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Levels & Progression of CSMs
One area of thinking for me in the 2nd half of the year is how we structure our CSM team in terms of seniority and the relevant career progress within role. I am thinking: * Entry/junior : Customer Success Manager * Mid : Senior Customer Success Manager * Experienced : Customer Success Director What does everyone else do…
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Seeking input on using CSAT to evaluate onboarding team as part of bonus
Hello. We are looking to include the post-onboarding CSAT score as part of the onboarding team's bonus calculation. I want to make sure that the questions we ask give us an read on the onboarding manager's performance as well as the company's overall performance with onboarding new clients. Given this, what (quantitative)…
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Tried and Proven - what is the best way to compensate your CSMs
Looking for advice on the best way to incentivise and reward your customer success managers and team leads. Ideally something that is simple and transparent for the CS function to follow. What works and what should be avoided?
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CS - Revenue or Operations?
I had an interesting conversation with my CEO last week and have been thinking about this a lot. He asked me - long term do you see customer success living under Revenue or Operations? CS for us is onboarding, training, CSMs, customer service, etc. all living under the CS umbrella. We own renewals, upsells, downgrades, and…
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Training Courses to improve Call & Meeting technique
Good Morning everyone! I am wanting my team to focus on the way they hold their calls & meetings as a CSM. I have a few team members who have an awesome approachable personality, but as soon as they get on a call they are very 'professional'. When I give them feedback they tend to struggle to find the line of a personable…
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Any HealthTech/IT CS folks in the House?
Hey everyone - great to be a part of such a supportive and engaging community. I was wondering if there are any folks here that are in Healthcare / Health Technology / Digital Health Customer Success? I'd love to connect (LinkedIn and Twitter links in my signature). I've been working within healthcare (payers, providers,…
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Office Hours Follow Up: Characteristics of a CSM
For those on office hours yesterday, I had promised to share this with everyone. We have found this helpful when doing performance reviews to help our team members identify their strengths & areas of focus for growth. No one can be all these things and it is helpful to know what we do well, where we can grow and where we…
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Non-negotiable tech: Keeping your culture connected as WFH/ Virtual First teams: Cultural Tech Stack
Now that we are 2 years into COVID, I'm really curious about what has become non-negotiable for growing teams when it comes to staying connected with teammates and coworkers. We often talk about the CS tools used to serve customers, but what are you using that approximates casual conversations and 'watercooler' chat that…
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Metrics for individual CSMs
My team's goals revolve around retention and advocacy. I know what the team is being measured on, however, I am looking for individual CSM metrics that roll up to the team metrics and that drive behavior that we need to have. In other words, I know that to develop a relationship, my CSMs have to be having calls with their…
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GGR CS Ops Office Hours: Today
Customer Success Operations Office Hours! Today: 11:00 am ET, 4:00 pm GMT Come join us and the Gain Grow Retain Community for CS Ops Office Hours - I am at your service as your Host. This series is for those CS Ops Leaders who are building strategy, execution, and measurement. We have two goals with every session: Did you…
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5 Reasons Why Customer Success isn’t just for SaaS
You have marketing staff and a strong sales force, but is that all your company requires to achieve its full potential? No, that is not the case. When everyone else in the business is doing the same thing, you must go above and beyond to make your company stand out and reap the benefits of your efforts. So, what other…
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Looking to utilize the power of networking - Do you know any leadership at Workday?
Hi GGR network! I'm posting something unique here. Not looking for advice or best practices in CS. This time, I am reaching out to see if anyone can introduce me to anyone in leadership at Workday. I have several mutual enterprise level common customers with Workday, and Adaptive Shield, where I head the CS initiative. We…
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CSM Interview Case Study
Hi everyone, I'm a big fan of using case studies in interviews for CSMs - helps showcase ability to present, work under pressure, etc. Usually I'll ask them to present what outcomes our business could help a hypothetical customer achieve and include a more technical demo as well. I've got a few templates I've used in the…
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'Moments of Truth' in Customer Success Journey
“Moments of truth” are those crucial points in your firm’s interaction with a customer. An article published in Harvard Business Review states that “the most important interactions [with a customer] are ‘moments of truth,’ those few points of contact that hold the greatest potential to delight — or alienate — an…
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Multiple interview assignments?
Hi Everyone, I'm helping a mentee through the hiring process for an entry level CSM position and am perplexed and frankly insulted by the hiring practices at this company. In general I am pretty against take home assignments unless they are either generic topics looking to gain insight into thought process or given with a…
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Career Ladder?
