It's okay. You can exhale that long-stifled sigh of relief. Implementing an effective customer success program company-wide doesnotneed to feel like climbing Mount Everest — an intimidating, nearly impossible feat only the bravest and savviest of client retention experts attempt.

The process also doesn't need to happen all at once.Phew.

Although launching a full-blown program and team will likely require a series of operational changes down the road, you can smoothen the longer-term transition by adhering to the right strategies and formalizing your current activities. Then, come the time when your company is finally ready to go full steam ahead with such a program, you'll have done a lot of the legwork and已经set up for success – for your customers and your company.

But wait a second. Isn't customer success just aSaaS(雷竞技苹果下载官方版软件即服务)的事情吗?

简短答案:不再了。

尽管客户的成功源于快速发展的SaaS行业,但对于远方软件世界的公司也有巨大的机会来构建有意义而强大的客户成功计划,以驱动驱动雷竞技苹果下载官方版customer retention和recurring revenue. And if you're an avid fan of the inbound marketing methodology, you'll quickly see how the two initiatives work so well together.

No matter your industry, the goal of this post is to highlight how you can build a customer success strategy that will attract more leads to your business. What's more, you'll find that formalizing these activities will:

  • 最大化客户与您公司相处的每个接触点的客户体验raybet电子竞技
  • Foster better internal communication
  • Contribute to customer delight (ring any inbound marketing bells?)

But first, to sensibly structure the ideas in this article, let's discuss customer success in the context of a six-part methodology.

→ Free Download: 61 Templates to Help You Put the Customer First [Download Now]

A Customer Success Strategy Framework

Every company's journey with its customers is different, but at Precision Marketing Group, we have a generalcustomer success methodology任何业务——从任何行业——可以遵循while piecing together an effective customer success program.

framework-1.png

Note that the small blue circles indicate some of the strategies you will use during a customer's experiences your brand or business. Yes, expectations will vary among customers, and you must also consideryour对您希望实现的期望。但是知道,理解和主动改善客户体验天生有助于customer success

所以让我们分解

1. Brand Awareness

客户成功方法开始很早就开始了您的买家符号在虚线上。想一想……潜在客户第一次遇到和与您的业务交往通常是一种成败的体验 - 因为57% of the buying decisionis made before a customer even picks up the phone. And let's face it, the majority of B2B first impressions today are formed online, through your company website or perhaps via email or social media.

Yes,design and user experience are critical塑造一个“钩”——但是如果visitor takes the time to check out your brand beyond a quick scan, it's your marketing team's job to provide not only a positive experience but a consistent one. Your company's messaging, aesthetic and content should all be aligned with each other, as an inconsistent or frustrating experience is likely to end the buyer's journey right then and there.

It's during this brand awareness stage that you begin nurturing and qualifying potential customers that you're confident you can help. Therefore, it's imperative that you have a clear definition of what makes a customer a good fit — both for your benefit and theirs.

Now, chances are your website content, branding, imagery, etc. already have a look and feel that makes sense for your business and your industry. If youdo发现您的网站可以被描述为一点点…all over the place, it's time to think back to your trusty inbound marketingtraining(more specifically, theAttractConvertphases) and consider yourtarget buyer personas。You need to identify:

  • Who exactly are you trying to reach?
  • 他们重视什么?
  • What problems are they trying to solve?
  • And what content is going to resonate with them most?

No matter what your business is, no matter what product or service you're selling, establishing your buyer personas is a quintessential first step to constructing a solid base for customer success. Even if you haven't pulled these profiles together yet, the customer success strategy youhave已经en following is publishing and promoting content that focuses on the needs of your audience.

By doing so, you're already addressing the69% of B2B buyerswho agree that the single most influential aspect of any vendor's website is "relevant content that speaks directly to [their] company."

