From Bottleneck to Breakthrough: Scaling Your Customer Success Team Without Losing Control
Aug 30, 2023
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Scaling expert in Customer Success teams, Johan, and Lincoln discuss the challenges of scaling Customer Success teams without losing the personal touch. They address topics such as customer life cycle stages, capacity planning, leadership, and coaching. Key quotes include 'Confidence and competence: The twin engines of scaling customer success' and 'Leadership isn't about control, it's about empowering control in others.'
It is essential for heads of customer success to let go of control and focus on efficient ways to use their care and involvement as their teams grow.
Formalizing processes, mapping out lifecycle stages, and understanding progress milestones are key to successfully scaling customer success teams.
Deep dives
The Importance of Letting Go of Control
As a head of customer success, there is a tendency to be very integrated with a small team and hands-on with customers. However, as the team grows, it becomes difficult to maintain that level of connection. It is essential to let go of control and not micromanage every aspect. Caring and being involved should not translate into overwhelming involvement in day-to-day operations. It is crucial to decouple caring from micromanagement and focus on efficient ways to use that care.
The Need for Formalization and Scaling
Heads of customer success often face stress and overwhelm when their small teams start to grow. They may still want to do the work directly with customers and struggle to transition into a managerial role. Formalizing processes and systems, mapping out lifecycle stages, and understanding progress milestones are key to scaling successfully. It is important to start small and focus on one lifecycle stage at a time, building efficient processes and metrics. Trying to strive for perfection can hinder progress, so taking action and making improvements is crucial.
Leadership, Management, and Coaching in Customer Success
As a head of customer success, you play multiple roles: leader, manager, and coach. Leadership involves setting the right culture and creating a clear structure for scalability. Management entails creating operational plans with metrics based on lifecycle stages and capacity planning. Coaching is about empowering the team to work through processes and achieve success. By understanding the importance of each role and focusing on leadership, management, and coaching, heads of customer success can effectively navigate growth and ensure customer success.
ON TODAY'S EPISODE: Scaling your Customer Success team can feel like walking a tightrope between maintaining control and empowering your team. In this illuminating episode, Johan and Lincoln address the challenges and solutions involved in scaling Customer Success teams without losing that personal touch.
THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: "As head of CS I have always been very integrated with my small team and could see the progress we made with customers. As we are now growing, I feel I’m losing touch with my team and my customers. Do you have any advice for me?”
TOPICS BEING ADDRESSED:
Identifying and working with customer life cycle stages for effective scaling
The role of capacity planning and metrics in Customer Success management
How leadership, management, and coaching harmonize for successful scaling
QUOTES: Lincoln Murphy (05:42): "Confidence and competence: The twin engines of scaling customer success."
Johan Nilsson (12:31): "You're not just a manager, you're a coach. There's a difference."
Lincoln Murphy (16:08): "Uncovering gaps isn't failure; it's the roadmap to success."
Lincoln Murphy (20:47): "If you're the bottleneck, your business can't breathe."
Johan Nilsson (27:05): "Leadership isn't about control, it's about empowering control in others."
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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