How to Justify Investment in Customer

Success

Cliff Cate, ToutApp

Nathan Williams, LinkedIn

Audrey Warren, Bazaarvoice

Nigel Nugent, Enviance

Audrey WarrenBazaarvoice

Bazaarvoice is the leading provider of solutions that allow retailers and brands to obtain and use shopper-generated content in their businesses to increase sales, build customer loyalty and increase profits.

Director, Client Programs

time

mat

urity

Sell, sell, sell

Oh my, we need to hire someone to “look after our

customers”

Hmmm… this is not sustainable

Hiring frenzy

Mad rush for technology solutions

Client segmentation

100% client retention. Return of the 40 hour

work week

Confidential and Proprietary. © 2012 Bazaarvoice, Inc. 4

Activities Outputs Outcomes Impact

Mea

sure

men

t

Easy Easy Challenging Essentially impossible

Confidential and Proprietary. © 2012 Bazaarvoice, Inc. 5

Create self-service onboarding materials

Clients engage with onboarding materials

Clients are able to quickly understand what they need to be successful

Key client contacts are more likely to become advocates for the program because they understand the value of the product and perceive the company as “easy to work with”

Account Managers spend less time on "the basics" and more time on strategic consulting.

Less client churn

Happier customers

Lower service costs

Measurement: Number of module completes Qualitative surveys & interviews Churn, NPS, service spend*

Activities Outputs Outcomes Impact

Cliff Cate

• Post signature - customer onboarding, support, training and renewals.

• Previously worked at GoodData, CaseCentral, Oracle, Stellent, Viant and Andersen Consulting.

VP, Customer Happiness & Success

ToutApp

ToutAppToutApp empowers sales and customer success teams by

streamlining email with powerful tracking, templates and real-

time scoring.

- 70,000 users

- Free trial to self service and traditional sales models

ToutApp Customer Happiness & Success Team • 4 Happiness Officers today, +3

immediately

• Everyone is currently a generalist and loosely mapped to Sales AEs

• Break down of activities• 30% On-boarding and training• 60% Inbound customer tickets• 10% Proactive outreach

• Continue to build an amazing team

• Renewal strategy and execution

• Scalable sales transition process

• Repeatable onboarding process

The Team Today Future Priorities

Justifying investment in customer success

• What metrics should you track?

• How can you plan or forecast the investment in customer success?

• How does company stage or product complexity affect the investment?

Questions to ask

Nigel NugentVP, Worldwide Sales &

Customer Success

• Leading SaaS-based Environmental Compliance System• Founded in 1999 – SaaS from the get-go• Fortune 500 client base – Utilities, Mining, Oil & Gas, Railroads• 30,000+ users in 40 countries• Personally responsible for all client-facing activities:

• Direct Sales• Existing Accounts• Inside Sales• Customer Success• Services• Sales Operations

Current Model

• 2 Managers with 5 reps

• 3 reactive – Phone

• Help desk

• Log cases

• Liaise with Dev and Sales

• 2 proactive – On the road

• Training

• Renewals and Upsell

‘To-be’ Model

• Accounts segmented into 3 divisions

1. Safe, low upsell opportunity (CS)

2. Identified upsell or @risk (EA)

3. Enterprise (DS)

• Focus on user adoption, pre and post sale

• All sales groups play a part

• Success snap-shots

• Client dashboards

Customer Success Team and Strategy

Transform from reactive to proactive

When should customer success activities start?

During presales with ISD and always as part of the introductory pitch - competitive advantage

SaaS / Cloud “old school”vs.

Traditional Perpetual Licensing

We rely on your subscription, therefore we have to care more!

It’s a flexible model; you can decrease use if needed

Small initial capital outlay Cancel if you are unhappy with our

performance….and other “uninspiring” reasons

SaaS / Cloud “old school”vs.

SaaS / Cloud “new order”

Focus on user adoption Real-time analytics Deep connection with client

implementation team Set adoption targets Quarterly success review Usage dashboards Executive interaction

vs.

Lessons learned?

Be active in the SaaS community and take time to seek out

new technologies, ideas and approaches

I should have done this three years ago!

Nate Williams

Global Head, Customer Success

Operations

Connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive

and successful

Our mission

For our members

The professional profile of record

Connect all of the world's professionals

Identity Networks KnowledgeThe definitive professional

publishing platform

For our customers

HirePower half of

all hires

MarketThe most effective way for

marketers to engage professionals

SellThe start of every sales opportunity

Customer Success Team

Expert Consultants Worldwide

40+Countries

8+Avg. Years of Talent Acquisition

Experience per Consultant

150+ 10,000+Consulting Customers

Where do our talent acquisition experts come from? Places like…

Customer Success

Be successful Feel successful• Product Usage• Product Success• Add-on/Upsell• ROI

• Net Promoter Score

• Customer Satisfaction

• SLA Delivery

Retention

Unhappy Achievers(Re-confirm customer objectives, evaluate non-product sentiment, affirm performance through objective benchmarking)

Model CustomersThey are successful and they know it.

Frustrated(Evaluate Product Mix, Initiate Discovery to re-define Customer goals)

Starry-Eyed(Motivate higher performance through objective benchmarking)

Are Successful?

Feel Successful?No

No Yes

Yes

Justifying Investment in Customer Success

• Define the role of the Customer Success Team v. Sales• Connect all the dots from usage/sentiment retention• Understand how leverage ratios change with growth• Invest in technology for productivity gains

• Don’t confuse access to data with technology*Bessemer Venture Partners “Ten Laws of Cloud Computing”

The most important part of Software-as-a-Service isn’t “Software” it’s “Service”#

8

The single biggest driver of long term profitability for your cloud business is the renewal rate of your customers.#

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