Post Sale Customer Journey Examples

Antonio Sierra · December 2020

Hi everyone, we are a small B2B SaaS startup that serves SMBs in the entertainment industry. In the past few months, we've been onboarding more "enterprise" customers that require more of a high-touch approach and a longer implementation cycle.

We are mainly tech-touch throughout the entire process other than initial setup and training. I'm currently segmenting our customers to create different playbooks, however, I'm struggling to find a good template or example to give me an idea of how we can architect the different touchpoints and processes to ensure those "enterprise" customers have a successful start.

Are there any good public examples/templates any of you can share? People have suggested using CRMs or Gainsight, Totango, etc. However, we are not that big to spend on a CS tool yet. We currently use Intercom and really track the post-sale journey in spreadsheets. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Anita Erhirhie · December 2020

Hello Antonio,

I have a few questions to help better understand the situation.

What possible ways of segmenting are you considering?
How many customers fall under each segmentation?
How many CSMs do you have and what are their levels of experience?
I understand you mentioned your company has more tech-touch processes but do you have any structure in place to resolve this issue in the immediate?

Hi everyone, we are a small B2B SaaS startup that serves SMBs in the entertainment industry. In the past few months, we've been onboarding more "enterprise" customers that require more of a high-touch approach and a longer implementation cycle.

We are mainly tech-touch throughout the entire process other than initial setup and training. I'm currently segmenting our customers to create different playbooks, however, I'm struggling to find a good template or example to give me an idea of how we can architect the different touchpoints and processes to ensure those "enterprise" customers have a successful start.

Are there any good public examples/templates any of you can share? People have suggested using CRMs or Gainsight, Totango, etc. However, we are not that big to spend on a CS tool yet. We currently use Intercom and really track the post-sale journey in spreadsheets. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Rachel Yockey · December 2020

Hi Antonio -

I know you said you're not big enough to spend on a CS tool yet, but in hindsight this is my biggest regret. We are wrapping up implementation with ChurnZero and it's going to fix so many problems we created ourselves by trying to manage on the fly and with spreadsheets. I'd really encourage you to find a solution that helps you with the journeys and playbooks before you need it, so that when your "hockey stick" moment comes, you're ready.

Good luck!

Renata Dinamarco · December 2020

Hey Antonio,

I recently signed up for the free version of HubSpot. It has a lot of functionality that will probably last you a good while. Of course, that's how they hook you to eventually pay for upgraded features/services, but it's a good option to consider if you need a CRM but don't have the cash to pay for a full suite.

Cheersm

Renata Dinamarco

Chase Tinkham · December 2020

Hi Antonio,

It sounds like you all are moving into an exciting time at Gigwell that will blaze the path for other customers in this high-touch segment of your customers. Congrats! This won't nail everything, however, I sincerely hope it gives you a nice point to start from. These will also help as building blocks for what others are suggesting RE: Customer Success Solutions so that when the right time arrives - you're ready to charge ahead v. trying to work out where everything will live after you ditch the spreadsheets.

Starting Point:

In my experience, the most important thing to make sure you have to ensure the success of these customers is proper expectations and alignment with those expectations. As such, I would recommend initially that you have those items marked down somewhere in your CRM - provided by the sales executive or representative that sold the deal. It doesn't have to be long-winded - it could be as simple as a multi-select field with the top 20 or so value propositions. Heading into a welcome call with Enterprise customers understanding what they're hoping to achieve in that sense will already be a feather in your cap. Bonus points if we can have Sales fill out a field of "Value Propositions - Notes" to give additional insight. You may be meeting with that sales rep regardless of this field having been filled out - but these will give us a North Star to point at as the relationship continues.

Second, I would recommend identifying/being aware immediately of any blockers that may stop them from progressing through your initial Journey. Where are the "sticking points" in your process and/or fit issues that will keep that Enterprise customer from progressing forward? Perhaps marking them in a "Customer Fit Challenges" multi-select field similar to the one above could prove helpful as you and/or Sales identify them and the relationship progresses. This will not only allow you to start problem-solving now for those issues - it will give you something to point back to if things don't turn out quite how you may have wanted. "Customers of this type or with this issue are X% less likely to be successful. As such, we should..." Give yourself the data for future you/Gigwell.

These are key data points that will help you and the team understand what Journey or path you'd like the customer to progress down to ensure they're meeting their goals.

