Customer Success Management Is Not For Everyone

In this episode, I'm interviewing, Matt Barnett, commonly known as 'Papa Bear' at Bonjoro. We talk about Bonjoro as a service and how it can help customer success management teams to enhance or automate onboarding while increasing adoption, engagement, and retention. This is a super-tool for customer success management that you really should demo! Please use my affiliate link to start a FREE 14-day trial of Bonjoro today! https://bit.ly/2uXFLfX. 

In this episode I'm talking to Andy Quintana, the founder of Slydeck. His new software (www.slydeck.io) can be used by customer success managers and teams but even more impressive -- it also serves the small business owner or freelancer. If you want to begin planning your next customer or lead conversation, Slydeck can help. Being able to track how recipients engage with documents you send them helps you better understand their interests and pain points, which drives better and more valuable discussions. OH -- Perhaps the best part? You can signup for free to try it for your business or team.

In this episode, I share a few truths as to how and why being a CSM may not be the right job for you. None of this insight includes survey data, feedback from other CSMs, none of that. It’s just me being honest about the last four years or so based on what I’ve seen and experienced. Like what you hear? Please consider sharing this episode or podcast with a friend or colleague. Referenced video link: https://youtu.be/n5XgSCty8js

As I worked as a CSM, I discovered that each company had their own processes, reports, and templates or lack thereof. We can't assume that every customer success manager is well prepared for their weekly, monthly, and quarterly checkpoints. I thought I would give away a set of weekly, monthly, and quarterly customer review templates that I created in the hope that they may benefit other CSMs. Visit https://bit.ly/2GbbDQ9 to download these free templates today. If they helped you or provided value, please let me know!

Just recently I conducted my first clarity.fm premium call in regard to customer success. Clarity.fm is a phone service that allows you to speak directly to SME's for an hourly or by the minute fee. A business coach was taking on a new client in the CSM space and messaged me about providing them an overview of what customer success is. We went on for just over an hour, and although the call wasn't recorded, I wanted to share much of the same content we discussed in this episode in case it could benefit someone else. If you are also interested in a professional consultation, I've setup a special offer for FREE calls but there are only three uses available! If you'd like to chat with me about customer success management, act now before I change the link! https://clarity.fm/thomasconnery/csmchat

This episode reviews an article from Topline Strategy that demonstrates why CSM’s only have so much control over churn and customer attrition. The reasons may surprise you!

If you are looking for a way to inspire growth or usage there are a number of strategies available. You could try email campaigns, social media, direct phone calls to customers, live demos of features, etc. In this episode I'll explore one simple thing a CSM can do to spark usage or adoption while making their customer look like the hero.

Can Customer Success Help Your Org Stand Out From The Rest? 100% Yes! Customer success as a practice, when done properly, can have a massive influence on product or service consumption and usage. Given the trend of minimalism, good old-fashioned cost cutting, and market recession fears, there couldn’t be a better time to double down on customer success as a formal practice in your business. For me, that’s primarily been software, but for you it may not be. All I know is that if you sell a business to business (B2B) product or service, the days of handing over the product or service and wishing the customer good luck is over.

We welcome back my friend and fellow CSM, Akshay Agrawal, in this episode to discuss advice for new customer success managers. I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately and decided to write a brief article on LinkedIn that will hopefully add value to some other CSM looking to make their mark. Article link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/looking-new-csm-job-focus-being-attentive-consistent-youll-connery/  As always, thanks for listening!

On this episode we’re here to introduce our audience to bad fit, stretch fit, and good fit customers. What does it all mean and why are good fit customers essential for building an influential growth sales cycle. We welcome CSM, Elizabeth Best, to share her thoughts on these customer fit types.