most teams jump to efficiency without first solving effectiveness, and the key is usually found in a power law distribution of root causes (the Pareto Principle).

Michelle Baack

Great discussion here and lots of great tips about the value of communities and customer advocacy.
Beyond community, to inform how you build out different journeys with a hybrid Success model (including digital, 1:M, 1:1 offerings), consider using customer data intelligence (e.g. license usage, shelfware, contract term/length, level of customer exec sponsorship, company size, growth potential, complexity) to segment and score customers. Shift some resources to proactive engagements, targeting top growth and risk customers. Capture pre and post- engagement customer intel to allow for finding outcome and impact trends. This sounds huge, but step back and start with a simple MVP/pilot for one audience, and let the findings steer your roadmap.

Brian O'Keeffe

@Jill Mancuso Not on a regular basis. We did business reviews as needed. It might be for a period of time, following an escalation or other business reason where perceived value of the software was clearly low, or strategic for a customer with a low ARR but amazing brand name with potential to grow.

It worked in reverse too. We moved customers with an ARR that would assign them to Enterprise or Mid-Market who were successful, did not want a guided experience (they were not responsive, a key reason we might put them in the pooled model, as long as they were in good shape: healthy adoption and NPS scores, or made it clear they did not want or could not commit to the cadence of one to one) and pivoted them to one-to-one when/if needed. When reassigned, a pooled CSM might be the assigned CSM and have that direct assignment for a period of time (months, even years) and it ended up working really well and relieving the burden of the rest of team, who were often struggling with ever growing portfolio assignments.

All resistance was almost universally internal. I had one customer in my five years complain about it and they picked up they were being "downgraded" when they were handed off or from the sales exec. Sales hated it at first, but were eventually won over when they saw the results and were fed a lot of hot leads.(When your pool of customers is so large, you have way more leads to funnel!)

You need CSMs who can do it all. They understand digital, can be consultative, have great empathy and understand customer experience is key and have the ability to pivot on a dime. They will be your most valued and highest skilled CSMs. (VS the lowest skilled, entry-level, which unfortunately is a common assumption.)

My greatest win was watching a multi-million dollar name brand contact assigned to our scale team (but eligible for one to one but did not want it) talk publicly about Community, its value and how the Customer Success team was their key partner and why they were successful!

Jill Mancuso

@Brian O'Keeffe This is such great insight, thank you. Curious, during your experience, did you perform Business Reviews for these pooled accounts?

Brian O'Keeffe

@Jill Mancuso I am not currently but was the inaugural team member on this model and spent about five years as a pooled team member. In that model we used community and a dedicated, closed group as the main method of contact. Need your CSM? Post here. It worked well and most resistance was internal, not from customers. (We want our customer to have a real CSM etc...)

I saw it work well. The key to success is having a team that can go out and engage and find issues. Do not use a model where they sit back and wait for customers to come to them. Example: if you use community those reps should be going in there every day and finding assigned customer contacts and introducing themselves, making sure whatever issue was being talked about is addressed or they are connecting the customer with the right resource. You need movers and shakers who can be nimble, are not stuck in conventional behavior. RE: teacher asks question, I raise my hand, am called on, then answer.

Think about what your model will look like? How will you introduce the concept internally and to customers? The great myth is that customers will feel "slighted" or "less than" but that is almost always the internal reaction that can bubble out and be transmitted to customers. The other tiers will have a vested interest in making it not work too. They want their one to one model to be the king of the hill.

It can and does work and can be equal to or exceed performance of all other models. That is the real kick in the pants. I watched it grow from a model devised out of necessity, with groaning and very little effort or thought put into it (of course it was obviously going to fail and everyone knew it) to an active, successful sector of CS that often exceeded other sectors in key metrics.

Happy to share more or answer any questions via PM or via a call.

Jill Mancuso

Thank you everyone for your inputs! This is incredibly helpful as we move into a new year and quarter. We are beginning to implement a more regular cadence and collaboration with our product, marketing, and advocacy teams to work on scaled content and newsletter-type communication.

