Key elements of a Customer Success plan
The ability to identify and diagnose problems will make all the difference in your time with an account—you'll make sure you're working with the right strategy
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Be able to identify and diagnose problems
As a CSM, it’s critical that you start off on the right foot by identifying and diagnosing the problems your client is facing.
Some people mistakenly think this means focusing on symptoms rather than root causes.
The ability to identify and diagnose problems will make all the difference in your time with an account—you’ll make sure you’re working with the right strategy and won’t waste time trying to fix things that aren’t broken.
Here are some key elements you can use to build your Customer Success Plan:
Determine if something is truly a problem or just a goal
Make sure you understand what a problem is before you begin your search for one–it’s not as obvious as it sounds!
A common mistake people make when trying to identify problems is confusing them with goals. Problems are about pain points – your clients want something to change for the better; goals are about successes – they want something new or improved.
For example, if one of your clients says “My sales team isn’t selling enough product,” that’s NOT the problem; rather, increased sales could be considered a goal because it’s about wanting more or better results than they have now.
They could be having trouble hiring enough qualified sales staff (that would be considered a problem). Or maybe their competitors are developing similar products that are dramatically undercutting their prices (another potential problem).
Identify who will help best solve your client’s issues
While there may be multiple stakeholders involved in any given account, it’s important to determine who will provide you with the best information during your initial problem identification phase before beginning work in earnest on an account.
Understand what success looks like for your customers
The most important thing you can do when creating your account plan is to understand what success looks like for your customers.
This will help you to determine the best ways to add value and support them in achieving their goals.
Before you create an account plan, sit down with your customer contact(s) and ask them how they measure success within their company. Some companies are more metrics-driven than others, but there are almost always key performance indicators (KPIs) that they track on a regular basis.
You should start by asking questions about the KPIs that matter most to the customer’s organization; this will give you an overall sense of what their top priorities are.
For example, if one of their main KPIs is reducing cart abandonment rates or improving user retention, your product can help with both of those things. You can use this information to frame how you present the value of your product within the context of each individual customer’s unique business objectives and needs.
Also, remember to pay attention to cost reduction opportunities: they always make your customer look good in their company.
Work with customers to develop long-term goals that align with their success
You’re the trusted advisor to your customer, so it’s important to work with them to develop long-term goals that align with their success.
The following are good questions to ask:
- What are your customer’s success criteria?
- What are your goals?
- What are the company’s goals?
You may have noticed that these three questions sound a lot alike.
It’s not an accident.
They ask about outcomes and where your customer is trying to go but from different perspectives.
The first question will help you develop a deeper understanding of the customers’ goals and the second will help you understand what they feel they need to get there.
It also doesn’t hurt that asking both shows an interest in their business while demonstrating a thoroughness of thought on your part!
Do you know the key people necessary for the plan? Power mapping may be useful
Power mapping is a visual tool that analyzes the relationship between different individuals and groups. It helps identify those most likely to influence others with regard to a specific issue.
You can use power mapping to identify the best individuals to target in order to promote social change.
This tool is useful to identify who you should approach and what you need from them: if you need them to perform a task, if you need them to accept or approve something, if they are the final decision maker, or if you just need to get their input.
Also, each individual must be classified as a promoter, detractor, or neutral. This will help you understand how and when to approach them.
Create a plan for helping customers reach those goals
After you’ve identified your customers’ goals and understand their desired outcomes, it’s time to create a plan for helping them reach those goals.
In order to do this successfully, the CS team needs to be able to help the customer understand what success looks like from an overall perspective.
In order to best create a plan that will help your customers achieve their goals, you should:
- Understand what outcome(s) would constitute success for the customer. This might be getting more new customers or selling more products, so understanding these outcomes will help you lay out a roadmap for how they can get there using your product
- Identify metrics that can be used as benchmarks along the way (e.g., are we growing customers by X% each week?)
- Understand any other constraints such as lack of resources or budget; in order to create a successful plan that works within these constraints, it is important to fully comprehend them before building out a plan with the customer.
Every Corporate and Enterprise account should have its plan and they all should be reviewed on a quarterly basis.
It is also useful to have a committee where the CS team can share what they learned and what they are doing among each other, so everybody can collaborate and learn from their successes and mistakes.
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