Scaling Customer Success: High Impact vs Low Impact Activities
Jun 14, 2023
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Explore the scalability of customer success management and building relationships without personal contact. Discuss the motivations behind removing personal contact, the role of technology in engagement strategies, the importance of human interaction, and effective strategies for scaling customer success while maintaining high-impact personal interactions.
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Quick takeaways
Building relationships and achieving customer success without personal contact can lead to negative outcomes.
To scale the CSM job effectively, prioritize high-impact activities while leveraging automation and self-service for less impactful tasks.
Deep dives
Scaling the CSM job and the importance of personal contact
Many customer success teams are contemplating whether it's possible to scale the CSM job and achieve customer success without personal contact. However, it's crucial to first understand the motivation behind wanting to minimize personal contact. Is it driven by cost-cutting measures or overcapacity? Or is it a customer preference? Building relationships and making customers successful without personal contact can lead to negative outcomes, such as reduced customer satisfaction, contraction at renewal, or even churn. It's important to note that while self-service tools like e-learning, product tours, or knowledge bases are helpful, they cannot replace the value of personal contact. Product-led growth is another concept often associated with scaling without personal contact, but it is essential to recognize that human engagement remains critical in successful product-led growth companies. To scale the CSM job effectively, focus on enhancing personal interactions and identifying areas that can be automated or self-serviced, such as providing videos or utilizing asynchronous communication. This approach allows for higher impact interactions, goal discovery, and leveraging joint accountability with customers.
Reframing priorities and related challenges in scaling the CSM job
A common tendency is to automate the most important tasks, while manually handling less impactful ones. However, to genuinely scale the CSM job, it's crucial to prioritize personal contact for high-impact activities. This means reframing the approach and recognizing that personal contact time with customers should focus on driving customer success rather than performing lower-level tasks. Meetings should be about reviewing progress, holding customers accountable, and planning strategically. Leveraging asynchronous communication for tasks that can be self-serviced or automated creates more efficient and impactful interactions. Conducting an audit of current interactions and reallocating time and resources to prioritize high-impact activities can significantly enhance scalability and make better use of limited time resources.
Considerations and practical steps for scaling the CSM job
When scaling the CSM job, it's essential to evaluate the objectives and motivations behind it. Clearly define the reasons for scaling, such as managing a larger customer base or addressing retention and expansion goals. Creating a list of high-impact activities that require personal contact allows CSMs to focus their efforts effectively. Similarly, developing a list of tasks that can be automated, self-serviced, or allocated to additional resources ensures that time is better utilized. By prioritizing high-impact activities, setting clear expectations, leveraging asynchronous communication, and promoting joint accountability, CSMs can enhance their efficiency, improve customer success outcomes, and ultimately scale their job effectively.
ON TODAY'S EPISODE: This week, Johan and Lincoln will dive into a discussion about the scalability of customer success management and the possibility of building successful customer relationships without personal contact. They explore the motivations behind removing personal contact, the role of technology in engagement strategies, the importance of human interaction in product-led growth companies, and effective strategies for scaling customer success while maintaining high-impact personal interactions.
THIS WEEKS QUESTION: “Is there a way to scale the CSM job? Can we build relationships and make customers successful without personal contact?”
TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED: * Analyzing the necessity for personal contact * Strategies to increase high impact interactions * Defining the objectives of scaling customer success
QUOTES: Lincoln Murphy (01:54): “We need to start with why do you feel the need to build a relationship or make customers successful without personal contact?”
Lincoln Murphy (05:10): “if you're trying to get rid of personal contact with your customer, and that is not what your customer wants, you will be violating their appropriate experience”
Lincoln Murphy (11:15): “Even in a product led growth type of company human power is still required.”
Lincoln Murphy (15:36): “Do an audit of the use of your time, because time is the thing that you don't have an unlimited supply of.”
Johan Nilsson (19:49): “High impact things that are usually when we have personal contact with the customer, those things we should not try to remove or automate.”
Do you want more of this? Check out Impact Academy for interactive Customer Success training programs. https://www.impactdemy.com/
Do you have a question you want us to answer? Submit it here.
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