Every professional needs to have a mindset suited for their role, right. What is the mindset a customer success professional needs to have? What is a customer success mindset? How can an efficient customer success mindset lead to business success? Customer success strategies need to be created by someone with a customer success mindset for it to translate to desired outcomes.
What is a Customer Success Mindset?
Companies need to determine what is customer success before actually determining a customer success mindset. A customer success mindset is one where the customer and their success is the core of every activity. The customer success mindset is where one has a ‘customer-first’ mentality and sees every activity from that perspective.
A customer success mindset is one where strategies need to be centered around creating tangible value for customers and keeping them retained.
Is a Customer Success Mindset the responsibility of only the Customer Success Team?
This is a misconception. The customer success team alone is not responsible for developing a customer success mindset. In a Salesforce survey, it was revealed that 70% of customers believed that a seamless interaction from the start is important to build a business. From the point of product conception, the mindset needs to be fixed on how customers would want/need/react. This makes it the responsibility of the entire company and not just the customer success team.
Everyone in the company needs to align for a customer success strategy and improved customer experience. Comprehensive strategies need to be in place to create seamless customer satisfaction.
Why a Customer Success Mindset will Lead to Business Success
A customer success mindset is pivotal to business success. Customer success mindset requires a top-down commitment. Developing a customer success mindset will lead to business success due to the following reasons-
- Clarity in communication throughout the lifecycle There is a consistent thread in communication across the customer lifecycle. From when they come into the circuit as a possible buyer, it is important to keep them as a customer in mind. Communicating in that format will make it easier to understand and reduce the problems.
- Customers can adopt to the product A customer success mindset will always ensure focus on retention. This leads to improved product adoption. If more customers stay with the product, there is increased retention and value. This translates to increased business success.
- Proactive customer education and support When all stakeholders employ a customer-centric mindset, it is easier to provide the right support and education. Everyone knows about the product and this makes it easier to provide the right education, information, and learning.
- Aligning OKRs and goals Keeping goals and OKRs with business activities will result in increased desired outcomes. The benchmarks need to be set to align with company goals at all levels. For example, the sales team’s benchmark can mean more conversions in a journey map. This needs to be routed with proper education and sales enablement material.
- Feedback is regulated A customer success mindset also ensures that all customer feedback is considered and taken seriously. Feedback is important for businesses to improve and grow to match competition. Customers can achieve value and explain what they feel about the product. This is necessary for making product changes and improving the features.
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How to bring the Customer Success Mindset?
To develop the customer success mindset, it is important to keep the customer at the center. Some aspects that must be considered to bring about a customer success mindset include-
- Making communication authentic and effective
- Empathizing with the customer journey
- Focus on customer experience and their outcomes
- Aligning CS metrics with overall business objectives
- Keeping yourself in the shoes of the customer who is facing the problem or issue
Bottom Line
Start with hiring people with a customer-focused mindset. Give importance to stakeholders and employees who are empathetic to customers and their problems. Understand customers properly and ensure that their goals are related to your OKRs. A customer success mindset will improve product adoption, retention, cross-sells, upsells, and customer satisfaction.
