Great points,
@Jim Jones.
Most important is that Support is a sub-group of CS. In particular for teams that scale and grow, the ones more technically adapt problem-solvers migrate towards the "back office" Support and the more relational, business-focused ones towards customer facing engagement roles. When you are ready for that bifurcation, the CSM becomes the quarterback who draws on Support and other resources to keep their cohorts humming, not the touchdown hero. That requires that everyone is in sync, via personal dialog and later-on automated input into your health score with Support metrics.
You can check on my blog post about
maturing CS for more info and connect offline for more details about the operational aspects.
Regarding Support technology, it's a wide open field. There are multiple popular platforms, and in particular with AI support, self-service systems and methods. I would start small, perhaps with capabilities within your CRM until you know what you really need. Some solutions are more consultative, others geared towards high-volume, etc,...
------------------------------
Andreas Knoefel
2020 - Top100 Customer Success Strategist
Inventor of the Customer Success Performance Index™
I maximize customer ROI, and boost CS efficiencies and Net Revenue Retention
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 02-23-2021 07:54
From: Jim Jones
Subject: Customer Support and Success
Hi Ross:
In my two previous roles I owned both customer success and support. My background is mostly on the support side so I had to learn a lot (quickly!) about customer success.
In one of my roles I came into a CS team that did both support and success related functions. Not only was the team stretched too thin, support and success require different mindsets and different operating motions. So it's good you're separating these out to make both teams more efficient.
The biggest piece of advice I'd provide you is to draw clear "swim lanes" between the teams - what each team does and doesn't do. Of course you want the teams to collaborate and to work together for benefit of your customers - but they also have to stick with their own roles and responsibilities. Once complaint I heard from the success team quite often is "we are doing so much support-related stuff we can't keep up with business reviews." None of these interactions ever made it into Salesforce, so I had no way to quantify it or to gauge the impact on their time. After some coaching and a few hard conversations, I let CS know that support wasn't their role. I also had to make sure the support team stepped up their game, as it were...the success team had been doing support historically because the support team was mediocre before I started. We staffed the support team properly, provided documented processes and tools, and reported to customers and internally what the support team was doing...and voilà, CS stopped doing support.
That's just one thing you'll have to think about in the midst of many others - but you have to start building in that specialization early. Happy to speak to you more about my processes around this, or give you more advice from my experience if it can help.
------------------------------
Jim Jones
VP of Customer Experience
NTT Cloud Communications
Aurora IL
6309262209
Original Message:
Sent: 02-18-2021 08:24
From: Ross Reitman
Subject: Customer Support and Success
Hi Community!
We are starting to scope out what the support function will look like at my early stage startup and it likely will be within the great CS team. I have not personally worked with CS and Support reporting into the head of CS department and would love insights on how the support function should be created, types of backgrounds to look for and preferred tools and support for the team. Anything anyone can share or if we can connect offline would be very helpful and appreciated!
Thanks,
Ross
#CustomerSuccess
#PeopleLeadership
#Roles&Responsibilities
------------------------------
Ross Reitman
Torii
------------------------------