the keys to scaling your customer success program

©2015 Gainsight. All Rights Reserved.

Child-like Joy

June 25, 2015

The Keys to Scaling Your Customer Success

Program©2015 Gainsight. All Rights Reserved.


Housekeeping

• Q&A panel on your right • Recording for colleagues who can’t

make it• All attendees will receive slides• Twitter hashtag #customersuccess


Presenter

Lincoln MurphyCustomer Success Evangelist

@lincolnmurphy


What We’ll Cover Today

2 Customer Segmentation is Critical

3 Operationalizing around Segments

4 Automation and Technology

5 People and Processes

The Reality of Scaling a Customer Success Program

1


1. The Reality of Scaling a Customer Success Program



• The best Customer Success Managers don’t tell customers what they want to hear

• You tell customers what they need to hear



• Everything in Customer Success is evolving• Industry / Best Practices• Your Company• Your Customers• Your Organization



Which means "set it and forget it" cannot exist in any aspect of Customer Success.



You came here for specific answers… but I can’t give those to you in a setting like this.

#truth



If you get a definitive answer on how to scale your Customer Success Program – or anything in Customer Success – from someone that isn’t speaking to you about your situation… be

careful.


When Planning to Scale a Customer Success Program

• Study Current Best Practices• Look for Frameworks• Explore Methodologies• Be Thoughtful and Creative


When Scaling, don’t ask “Will it Scale?”

• Do what needs to be done• If it works, you’ll ask “how can I scale

this?”• If this happens, you’ll figure out a way!

• “Will it scale?” as a starting point will lead to premature optimization and may keep you from even getting started.


2. Customer Segmentation is Critical


Customer Segmentation is Critical

• Scaling a Customer Success Program requires leveraging (scarce) resources wisely

• The most effective way to do this is to segment your customers and assign resources logically

• Only by segmenting customers logically can you develop an appropriate coverage model


Most Common != Best For You

• Customers are generally segmented by current annual revenue (ARR) / contract value (ACV)

• Easy to look at customer data and see the natural segments across revenue bands• Relatively easy to extrapolate costs associated

with each segment

• Unfortunately this may not tell the whole story!


Customer Success Benchmark Report

Download Your Copy

Today!

http://j.mp/csmbench


Caveat on the Benchmark Report

• Represents a moment in time• Customer Success is Rapidly

Evolving• Best Practices aren’t widely adopted…

yet.• We’re working on that!


The Scientific Method



• Create a Customer Segmentation Hypothesis

• Basic Components of a Hypothesis• What you are testing• What impact we expect the change to have• Who you expect it to impact• By how much• After how long


Three Basic Types of Customer Segments

Shared Characteristics


Requirements-Based

Requirements-Based Value-BasedValue-Based


Three Basic Types of Customer Segments



Requirements-Based

Requirements-Based Value-BasedValue-Based

• Company Size• Industry / Vertical• Company Size• Industry / Vertical

• Level of Support• Number of Touch

Points

• Level of Support• Number of Touch

Points

• ACV (Potential)• Social Proof• ACV (Potential)• Social Proof


Common Segmentation Questions

• How do you decide the best way to segment your customers?

• Will there ever be a case where you can segment across multiple criteria?

• How can you be sure you made the right decision in your segmentation model?


3. Operationalizing around Segments


Operationalizing Around Segments

• Start by understanding the customers that make up the segment.

