Customer Success: Metrics are worthless if you don?t deliver outcomes

If you’re considering launching a Customer Success program for the first time or optimizing how your team works with clients, how do you know when exactly to “flip the switch” to launch a CS program?Here’s the answer: You’re always ready… it’s never too early. Let’s dig in.In the real-time data, metric-heavy world we live in, it may seem odd to have empathy — decidedly intangible and experiential — as my #1 recommendation to Customer Success. Ultimately, what does success — specifically and quantifiably — look like for your customer and how does your product contribute to that success?Keep in mind that value perception fluctuates between different customer stakeholders, across time horizons, and as a response to different business factors. Communicate up, down, and across with your customers to ensure alignment on what’s important.Which brings us to…Once you know what success looks like to your customer, it comes down to consistent execution of what needs to happen (and when) to deliver said outcomes to your customers. What does this mean to my business?” It’s not enough for the product to work as intended, but between a competitive cloud-based SaaS world, real-time data, and immediate gratification, you need to help make the connection between your product and the quantifiable impact you deliver to your client.Outcomes confirm a customer’s initial purchase decision and provide ongoing validation of the product/relationship over the lifetime of the relationship. That said, implementing a strong and effective Customer Success program doesn’t have to be overly complicated, time-consuming, or expensive — you can start simple and scale over time with two simple things: The mindset to have empathy for your customer stakeholders and the objective to deliver value in the way of quantifiable outcomes.