You will learn: What is customer success? Different modes of operation Customer success Vs project management Vs customer support How to integrate customer success in your product roadmap?

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6. Mina Shawky
COO and Head of Customer Success
T O N I G H T ’ S S P E A K E R

7. What is Customer Success?
By Definition:
Customer Success is the business methodology of ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes while
using your product or service
Customer Success is relationship-focused client management, that aligns client and vendor goals for mutually
beneficial outcomes.
Effective Customer Success strategy typically results in decreased customer churn and increased upsell
opportunities.

8. Let’s go down memory lane

9. History of customer success
Most of you may know that customer success started at
Salesforce in 2005
Well… That’s not very true.

10. History of customer success
Enterprise software companies had a similar organizational structure for post-sale
customer relationship maintenance.
Everyone did some form of implementation teams, training teams, support groups
and account management roles.
Each department had its assigned mission and deliverables, but none of the
performance metrics for those teams took into consideration the customers’
perceptions of value-received.

11. History of customer success
Actually, the first time the notion of Customer Success
made waves was in 1996-1997 by a CRM company
called Vantive
John Luongo, Vantive’s CEO, had encountered a very
innovative usage of his company’s application by a
customer, and wanted to bring that innovation back to
Vantive.

12. History of customer success
He hired Marie Alexander, who had created the new
approach, to come and run Vantive’s services group.
Marie created a new department, called Customer
Success, and began introducing the team to prospects
prior to the signing of the contract.
“This is the Customer Success team that’s going to
ensure that you’re successful in using Vantive.
And their compensation is based on your success.”

13. History of customer success
In 2004, Bruce Cleveland became the General Manager of the
on-demand subsidiary of another CRM company – Siebel.
He realized there was no one specifically responsible for
retaining and expanding the customer relationships post-sale.
Bruce recognized that the customers who were realizing the
most value from their usage of the company’s application were
the least likely to churn. So he created a new role “Customer
Success Management” that would be responsible for
increasing the customers usage of the applications feature set
and thereby the value to the customer.

14. History of customer success
Now back to the Salesforce story.
In the year 2005 salesforce were acquiring new
customers at a stunning rate, yet customers were
churning in horrific numbers.
The company quickly built what was then the largest
CS department in the industry. The group was (and still
is) called Customers For Life, and while it was not
responsible for renewals, up-sells or cross-sells, it was
specifically chartered to address customer retention by
increasing user adoption.

15. The Mission of Customer Success
The Mission of Customer Success is to increase sustainable proven value for
both the Customers and the Company.
The Customer Success Association

16. In a nutshell
Customer Success is an integration of functions and activities of Marketing, Sales,
Professional Services, Training and Support into a new profession

17. 2020 Fastest Growing Emerging Careers
1. AI specialist
2. Robotics Engineer
3. Data Scientist
4. Full stack engineer
5. Site reliability engineer
6. Customer Success Specialist
1. AI specialist
2. Site reliability engineer
3. Customer success specialist
1. Data scientist
2. Full stack engineer
3. Customer success specialist

18. Who is the customer success manager?
John Snow / Customer Success Manager
I am the voice of the Customer

19. Who is the customer success manager?
John Snow / Customer Success Manager
I am the voice of the Customer
I used to think I’m the voice of the customer. Today I realized I’m actually the
one who can help the customer succeed by being his trusted partner and
technology consultant. I do my best to understand my partner’s goals, set the
plans, and seek to empower him through the optimal use of our product

20. Who is the customer success manager?
John Snow / Customer Success Manager
I am the voice of the Product
I am the Customer’s Advocate

21. The three building blocks for a CSM
In-depth knowledge of the customer
Effective expertise in the product being sold
Extensive domain expertise

22. CSM vs CS vs AM
Customer Success Manager Customer Support Account Manager
Long term Proactive Time-sensitive Reactive Reactive
Plan and ensure a successful
customer lifetime value
React to solve customer
problems quickly
Woo dissatisfied customers and
handle problems as they arise
Customer retention, Lifetime
value, Product usage, Customer
health (including NPS), Revenue
# of cases, CSAT, NPS, customer
wait time, etc...
Manage accounts—the money
coming in
Revenue centred - focused on
renewing business and growth
opportunities
Cost centred - focused on
operational excellence
Focuses too heavily on
case-by-case interactions

23. CSM is the evolution of Account Management
Customer Success Management is the successor of account management. It’s
evolutionarily superior. It pinpoints problems—and opportunities—happen by
collecting and leveraging as many data points as possible about the customer.
Furthermore, Customer Success informs strategy; it helps businesses better
understand the customer experience and lifecycle so they can improve it.
On top of all that, Customer Success team members truly focus on the customer
and how that customer can succeed, as opposed to only focusing on how the
company can succeed. It’s a mindset shift that reaps big rewards for everyone.

