For most organizations, the process of establishing a Customer Success team and program is unfortunately a gradual one. Senior Management’s initial assumptions about the role give way to lessons learned. The group’s charter is then adjusted. The overall organizational structure is modified, and, in too many cases, a new executive is then brought in to lead the customer success team through the next phase. This cycle may be repeated several times over the course of the first 2-3 years.
The real costs of this unnecessarily extended process, while generally unreported, are nonetheless real. Avoidable turnover in CS exec ranks, expansion revenues and profitability left lying on the table, lost customers and unrealized potential increase to bottom line company valuations — the total can be strategically significant.
To assist firms to compress the time spent in designing the correct charter for their customer success group and to avoid the losses from false steps experienced by too many companies, The Customer Success Association offers some powerful resources.
Customer Success Association Resources
The first is an on-site and carefully tailored executive Briefing session, intended to acquaint the senior management team with what is currently being done by similar companies worldwide and to put all of the questions that the leadership should consider in its process out in the open.
Another option for understanding the now and future of the profession and understanding how it can apply to your company is the Customer SuccessCon series of professional conferences. Designed for maximum knowledge transfer and networking, the events are given in the San Francisco area, Boston, Seattle and London each year. A maximum of 100 tickets are offered for each even.
The CSA also maintains a list of well-established independent consultants, The Customer Success Advisors, who are experts focused on the customer success space. Once you’ve settled on the overall strategic design, a Customer Success Advisor can help you directly turn that strategy into results.
A full listing of all known firms who offer consulting services for customer success teams may also be found on this page:
http://customersuccessconsultants.com
