Customer success is a crucial aspect of any business and with the rise of job cuts and layoffs in the tech industry, it is becoming increasingly important to approach it in a digital-first manner to be more efficient and effective. This means breaking down departmental silos and working cross-functionally with departments like support, marketing, and sales. With the right approach and tools, you can ensure that your customers achieve their desired outcomes at scale while your business continues to thrive.

STEP 1: USE TIER 1 DATA SOURCES

To achieve digital first customer success, it is essential to have access to the right data. There are six primary data source types: Usage, Engagement, Sentiment, Objective, Support, and Subscription Data. Tier 1 data sources, such as Usage and Engagement Data, are the most important as they allow you to align around specific customer outcomes. For example, you can measure whether a customer is using your product or attending meetings consistently. Understanding which data source to use is important, as it will impact the success of your outreach efforts.

STEP 2: CREATE AN OUTCOME OPT-IN EXPERIENCE

To ensure that your customers achieve their desired outcomes, it is important to create an outcome menu that outlines the top outcomes clients get from using your product or service. By asking customers which outcomes they want to achieve pre-sales and post-sales, you can track their progress and ensure that they are on track to meet their goals.

A framework we use for this is called ODO which stands for Objectives, Deliverables and Outcomes. What are the objectives that your customers want to achieve, what are the deliverables of those objectives and ultimately what are the outcomes that occurred for them.

To create an outcome opt-in experience, you should tie your usage and engagement measures to specific objectives and create messaging sequences based on the key deliverables for each outcome. For example, if a customer is achieving 3 of the four desired outcomes, your messaging should target the 1 outcomes that they are not delivering value. This approach immensely decreases the volume of digital campaigns significantly.

STEP 3: ALIGN CUSTOMER SUCCESS TEAMS TO OPT-IN CHANNELS

The key to a successful outcome opt-in experience is to align your customer success team with the opt-in queue. Your customer success managers should no longer work with a list of accounts but instead work with the opt-in queue for a territory of customers. By relying on Tier 1 data sources, you can ensure that the use cases are personalized to each customer's level of usage or engagement.

STEP 4: STAY ACTIVELY LEARNING

In the digital-first world, change is inevitable. New products, pricing changes, new workflows, messaging changes, and evolving support models can all impact your customer success program. It is important to build a nimble program that can be adapted to priorities and outcome goals as they change. By staying actively learning, you can ensure that your program remains effective and relevant in an ever-changing landscape.

In conclusion, digital first customer success requires pre-work, access to the right data sources, an outcome opt-in experience, alignment of customer success teams, and a commitment to actively learning and adapting to change. By following these steps, you can ensure that your customers achieve their desired outcomes and that your business continues to thrive in the digital age.