24. What do CSMs do on daily basis
● Tackle churn threats and spend time trying to persuade “Code
Red” customers not to leave
● Encompass the greater goal of value management
● Participate in technology product design to create the tools that
your customers need
● Work with Marketing to find the right kinds of leads, the ones that
Sales can bring into the company to become first-tier high-value
assets.
● On-boarding and training, the CSM group ensures that all
customers are fully engaged and getting the value that they
expect
● Collects, analyzes and then uses data to make the customers’
experience of the company a seamless, consistent whole

25. The New Growth Engine | McKinsey
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insight
s/introducing-customer-success-2-0-the-new-growth-engine
Customer success 1.0
Focused on churn reduction and risk management
Emerged from SaaS companies focused on complex business applications
Customer success 2.0
Recognizes customer success can be a growth engine
Used by companies across a range of B2B sectors to change the approach to customer-life-cycle management

26. The New Growth Engine | McKinsey

27. CSM in Product Lifecycle
CSM CSM

28. CSM in Product Lifecycle RACI
Function CSM
Product Backlog C, I
Sprint Planning I
Work Increment of the Product C, I
Product change log I
Product documentation I, C - or in some organizations - R
Expand Product Revenue R, A
Reduce Churn, Increase Retention R, A
Customer-Lifecycle-Management R, A
(R): Responsible
(A): Accountable
(C): Consulted
(I): Informed

29. 5 tips for helping Customers Succeed
● Define and use a customer success strategy
● Educate your customers… Find their success criteria
● Onboard customers… Make sure they actually use the product correctly
● Integrate & communicate with other teams
● Promote customer loyalty and product advocacy

30. Customer Success Manager KPIs
This will vary/differ from one organization to the other depending on a
few factors such as:
● Contract durations (Monthly, Quarterly or Annually)
● Product Extensibility and Feature list
● Activity Data points captured
KPIs for CSMs can include:
● Churn/Retention rate
● Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
● Customer health score (NPS, # of support calls, references,
community engagements, invoice history, etc…)
● Activities and usage

31. Customer Success Manager Software and Tools
CSM software is not necessary at the beginning of your journey, but is necessary for growth and better
management of your data
When considering a CSM software look for tools that provide:
● Retention/Renewal gauges - markers for code red customers
● Tools that tracking product usage and customer engagement
● Tools that provide Customer health score-cards such as NPS and CSAT scoring
● 360 degree customer profiles
● Tools to unify the Communication with customers (via chat, email, etc…)
● Rules-based alerts
● Call-to-action notifications
● Tools to provide Knowledge base and FAQs
● Interactive report builder
● Integration with marketing platforms

32. Customer Success Manager Software and Tools
Examples
● Gainsight: https://www.gainsight.com/
● Totango: https://www.totango.com/
● ChurnZero: https://churnzero.net/
● Intercom: https://www.intercom.com/
● ClientSuccess: https://www.clientsuccess.com/
● Freshworks: https://www.freshworks.com/

33. Books, Conferences and Communities
Books:
● The Customer Success Economy: Why Every Aspect of Your Business Model Needs A Paradigm Shift:
https://amzn.to/39FrMd3
● Practical Customer Success Management: A Best Practice Framework for Rapid Generation of Customer Success:
https://amzn.to/2wamqZt
● The Customer Success Pioneer: The First 12 Months of Your Journey Into Growth: https://amzn.to/2RbPnf3
● The Startup’s Guide to Customer Success: How to Champion the Customer at Your Company:
https://amzn.to/3aIk96R
Conferences:
● Pulse: https://gainsightpulse.com/everywhere/
Communities:
● Customer Success Network: https://customersuccess.network/

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