At a time when technology has made it easy for consumers to take their business elsewhere, customer success managers are taking a proactive approach to client relations.
In Salesforce’s most recent State of the Connected Customer Report, 88 percent of survey respondents said the customer experience was as valuable as a company’s products or services — a higher percentage than in previous years. Additionally, 48 percent said they switched brands over the past year due to customer service.
These results illustrate why proactively keeping up with clients’ wants and needs is paramount to creating effective workflows and long-term strategies. By eliminating reactive, time-consuming problem-solving, CSMs can achieve more and focus on top priorities.
As technological advancements have shifted consumer behaviors and expectations, they have also provided new automation tools and solutions for leveraging data that empower CSMs to adopt forward-thinking strategies.
A customer success professional at Tonkean shared what habits, tools and systems have helped him level up his work and provide clients with great experiences.
Tonkean is a no-code business operations platform that empowers business and IT teams to drive operational efficiency while maintaining compliance and security.
What’s one personal habit you’ve adopted that’s helped you be more proactive as a CSM?
Some time ago, I began using Google Sheets to complete weekly personal audits of any and all outstanding action items I needed to complete for my customers that week. Every Monday, I set aside 15 to 30 minutes and create a new tab on the same sheet with my customers’ names in rows. I add a column with a check mark to note the customers I’m meeting with that week so I remember to review notes from our last meeting before the next one. I then add any to-dos from my email, Slack and notes that I know will need to be completed by the customer after our call. Finally, I catalog the most relevant projects and initiatives I’ve completed for the customer since our last conversation.
All of this keeps me organized, ensures nothing falls through the cracks and helps me more completely articulate to customers what value I’m providing them through our partnership.
What role does data play in helping you and your team be more proactive in your approach to customer success?
I rely heavily on data to proactively serve my customers. The key is using automation technology to ensure I always have access to what data I need to stay informed. At Tonkean, we’ve set up automations that ping account Slack channels any time we see drops in usage, an increase in errors or, conversely, increases in engagement. This prompts and equips my team to reach out to customers whenever they are experiencing an issue with targeted solutions and resources. Often, we’re able to diagnose problems before the customer even realizes there is one.
I rely heavily on data to proactively serve my customers. The key is using automation technology to ensure I always have access to what data I need to stay informed.”
We also focus heavily on gathering success criteria data to help quantify the value that Tonkean is bringing to our customers. This helps customer success stay proactive in renewal conversations and encourages the customers to proactively initiate conversations with their upper management about needing more headcount or more budget to buy more software.
As a team, what’s a system or strategy you’ve put in place to get ahead of potential issues before they arise? What other teams help support this strategy?
The Slack automations have helped us get in front of a lot of potential issues. This is especially true of our customers on multi-year contracts. One tendency among long-term customers is to adopt a kind of “set it and forget it” mentality when it comes to their use of tech. By keeping a pulse on how they use our platform and dutifully helping them use it better even in years two and three, we transcend our role as “vendor” and become a truly trusted partner.
Staying data-driven along the way ensures we can depict precisely how we’ve provided customers’ value throughout our partnership, even and perhaps especially during non-renewal cycles, which puts us in a good position when it comes time to have renewal conversations later on.
One final word on “value.” Operating in this way isn’t just about proving the value of customer success. At Tonkean, for example, we’re not the only ones who pay attention to the Slack automations we’ve set up. Support and product teams also rely on them to review and redress platform issues. Ensuring that all team members internally have access to the same data sets enables us to collaborate quickly and provide better experiences for customers.