2. Product/Service Education

一些客户可能会喜欢您的内容,但不知道为什么他们需要您的产品或服务。也许您的产品或公司是该行业的新手,并且潜在的潜在raybet电子竞技客户对您的信誉可疑。或者,也许客户甚至都不知道他们遇到的问题,迫使您向他们指出并解释您的公司如何彻底改变他们的生活。raybet电子竞技

These customers are still valuable leads, however, you'll just need to educate them before they'll be motivated to buy your product or service. Your business can do this by offering free content that includes information about your company or industry. This includes blog posts, emails, interviews with employees, etc. The goal of this content is to make your brand appear more credible to your target audience.

At Hubspot, we do a good job of educating users. Aside from the blog you're enjoying at this moment, HubSpot offers free training programs throughHubspot Academy。These programs include video lessons that guide viewers through how to use HubSpot tools. Additionally, HubSpot explains how these tools can be integrated into your company's marketing, sales, and customer service strategies.

通过教育您的潜在潜在客户以及现有客户,您的企业将创造更具用户友好的客户体验。这样可以确保客户成功,因为它可以最大程度地减少用户使用产品或服务时将面临的潜在障碍数量。

3. Customer Acquisition

当涉及客户获取时,掌握了您的销售团队。尽管潜在客户转变为合格的潜在客户并沿渠道进一步发展,但他们对业务的经验和期望才真正开始成形。如果他们关闭并成为客户,他们会期望与关系建立的一致性相同。这就是为什么如此重要的原因:

  1. A member of your Sales team builds a strong rapport with the prospect.
  2. Each person from your team with whom the prospect has contact is "on the same page."
  3. Operations or a member of the customer's future account team is brought into sales discussions early on.

So here's what you're already doing right … During those discovery calls your reps are holding with engaged leads — where they're learning more aboutcustomer needs, talking about pricing, discussing how your company works — Sales inevitably explains the results a customer can expect from your product or service delivery team.

为了支持这些努力,实施正确的技术至关重要。如果你是其中之一91% of B2B companieswith more than 11 employees that's invested in a customer relationship management (CRM) software, then that's another checked box on the customer success to-do list. Moreover, it would be prudent to draw up a clear strategy statement in which Marketing, Sales and any other key stakeholders agree on. This agreement will succinctly define your target audience(s), how you intend to help them, the role each department plays and what your team (or your product) will deliver.

It sounds so simple, but you'd be surprised how often prospects are sold a dream that ultimately goes sour once they make the purchase. The key here is that your Marketing, Sales and Operations teams are all working together towards mutual goals. If these departments are not aligned from the very beginning — or they do not have the same working knowledge of the product or service (or access to the same data), you're brewing up a mélange of impending client retention problems.

4.引导入职

Does your business already have a documented onboarding process? If so, you're on the right track to customer success yet again. However, to optimize your onboarding process, it may just be a matter of fine-tuning smaller details.

Onboarding is potentially the most critical stage for any B2B company — in part, because there are so many opportunities for thebest-laid plans to go awry。The smoothest shift from acquisition to onboarding is to have internal operations get involved during the last leg of the sales process, and to have your sales team stay involved during the beginning of the onboarding stage.

Remember, your client has shared a lot of info with sales and they're excited about their decision to work with you. After all, they choseyouover your competitors. The last thing you want is for buyer's remorse to sink in — and you can help avoid this by having one person see that all onboarding activities are carried out in a timely manner by the appropriate departments (including IT, Finance, Engineering, etc.) and that each department is aware of where the customer is in the onboarding process.

特别是对于专业服务和技术公司而言,通常您会花费大量时间与客户讨论任何东西,然后再进行任何活动。尽管您不利用这一点很重要,但是当客户有权充分利用您的产品或服务时,这将是值得的,他们已经与销售人员和客户经理一起度过了很多时间。

5.客户支持

虽然哟u can't hold your customers' hands at every step of the customer journey, you can always be there for them with reliable customer support. The more customers use your product or service, the more questions and roadblocks they're bound to encounter. This is normal for any business, but how you assist your customers with overcoming these challenges will play a major role in customer success.

