Prioritizing Customer Success in 2022 and Beyond

Predicting short-term futures is really difficult right now. Optimism about the economy is a bit touch and go, and thought leaders are cautious to make any specific declarations one way or another.

When the future is uncertain-and it very much is-it’s better to be practical rather than predictive.

This practicality expresses itself differently on the side of buyers versus sellers. For instance, buyers tend to cut investments from things that might work and double-down on investments that do work. If you’re a seller, this means proving to customers that your products and offerings are essential to their continued success.

The revenue teams in charge of managing and growing customer relationships are Customer Success teams; also known as Customer Operations teams or Customer Account teams. And it’s these teams that take center focus in practical responses to these uncertain times-if they haven’t already.

Reasons Customer Success Deserves Your Organization’s Focus

First and foremost, it’s simply more cost-effective to invest in Customer Success right now. Yes, Marketing and Sales teams get a lot of revenue focus-but managing campaigns, attracting new customers, and converting them takes a lot of financial investment. Retaining an existing customer is five to ten times less expensive than bringing on new customers.

Additionally, prospective customers are still financially cautious these days. Tighter purse strings make for longer sales cycles and slower conversions. If your organization is looking for revenue in the short term, it’s probably easier to upsell your current customers rather than chase new ones.

The final reason folds Customer Success back into Marketing and Sales. Putting a greater emphasis on existing customers empowers Customer Success Managers (CSMs) to elevate customer champions through case studies, testimonials, and marketing opportunities. Nothing helps boost your reputation like a happy customer-or a dozen happy customers.

Augmenting Your Customer Success Teams With Conversational AI

Of course, getting more out of your customers requires more out of your Customer Success teams. And honestly, CSMs are already extremely busy managing their current activities.

This begs the question: How do organizations scale their Customer Success efforts to match the moment?

The simple answer is hiring more CSMs. But that strategy is financially costly and rarely scales quickly due to the time required to train new employees. A much better solution is to augment your workforce with technologies that scale personalized interactions with customers. This is where Conversational AI makes its play.

Conversational AI, as the name suggests, uses artificial intelligence to automate personalized conversations with contacts. Conversational Customer Success is a specific iteration of this technology built to engage customers throughout the lifecycle. Examples include:

• Scheduling account reviews
• Collecting customer feedback
• Renewing existing customers
• Onboarding new customers
• Proactively driving product usage
• Managing customer health
• And providing appropriate upsell opportunities

Not only does Conversational AI for Customer Success deliver a personalized experience to each and every customer at scale, but it also motivates revenue-generating activities. This means customers get the attention they deserve and Customer Success teams get an extra pair of (virtual) helping hands. Similarly, using an AI Assistant to collect customer feedback and motivate better outcomes leads to happier customers who are more likely to participate in advocacy for your brand. This, in turn, enables Customer Success teams to help Marketers and Salespeople within your organization.

While peering into the future might be murkier than we’d wish, there are still practical steps we can take to improve customer outcomes and drive revenue opportunities. One such step is adopting Conversational AI to augment your Customer Success teams.

Interested in a deeper dive into Conversational Customer Success? Explore our eBook: Customer Success, It’s Your Time to Shine.