• Their Desired Outcome – Required Outcome and Appropriate Experience

• What Success Gaps you need to bridge• The Proactive Orchestration necessary to

help them reach Success Milestones


Three Types of Customer Engagement

• Pre-planned, Proactive engagement• Onboarding, QBRs, Lifecycle

Messages

• Ad-hoc, Proactive engagement• Alerts, Changes to customer health

• Reactive Engagement• Break/Fix, Bugs, How-to


Coverage Levels

• Map the Coverage Level to their Desired Outcome

• Look at the level of touch required across the entire customer lifetime

Tech TouchTech Touch

Medium Touch

Medium Touch

High TouchHigh

Touch



Medium Touch

Medium Touch

High TouchHigh

Touch

Coverage Levels: High Touch

• Multiple in-person meetings during a quarter (depending on each customer’s initiatives)

• QBR meetings• Creation of a blueprint

success plan• One-to-one meeting(s)

with your executive staff


Coverage Levels: Medium Touch

• One in-person meeting per quarter (or as needed)

• Focus on at least one high-value meeting per month via online or video conferencing

• One-to-one meeting with your executive staff


Medium Touch

Medium Touch

High TouchHigh

Touch


Coverage Levels: Tech Touch

• Webinar-style one-to-many customers meetings on product adoption

• Monthly to quarterly newsletter

• Email campaigns Tech TouchTech Touch

Medium Touch

Medium Touch

High TouchHigh

Touch


Common Segment Operationalization Questions

• After Segmentation, how do you prioritize customers?

• How do you balance what the customer needs vs. what my segmentation dictates?

• How do you know when you've sold to the wrong customer?


4. Automation & Technology


Automation and Technology

• Customer Success Management• Orchestration across the Lifecycle• Varies across “touch” levels• Technology enables Scaling, especially in

areas where scaling humans costs too much



Automation is - or should be – what we’d do manually if we had unlimited time and

resources.



• Allows you to scale touches with low-revenue customers instead of letting them fend for themselves or opting not to serve them

• Helps you deepen your engagement with those customers you already have a high-touch relationship with


High-Touch and Automation Don’t Mix?

• Will it hurt our relationship?

• Will automation erode trust?

• Is it unethical to pass off automated emails as “personal” emails?


Gainsight: Scalable Customer Success

http://access.gainsight.com/copilot/

High Touch

Medium Touch

Tech Touch

STRATEGY

ENTERPRISE

MID-MARKET

SMB

SEGMENT

PRO-ACTIVE

Customer360

JUST-IN-TIMECockpit

AUTOMATEDCoPilot


Gainsight CoPilot

http://access.gainsight.com/copilot/


5. People & Processes


People First

• Know where people fit• Some people like interacting with other

people in person or on the phone (high-touch)

• Some people are more analytical or creative, but don’t do well in 1:1 situations with customers (tech-touch)

• Map Resources to Customer Segments


People Power!

• Company Leadership• Organizational Leadership• Team• Individual Contributors


Humans

• Company Leadership• Customer Success must be top-down• Company buy-in is critical due to cross-functional

requirements• Must communicate what “success” is for Customer

Success


Humans

• Organizational Leadership• Develops Customer Success Strategy• Builds and Leads CSM Org• Sells (and continues to sell) Customer Success to

rest of the company• Ensures a Deliberate Focus for the CSM Org and

pushes back where required


Humans

• Team• Aligned around a core set of principles and

Goals• Operationalized around logical customer

segments• No Silos between segments


Humans

• Individual Contributors• CSMs, Ops, Customer Marketing, Renewals,

etc.• Empowered to Help Customers achieve

Desired Outcome• Trusted to push customers toward success

where required• Knows where to focus, but is kept updated

on evolution


Scaling CSM Doesn’t Happen in a Vacuum

• Product• Focused on our customers’ Desired

Outcome

• Sales & Marketing• Acquiring the right customers

• Support, Operations, Etc.


Processes Second

• Customer Success Management• Single Version of the Truth

• Document and Centralize Processes• Orchestrate via Workflows and Playbooks

• Operationalize the Handoffs• Between Teams• Between CSMs


http://www.gainsight.com/pulsecheck2015/


Customer Success Benchmark Report

Download Your Copy

Today!

http://j.mp/csmbench


Q&A


June 25, 2015


THANK YOU


June 25, 2015

the keys to scaling your customer success program

Leadership & Management