Your customer support team should be readily available to help customers whenever they get stuck. Whether the question is simple or complex, your team needs to provide quick and concise answers that resolve customer requests in the first encounter. In fact,67% of customer churncan be avoided if your support team is able to fulfill the customer's needs during the first interaction.

If your customer support team is struggling to resolve customer requests, you may want to consider adoptingcustomer service tools那可以帮助。这些工具为您的支持团队提供了优势,可以帮助他们组织和管理传入的服务请求。您还可以创建自助服务支持选项,以自行指导客户进入解决方案。这样,当客户需要立即回答问题时,您的客户就不必拿起电话或等待。

6. Value Realization

这个阶段是您的客户的A-HA时刻实现。他们挑选了你。他们喜欢你。他们从恋爱关系中得到了他们想要的东西。

同样重要的是要注意,价值实现不是一个stage, and more of anongoingB2B客户旅程的一部分。鉴于此,您必须深入了解客户的期望和期望的结果,这绝对至关重要。

What value realization looks like for a medical device manufacturer will drastically differ from what it looks like for a marketing firm or a corporate presentation skills training company. Frankly, it's probably going to look quite different foreach of your customers,取决于他们首先遇到的问题。

You likely have a person who checks in with the customer on at least a semi-regular basis to make sure these expectations and outcomes are being met. It's your company's job to ensure the customer understands and receives the entire value of your product or service.

Of course, it's in your best interests that the customer continues to derive value from the engagement over and over. So, use your check-ins wisely; don't be nervous about asking what's going well and what you could do better. Your customers will appreciate the opportunity to provide their insight. It's during this stage that your two companies begin to cement a long-lasting relationship, ultimately leading to customer loyalty.

7. Customer Loyalty

Customer loyaltymeans that the customer can't see themselves doing business with anybody else. You're "the one." Much like in theinbound marketingmethodology'sDelightphase, the customer has become an传教士- 一个乐于代表他或她网络中其他人吹捧您的产品,服务,品牌等的人。

In other words, a loyal customer is a customer primed for a review, a testimonial or even a referral. Once you've firmly established customer loyalty, it's a common strategy to present your happy customer with this type of request. Wouldn't you know, it'sanother customer success strategy.

Perhaps you simply haven't documented a timeline, series of events or metrics to help you determine exactly when to reach out. Take the time to sit down with leaders from sales, marketing, and customer service and come up with a consensus for what type of criteria you use to identify appropriate timing. Better yet, it may also be practical to draw up电子邮件模板you can recycle that streamline the request process for various types of brand evangelism activities.

8.扩展优惠

Similar to customer loyalty, expansion offers are all about timing. If you've been working with a particular customer for a while, you're well aware of their needs. Your relationship with them can be described as transparent, as you likely already know if they're willing to approach the subject of expanding their financial relationship with you.

For a service provider, this might be tied to a renewal cycle. For a widget producer, it might be an increase in sales volume. In any industry, it may simply be anrayapp , depending on your company's offerings. Whatever environment you're selling in, your salespeople are already on the case. Assess the customer's level of engagement with the collateral being delivered to them, and you'll have greater insight into what that "right time" should be.

看?还不错。当您开始找到客户成功方面的同时,请知道您作为一家盈利和生产性公司已经在做什么raybet电子竞技iscustomer success, just under a different name.

As a wise woman (*ahem*… my mother) once said,"there is no substitute for paying attention."If you pay good attention to your customers, take the time to fully understand their needs and work with them to achieve their goals, creating a customer success program will come easily to you — and you'll reap the benefits of long-term client relationships.

For more strategies to improve customer success, read about the benefits of combiningmarketing and customer success

New call-to-action

New call-to-action

Originally published May 8, 2019 3:41:00 PM, updated June 15 2021

Topics:

Customer Success 支持机票系统