Mapping the Journey

Every SaaS company looks at Time-to-Value (and make no mistake about it - so do your buyers). As such, I believe we should be aligned with Sales to ensure they're setting proper expectations upfront and we follow that through as we guide that customer through onboarding. Question: What is Sales telling those Enterprise customers RE: how long it will take to Onboard? Start your map there and work back to the beginning. If you are finding it difficult to fit all of your Steps into the Journey you map - then it's time for a conversation about:

How you can mitigate the time to onboarding for those customers or
What Sales Executives need to be telling your customers prior to signing to ensure you're aligned on realistic expectations RE: onboarding timeframes

Once you have that timeframe for the ideal Journey - you can start building out your Playbooks and more but doing so without the above will likely prove frustrating and less than fruitful when Enterprise customers start coming back to say they were missold, unhappy, or annoyed. That's a long day for any CSM.

Timeframe:

I would recommend starting to look at your Onboarding Journey in smaller, bite-sized chunks. Here at ChurnZero, we call them Milestones - but whatever you call them - they're points of value realization throughout your Journey that you need the customer to go on with you. For example, if your customer is looking to take online payments for gigs but they haven't in the past - getting your bank details along with a few other Steps may be what you need to get to your first Milestone (which you should then celebrate with your customer - "Here is where we are now Mr./Ms. Customer, as a reminder - this is why it was important, this is where we're headed and what that will allow you to do." Resetting and revisiting the process to ensure expectations are still aligned through the Journey is important when it comes to High-Touch, Enterprise customers.

Once you have those Milestones or buckets of Steps, Tasks that your team needs to execute on, and Achievements that the customer needs to accomplish prior to truly realizing their initial goals - you're ready to put it into Play.

An example might look something a bit like this. Notice that the Achievements are not all "Strategic" but are rather "Tactical". The idea is that these are the key Steps that must be done to get to your customer's initial value propositions and goals.

High-Level Journey Example

Assessment:

Once you have your ideal Journey for your customer laid out and your accompanying collateral (e.g. A PDF for the customer of what this Journey ahead will look like.) Run with it - you've likely put a lot of work into it at this point but you'll also want to monitor what is truly happening in this Journey. Are folks getting stuck on that one piece since it is overcomplicated? Should we add a particular call at a certain point to specifically deal with X? Iterate quickly based on feedback provided by your Individual Contributors and the Enterprise Customers going through the process (I would suggest initially connecting on the back-end of the deployment or once or twice during depending on your timeframe with POC and Exec Sponsor) as the process gets sorted. A quick 5-minute note or 15-20 minute discussion with the customer can tell you a lot and will be worth it to ensure they're having a positive experience while removing blockers and challenges for those customers that are in your next cohort of customers.

Questions to ask as you go through this process for yourself, your customer, and your individual contributor supporting the Onboarding:

Are we On-Track for where we told the customer we would be? If not, why?
Where did we get stuck in the process (e.g. did a form you need to be filled out take too long to get back? How can we mitigate the time-to-return on that mission-critical item?)
What could we have done without? (it is ok to eliminate things from the process or move them later down the line if things feel "overwhelming" for the customer as long as they can proceed forward without it.)
Where did we find points of friction with our conversations with the customer?
What one thing would help improve their overall experience with our onboarding? What felt "out of place"?
How close are we to our ideal timeframe? For example, if you're sitting at 60 Days for Onboarding on average and your Sales Team is telling customers 30 Days - you'll be fighting an uphill battle for a long time. It pays dividends to align on this front - which results in more sales, advocates, and reviews for Gigwell.

I sincerely hope this helps get you started, Antonio. This eBook may prove helpful as well.

Best,
Chase

Antonio Sierra · December 2020

Hi Anita, thanks for the help. See comments below

We've segmented our customers into 3 personas based on different criteria so we can target them effectively. We do not offer trials and all of our customers require an account set up and an initial training call with CS and then we use Intercom for onboarding and engagement messages/campaigns.

Our lowest (~165 customers) and Mid tiers (~250 customers) are mainly automated with an occasional touch from us. Mid tiers require more handholding as they usually have more users so we spend a bit more effort there.

Our Top tier (~75 "enterprise" customers) is where I'm struggling a bit with their post-sale journey. We are only two people in CS and need to set a framework to make sure we walk them throughout the process with us keeping track of their progress.

Let me know if this answers your question. Thanks

Antonio Sierra · December 2020

Makes sense. Thanks for the feedback, Rachel!

Antonio Sierra · December 2020

Hi Renata, our sales team uses Zendesk Sell but CS does not use it. It's probably worth exploring since our Sales team is used to it. Thanks for the feedback

Antonio Sierra · December 2020

Oh wow! Thank you so much for this, Chase. Will definitely look into it. Your feedback's pretty much aligned with what I'm putting together. Will take a look at the ebook as well.