CS Pros, I searched the archives and didn't find anything on career ladders. I'm building this for my new team - does anyone have a cleansed template I could borrow (plagiarize?)? Thanks so much! Tanya
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Example CSM Comp Plan (Net Dollar Retention)
We put together an example CSM Comp Plan but I'd be curious to get feedback and hear if there are other versions that the group could share. I'm also curious on 2 questions: * How do you partner with Finance on this? * Where do you calculate comp plans? Excel? Tools? Example CSM Comp Plan
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5 Data Points to Get Your Customer Success Budget Approved
It’s “Budget and Planning” time of the year, again! As a CS leader, you reviewed your past year’s performance thoroughly. New areas of investment have been identified and you are ready to speak with the CEO/CFO about additional budget requirements. The dreaded part: How will you show value and get your budget approved?…
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Starting an internal Mentorship Program
Hi everyone! I've been tasked with leading and building out a Mentorship program for about 20 people or so (10 Mentors, 10 Mentees). My goal is to put together a thoughtful and structured program that benefits everyone involved. The hope would be that this would be a template to use as we grow. There are a ton of resources…
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Office wishlist
As many organizations are, my company is looking to get us back in the office, which I don't oppose as I feel it improves culture and collaboration. We are remodeling our office, and as department heads, we have been asked for a wishlist of things we'd want for our team space. We will have roughly 30 conference…
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Topics/Ideas for CSM Team Meetings
Hey Folks! We are looking at getting our CSM team together for a team meeting, and I'd love to hear ideas that others have to make in person team meetings interactive, fun and productive. We will be tackling some of the basics as refreshers (since we have new folks, have been remote, etc) such as role best practices,…
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Mentorship for our CS team (mid-level managers)
Hi there, We're currently searching for a strong VP of Customer Success at Teamwork. While the team is without a lead, we'd love to be able to provide some mentorship to our mid-level managers. Does anyone know open-minded CS leaders (in particular skilled in the Onboarding space) who'd be willing to mentor some of our…
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Quick Hits: Things That Aren't Scary
October is Halloween month, the month of all things scary; before we get there, let’s briefly examine some things that are not scary. Selling Unrealistic quota is scary. Rejection is scary. Having someone think you’re pushy is scary. So selling is scary, right? Well, it can be if the aforementioned are involved, but they…
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A Guide For VP Of Customer Success (CS) To Achieve 125% ARR!
A Guide For VP Of Customer Success (CS) To Achieve 125% ARR! Yes, you heard that right! Also, you must have heard this multiple times as well. As a CS leader or VP or Head of CS, you must be intrigued by the number. In SaaS businesses, ARR/MRR is the lifeline for their existence. What would you do if you can’t maintain and…
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Customer Success Enablement: What's working, challenging, and/or unanswered?
Hi GGR Community, I'm in CS Ops, with a primary focus on CS Enablement. I feel like at this point, there isn't much on CS Enablement, and yet it is becoming more and more important. As CS Leaders, I would love to get some takes on the following questions. Why? Well, two reasons. First, you may have stumbled across a…
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Connecting with Remote Colleagues - Zoom Happy Hours Arent Working
Hi Everyone - This isn't Customer Success specifically but is relevant to anyone that is either leading or working within a team. I read an article from ladder.com about Zoom meetings, Zoom fatigue etc... In the article they reference a 1,000 person survey and much of the details are what you'd expect, but there was one…
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Top "Customer Success" Related Questions being searched on Google
We've all asked and answered the question "what is customer success", So I wanted to do a little research to determine what people are still asking google. I used some content research tools + Google's Keyword planner to find the results below. These details are extremely helpful if you're considering creating new…
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30-60-90 day plan for CSMs and CS OPs
Hey all, I'm hoping someone can help me out with some resources. I'm getting a few new team members soon and I'm looking to create a 30-60-90 onboarding plan for them. Has anyone done this for their CSM team or CS Ops team? I'm definitely struggling more with the one for CS Ops, but would love to see anything similar that…
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Customer on-site visits (pre and post covid)
How much time was your customer success staff spending on-site 'walking the halls' of their customers: Pre-Covid Do you think it will return to the same truly post Covid? Do you think it will be changed forever and more remote/digital/automated? Thanks for your thoughts, MarkS
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Training new Employees
Hey guys, We're a business of 20 people in NZ. I am the only CSM in our company. I originally started as a Support Specialist, then introduced CSM to the business, and have moved into that space. Since we are a small business, I also manage the Support Team as well as the CSM Processes. I have a young graduate employee who…