IN BRIEF
Customer success is the active support of customers after the sale so that they actually achieve the agreed value. It covers onboarding, regular reviews, early warning signs of churn, and the renewal and expansion of the relationship. Unlike customer service, customer success does not wait for a request but acts ahead of time.
When to involve us.
When customers receive little support after the sale, cancellations come as a surprise, or renewals and follow-on orders depend on the commitment of individual people, existing customer relationships fall short of their potential.
We clarify how customers measure the success of the relationship and align onboarding, support and reviews with it. Together, we define customer segments, engagement models and the handover from sales to customer success. We define a health score using selected usage, service and contract data and agree who acts on each signal and what action to take. We use existing customer histories to assess how informative these signals are.
What the work produces.
We agree on the scope around your goals, starting point and available capacity. The following elements illustrate what an engagement can include.
WHAT WE ADDRESS
- Customer success model with segments and engagement levels
- Onboarding process and handover from sales
- Health score with early warning signals and actions
- Renewal and expansion process with measures
POTENTIAL OUTPUTS
A customer engagement model covering onboarding, early warning signals and renewal actions. Agreed metrics let you assess whether customers achieve the intended value and whether churn risks are identified earlier.
A focused starting point.
An overview of customer segments and contract models, figures on cancellations and renewals over recent years, and examples of successful and difficult customer relationships. Sales, customer service and account management should be involved together.
The question first. Then the scope.
The first conversation clarifies the objective, deliverables and people involved. We agree whether the engagement covers design, pilot support or technical implementation, who takes on each task and how the deliverables will be assessed.
Discuss a starting point by emailIs customer success worthwhile without a subscription or SaaS model?
Yes. Customer success originated in software companies, but the principle applies wherever a customer relationship extends beyond a single order, for example with maintenance and framework contracts, in project business or with products that need explanation. What matters is that the value for the customer only emerges after the purchase and therefore has to be secured after the purchase as well. The scope depends on customer value and contract model. For many customers, structured onboarding and regular, standardised reviews are enough. Personal support pays off above all for key accounts and for contracts that are renewed regularly.
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