Another question for this group: Is anyone operating with a fully-pooled CSM model, where you are not naming CSMs to accounts at all? Currently, I'm in favor of having a pooled model for questions, outreach, etc. but would like to assign a CSM internally for accountability on things like renewals, risks, escalations, etc. I don't necessarily think that customers need to know that they have a named CSM but will help avoid confusion around responsibility. Any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Allastair Meffen

I couldn't agree more with what everyone is saying.

The one piece that @tejash_24 mentioned around making it company wide is important. In 2023, it will be all about leveraging resources outside of your organization. I have been able to work cross functionally with our marketing, training and operations teams to help with messaging, content and automation. You won't be able to do everything on your own if you have a limited budget so making everyone realize they are also part of the customer experience will make it more collaborative.

Natalie Challier

Agreed with @Brian O'Keeffe. When the organization has a small headcount, stretch your budget with tools that will help with automation and scalability. Salesforce, Gainsight, Hubspot, Outreach, and Intercom, are just a few of the systems I've used on high-volume teams to expand CS's reach.

I also cannot stress enough the importance of a vibrant community, where customers can engage with one another and leverage the expertise of other users. So long as the customer has a someone/somewhere to go to for answers, they don't care if it is an internal or external resource.

tejash_24

I wanted to reach out and share some best practices for scaling the customer success function at any organization. I hope these tips will be helpful as you continue to grow and develop your customer success strategy.

Clearly define your target customer: It's important to have a clear understanding of who your target customer is and what their needs and pain points are. This will help you prioritize your efforts and ensure that you are providing the most value to your customers.
Build a customer-centric culture: Make sure that every employee in your organization understands the importance of customer success and is committed to delivering an exceptional customer experience.
Invest in the right technology: The right customer success software can help you manage and track customer interactions, automate routine tasks, and provide valuable insights into customer behavior.
Foster a sense of community: Encourage customers to engage with each other and with your company through online forums, social media, and other channels. This can help create a sense of belonging and encourage loyalty.
Continuously gather and analyze customer feedback: Regularly soliciting and analyzing customer feedback will help you identify areas for improvement and ensure that you are meeting the needs of your customers.

I hope these tips are helpful as you continue to scale your customer success function. If you have any questions or need further guidance, please don't hesitate to reach out.

etienne

All of this resonates, I am working on the same scaled digital program, applied to our SMB customers.
I started with setting up a pooled CS team to manage the reactive aspect of CSM - a chunk of customers were left without dedicated CSM for months due to some movement in the team. In the meantime I’ve initiated one-to-many communications (newsletter, automated outreaches via Gainsight), but I’m early stage still.
Concerning the communication on the changes, each CSM leaving customers will reach out in the coming weeks and introduce the new system.
More to come!

Doug Havlik

Jill, I recently evaluated GuideCX for increasing our new clients’ engagement with our high-touch onboarding process at the same time as we add a higher volume of lower value contracts. I would recommend them as a piece in the overall puzzle for your situation and goals.

gregg petruzzi

The scaleability issue when in a hiring freeze is a problem every CS leader will face during their tenure. And I agree the Rip the Band Aid method works best. However before you do so, I can make a few recommendations to better prepare you for the potential influx in communication that are going to come.

I recommend to place your customers into tiers if you have not done so yet.
Review each customer with your CSM and try to identify who they have spent the most time with
Then put the reasons they contact the CSM into no more than 5 buckets
Who are the customers that are using the CSM time / What tier are they

Reviewing the information above will help you understand will prepare you for the customers that are more than likely to come back requesting why you are making the change. You can prepare a message and maybe reach out to them proactively.

