Segmentation: How do you approach your customers?

Two questions that came out of CS Leadership Office Hours last week:

1. Do you tell your customers what segment they are in?

2. Would it be right to allow customers to "self select" their given segment and engagement model?

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Comments

Brian Hartley

1. No, not currently

2. Ehh...I am torn on this. For our ACV and product, my fear is that most would self-select the highest touch possible which would then crush our team.

Stacy Brown

1. No

2. We do not tell clients what tier they're in; ours is set up based on ARR. A+ are the top clients, then we group from A-C. All clients have a named CSM, however with C's representing the largest number of clients but least revenue, a goal is to have them utilize Support (email/chat/phone) and self-help options for day-to-day requests (Zendesk Community, monthly webinar trainings) as much as possible. Escalated issues, as well as renewals, risks and saves are the responsibility of the CSM. Benefits of the tiered approach for us include:

Book of business assignment (for the CSMs); we are moving towards assigning Cs to the least experienced CSM(s) and as they gain experience with us, continue to add larger accounts. The most experienced/best CSMs manage the highest revenue clients. This also provides a clear growth path for the CSMs.
CSM expectations - A+/A clients should have more interaction/touches, more frequent meetings, account reviews, etc.
Understanding impact of churn, risks, etc.
Segmentation for upsell, marketing, financial reporting
Note: Tier is in addition to package/product

Laura Lakhwara

@Jeff Breunsbach

1. No.
2. We were moving to this model. We were creating GTM/Success Tiered packages, but they never got rolled out due to changes in the market. We need more clear definition for our product, service, support, and success, which is what was driving this decision. Additionally, it was to become an additional revenue stream for more advanced, partnered professional services activity.

Brian Hansen

I really like the approach of every client having a face a name, even if they're in the "lower" tier, Sana. And the concept of moving them only after year one is thoughtfully done, too! I agree that allowing the customer to choose their level could lead to discount discussions and complexity that could hinder a smooth process, so I would avoid that. Telling customers what level they're in is not something I would feel great about either. They should feel that the support is valuable to them regardless of what ARR the bring, so telling them that they're in "level 1/2/3" only would create a human dissatisfaction reaction.

Sana Farooq

We use our segment designations (Strategic, Mid-Market, and Tech Touch) as internal more than anything.

From the customer's perspective, we want to make it as clear as possible - you receive a name and a face to support you regardless of what your purchasing amount was. Having a customer choose would also overcomplicate the sales cycle, lead to a lot more questions and asks for discounting etc that we'd prefer to avoid.

Tech Touch is where the questions and confusion are most likely to happen in particular. To manage this, we only designate a customer as Tech Touch AFTER they've completed their first renewal with FloQast. This ensures that the onboarding period and critical first year journey is very hands on and personalized to reach their adoption milestones. From there the CSM's sentiment determines whether they would be a good fit for Tech Touch, and despite them being in a pooled/shared inbox internally, each Tech Touch CSM still has a set book of business so the customer has a clear point of contact through and through.

For now, we place such a high value on being consultative and prescriptive to our customers, that we will likely not have customers opt-in to different tiers in the future.

Matt Myszkowski

Love this question - and debating to answer it in terms of what we do, or what I want us to do!? Arguably I will do both now.

1. No we don't, and based on how we do it (currently) we won't. However, on to part 2 of your question, and if we did this then I think we would do as it helps them benchmark themselves against their peers.

2. If by "self select" does the customer chose their segment based on their desired outcome or their self-assessed maturity, then yes I would be open to that. For me, a "segment" now should be focused on the cohort or outcome, not your own random ARR/ACV calculation. Saying that, this is what we are doing today but I will be looking to change this in time.