The People of Customer Success: Success-Con East

The People of Customer SuccessSuccess-Con East

September 17, 2014

Presented by

Chad Horenfeldt, Vice President, Customer Success@ChadTev | @influitive [email protected]

Questions to think about:

•How long have you been in a customer success role? 1 year, 2 year, 3 year, 4 year, 5 plus??•Do you split up account management with customer success?•Is onboarding included as part of the customer success team?

BOTTOM LINE: Hardly any two customer success organizations are alike! And this is a fairly new area – These factors make building a customer success organization extremely challenging

@ChadTev | @influitive

Chad Horenfeldt

Run customer success at Influitive. Influitive is an advocate marketing software company. We help identify, mobilize and recognize your top advocates who become an extended arm of your marketing and sales teams.

9 years in customer success at Eloqua (purchased by Oracle for $870 million)

My customer success ramblings: Enlightenedcustomer.wordpress.com

Master of the diaper (three young children)


Questions that I will speak to today:

•How is the customer success team at Influitive structured today and why?•Who is involved in making customer successful? Hint: It’s not just Customer Success•How have we changed our structure?•What to look for when hiring for a customer success manager?•How do you keep your customer success team in unison and working towards common objectives

Wrap up: Best practices for structuring a CSM team


How is the Customer Success team @influitive structured?

•3 Advocacy Coaches (Customer Success Managers)•2 Support Magicians•1 Onboarding Specialist - new!•1 Support intern (data analyst) – new!•Assistance from sales (Account Manager and sales reps)•Assistance from CustomerMarketing•Assistance from product Management•Training – new!


How do we support our customers? It’s more than CS

•Onboarding Specialist: Leads the onboarding process for new customers

•Advocacy Coaches• Customers are owned by advocacy coaches• Accounts are distributed to coaches based on geography• Coaches manage the overall relationship, provide best

practices, ensure customers are achieving value and lead the renewal process (on most accounts)

• Create best practice content: blog posts, playbooks, etc… • Helps run user groups

•Account management team (Roll up to the sales team)• Manage renewals for our larger customers • Land and expand strategy for enterprise customers



Why are we structured this way?

•Customer Success Manager: Geo vs. Customer size. •Support vs. Customer Success Manager: • Advocacy Coach needs to be positioned as someone

that can provide strategic advice• Advocacy Coach should focus on being proactive

without worrying about responding to reactive technical issues

• Customer Success Manager vs. Onboarding Specialist• Advocacy coaches would get bogged down at the

beginning of the month• Specialization in roles can better improve and scale the

function• Customer Success vs. Customer Marketing • Customer marketing needs to step up and help improve

the customer experience for all customers. This frees up time for CS to focus on the customers that are struggling and need more 1:1 @ChadTev | @influitive

What are the key criteria I use for hiring a Customer Success Manager?

•Account management / customer service experience. •Technical aptitude (we are a software company)•Domain experience (more important for established industries)

Other criteria based on the stage of our start-up:•Have they worked for a software company before?•Have they worked for a start-up?•Are they a future leader?


How do you keep your customer success team in unison

•Meetings• Daily synch ups• Weekly meetings for entire team – gather insights• Weekly meetings just for customer success managers

•Joint projects: Agile Customer Success• Sprints (projects)• Track and hold team members accountable


Best Practices in Building out a Customer Success Team

•Customer success is not a department, it’s a way of life. Everyone is involved – especially the executive team and marketing•Clearly define roles of each group (Customer Success Manager vs Support vs Onboarding)•Invest early and invest heavily in Customer Success. Jason Lemkin recommends 1 CSM per $1 million in annual revenue.•Have a Support team that consistently goes over and above. This makes it easier for customers to see CSMs as their strategic partner•Get feedback and celebrate it – there are no better wins (besides $$) than customer feedback •Set your objectives and expectations for your team and get out of their way•Have a 3 month plan and a 3 year roadmap but prepare to call an audible based on changing conditions


Software

The People of Customer Success: Success-Con East