The most successful Enterprise SaaS companies know that growing revenue only through new customer acquisition is the less efficient way to scale. Rather, they understand that growing revenue within your existing customer base - through up-sells, cross-sells, and expanded use - is the most profitable way to scale.
In fact, Enterprise SaaS companies that grow revenue - and company valuation - by expanding revenue within their existing customer base also know the key to making this work is to focus on - and operationalize - Customer Success.
This presentation - Customer Success for Big Tech Companies - is from Pulse 2014, the biggest Customer Success industry event ever and included panelists from Oracle and Informatica.
2. Tom Cloos
Oracle Corporation
Sr. Director, Customer Success
Responsible for North American
Service Automation Client Base
Currently 33 CSMs and 4 RDs
With Significant Growth in FY15
Tiered client coverage
Focus on:
• Knowing the business
• Knowing the solution
• Providing expert guidance
• Demonstrating measurable value
Customers around the world rely on Oracle’s complete portfolio of
enterprise and industry applications. Oracle offers choice and
flexibility with the most comprehensive, modern, and secure
portfolio, including SaaS applications for human capital
management, customer experience, and more. Oracle provides
enterprise-level solutions that support all types of cloud-based
scenarios, including public cloud, private cloud, and a hybrid
option.
$37.2 Billion FY2013 Revenue
400,000 Customer Including 100 of Fortune 100
85,000 Oracle Application Customers
Over 120,000 Employees
3. Understanding Large Scale Customer Success Challenges
• Role Definition – Many more touch points for
clients. Much more overlap and potential
confusion internally and externally. For
example, centralized crisis communication is
extremely challenging and global client
engagement creates even more issues.
• Role Education – Once defined, constant
education necessary. Turnover, bias, lack of
exposure to SaaS, etc.
• Acquisitions – Need to integrate multiple
philosophies, methodologies, standards of
customersuccess. Determining what needs to
remain and what needs to be standardized
across those companies, and clients is
extremely difficult and has many ramifications.
• Account Planning and Strategy Execution –
CSM, Sales, HW, SW, KAD. Each has own
objectives, initiatives, charters, quotas,
management demands. Bigger contracts,
master agreements, and ”ways of doing
business”.
• Flexibility/Agility – Growth and sheer scale
inherently create the need for more rigid
processes. Often, customer success is an
afterthought in these decisions. Approvals,
product roadmaps, finance, SOWs, etc can
cause significant frustation. Can’t just walk
down to the CEO’s office and say ”this doesn’t
make sense, let’s fix it”. Need to recognize
there are other effective ways.
4. How We Address
Recongize the challenges the large high-tech
company creates and then embrace and addresss
• Identify and cultivate internal relationships
–These will become as valuable as your
external ones, especially at executive level.
Instill this habit/practice among the entire
success organization. Evangelize and
Socialize!
• Build and execute a great success plan –
Should complement (or incorporate) traditional
account plan. Important to get the right internal
and external commitments to allow execution
of the plan and everyone possible moving in
the same direction.
• Control what we can control – Build a great
strategy, provide exceptional service and
guidance, and ensure demonstrated and
measurable results.
5. Bryan Plaster
Informatica
Bryan runs Informatica's Subscription Customer Success program and
Informatica Cloud Labs. Prior to Informatica he has been pioneering in
“cloud” since 1998 with ASP pharmacies, franchises, appliances, SaaS
applications and SaaS platforms - all in the area of customer success and
adoption. His propensity for creating evangelistic customers carries him to
scale his excitement across the next wave of customer success.
Vice President,
Subscription Customer Success
and Cloud Labs
6. • Self-service trials are the pinnacle of success in launch of a new Cloud
product
• Functionality is only one part, nurturing prospects so they know what to
expect as your subscription customer
• Automating that nurture is the first step in scaling
– Community, support, self-help
In the Beginning, it all begain with trial success . . . .
7. Enter the next stage - Customer Success
• We finally have customers! Product is a success!
• Are they still around after a year? Let’s check!
8. Customer Success Strategy
• Everything that we do is focused on enabling instant customer value
so they want to “Renew and buy more”
• This will only happen if they are successful right away - getting value from
the start of their subscription
• How do your Customers look at their subscription?
Luxury sports car lease
Time bomb
OR
9. 9
Renewal New Customer
On Boarding &
Launch
Proactive
Management
Upsell
Maximize
Adoption
Customer Life Cycle
10. CSM Team structure
Technical
Solutions
Worldwide Sales
Customer Success
Cloud Renewals
Team
Customer
Success
Managers
Onboarding
Strategic
Accounts
Training,
GTM programs
Customer Success
Technologist/Architects
Cloud Labs
API Response
Team
Technical
Support
Professional
Services
matrixed
11. Indicators to success
• Renewal rate
– #Accounts and by ACV
• Churn
– by ARR/qtr/year
• Adoption
– % new customers from previous Qtr Successful with 1st project
– New product adoption
12. Goals for the Customer Success Group in 2014
• Scale with growing business
• Every new customer needs to get started fast – thinning ratios of CSM
• Training - More on demand and automated “self-service” - MOOC
• Community – More knowledge to enable self-service
• Automation - for the CSM team
• Proactive alerting of possible issues before they escalate – “let’s solve
this before it is a problem”
• Customer score at a glance – “What am I walking into?”