The other piece of information I like to review is when you look at the buckets for the reasons customers are engaging with the CSM, can any of them be resolved with better documentation, or improvements to knowledge-base, are they for "How To?" questions, or to report problems with support? Then identify what processes, improvements, or maybe you can benefit from implementing a community software to minimize the impact to all your CSM. Basically you want to try to automate any processes you can (can you implement a monthly newsletter or proactively put information on your customer portal) or think about what you can implement that will help your team get some time back yet still deliver value to your customers. This also may be a good time to evaluate if you need to have your CSM specialized in specific areas or activities to better utilize their skills.

You will not make all of your customers happy but you also need to keep your CSM from getting Burned out.

Hope that helps!
Gregg

Brian O'Keeffe

Ed, great addition! I have been part of all three methods outlined and Rip the Band Aid worked best. Customers DO NOT CARE how, and who, helps them achieved key business goals. As long as they are meeting them it will not matter whether they get white glove treatment or not.

Ed Powers

Hi @Jill Mancuso--I work with several clients to help them scale their CS operations. What's helpful is to first stratify the account base into tiers and examine the financial tradeoffs of staffing 1:1, 1:many and going completely automated. The trick is the sizing and rules for how you classify your accounts. This exercise helps you break the problem into manageable chunks and reallocate resources to give better overall returns. It also helps you justify investment in any automation you need. It's helpful to do a "bottom up" staffing model in combination to narrow in on the sweet spot for each tier. Happy to talk through the approach in detail if you like.

Regarding your comment about changing engagement levels with current customers--that's a tough one.

A key part of scaling is realizing that not everyone can get (or is entitled to) "white glove" service, and it's not a good business decision to attempt it from an ROI perspective. Customers don't care, of course, and change is difficult no matter what form it takes. I've seen three approaches used in this case: 1. "Grandfather" all or a set of accounts in the old model while changing primarily for new customers; 2. "Rip the Band-Aid" by announcing it across the board and dealing with the fallout--some customers won't notice or care while others will require tough conversations; and 3. "Stealth"--change it without announcing, and deal selectively with whatever blowback you get. It's a choice between the lesser of evils, and it depends on the nature of your business, your segment(s) and their expectations, competitive threats, and your own company culture and values. It's an important C-level decision, and perhaps you can facilitate the conversation by pointing out the alternatives, benefits and tradeoffs. After a decision is made, then dig deep into change management concepts and use them to plan your response accordingly.

Hope that helps!

Ed

Jill Mancuso

@Brian O'Keeffe Thank you for the response! Yes, we do, we leverage SFDC & Gainsight; I'm currently working through the easiest/simplest processes to automate for the team. Our CSMs do not implement or configure (we have a services team), they are largely strategic arms for their customers, so we do need to beef up our asset library with more strategic/best practice related items to send and drive value proactively, while ensuring efficiency through automation.

A current challenge we're having is setting expectations with our existing customers and across our organization, as our teams are used to touting CS as "white glove service." Have you had success overcoming something similar?

Brian O'Keeffe

My favorite topic!

Look for automation wherever possible. Are you using a CRM tool? Map out the customer journey and identify all automation opportunities. Is onboarding identical for your customers, for example? What is the renewal process? Which steps can be automated? If you are not using a CRM tool you could start with templates.

What are your CSMs doing on a day to day basis? Identify the most common, repeatable items and automate them. For example, customers spend a lot of time with the CSM going over how to configure A. Create, or leverage an existing knowledge base article or video and always start with that when a customer asks about it. Drive every question about it back to it and then engage if they have a follow up.

Be fearless. Experiment with what works and what doesn't and IGNORE the doubting Thomases, or nervous Nellies who will tell you it won't work, is too dumb an idea or look at you like you are crazy. Try, adjust, repeat.

There are a lot of people who are stuck in a mindset of what is the "right way" to do things who will only acknowledge evidence that supports it. Find ways to form an alliance with them or neutralize them. The biggest battles are always internal and resistance to change, especially automation can be very strong. There is a mindset out there that it has little value, or is somehow the equivalent of robocalls. Totally false and a sign of ignorance, but be prepared for it!

Customer care about outcomes, not how it is accomplished or who accomplishes it with them.