As the newly appointed head of Customer Experience, overseeing both Customer Implementations and Customer Success, I faced the challenge of building a Customer Success team from scratch in an environment characterized by siloed departments and disconnected processes. My goal was to ensure Customer Experience was integrated into every stage of the customer journey. This required building collaboration across the company, becoming active participants in Product Design discussions, collaborating closely with Marketing, and gaining a seat at the table during the sales process. While this effort demanded significant time and resources, it led to higher retention rates, improved customer satisfaction, and the achievement of key company objectives.
The Process
The first step was diagnosing the siloes, meeting with functional leaders to understand their roles, team objectives, and pain points regarding customer experience. These insights formed the foundation of my plan to integrate and align cross-functional teams. Sales presented the biggest gap. To bridge this, we:
- Discussed ideal collaboration practices between Sales and Customer Experience.
- Developed a RACI framework to define responsibilities across Sales, Implementation, and Success.
- Created a relatable car analogy to simplify and communicate role transitions:
- During Sales: Sales drives, Implementation rides shotgun, and Success is in the backseat.
- During Implementation: Implementation drives, Sales moves to the passenger seat, and Success remains in the back.
- Post-Implementation: Success drives, Implementation becomes the passenger, and Sales moves to the backseat (with a playful nod to “throwing Sales in the trunk”).
This framework not only clarified roles but also fostered strong relationships between teams, enabling swift issue resolution and bridging the gap between Sales and Customer Experience. Simultaneously, we launched collaboration sessions with Product and Marketing teams to:
- Share customer feedback and insights for product improvements.
- Align on product communications, customer messaging, and branding strategies.
- Established a Customer Leadership Council where Product, Marketing, and Customer Experience worked together to gather feedback from key customers on products and processes
The feedback loops established through the Customer Leadership Council helped us refine our processes, align programs more tightly, and drive continuous improvement across departments.
The Outcome
The cross-functional approach led to measurable successes:
- Improved Customer Retention: Reduced client attrition from 12% to 3%, significantly increasing long-term customer value through expanded product adoption and service offerings.
- Increased Referenceable Customers: Designed, tested, and deployed global sales opportunity and account management programs to 100+ global companies, resulting in a fivefold increase in referenceable customers.
- Successful Platform Migration: Achieved 90% migration to a new platform within six months by defining and executing a customer migration process that ensured zero downtime.
- Strengthened Cross-Functional Relationships: Improved collaboration between Sales, Customer Experience, Product, and Marketing teams. Created a more aligned and efficient customer-centric organization.
By addressing silos, fostering collaboration, and aligning cross-functional efforts, I successfully built a Customer Success team that became a critical driver of customer retention and satisfaction. This case study demonstrates the transformative power of unified approach across all customer-facing departments leads to significant business outcomes.
Anne Kimsey
Anne Kimsey is a seasoned customer success leader and product strategist with a proven track record of driving customer loyalty, operational excellence, and revenue growth. With a history of building high-performing teams and launching customer success functions from the ground up, Anne excels at aligning business goals with customer needs to deliver measurable results. Over 20 years of experience in SaaS and enterprise solutions have honed her ability to lead cross-functional teams, foster stakeholder relationships, and implement data-driven strategies that ensure success. Passionate about customer-centric solutions, Anne has collaborated with diverse organizations across North America and global markets to drive sustained growth and innovation.
