Principle #4
Without a doubt, empathetic, authentic communication is the bread and butter of a well-oiled customer success strategy. So it’s not a shock to learn customers want to be treated like a human, which requires sensitivity and understanding in the communication from the customer success representative in charge of their account.
However, CSMs the world over will agree that one of the biggest challenges is to organically blend the human aspect of CS with the data collected about the customers.
Understanding what the data means, collating it, and letting that drive your strategy is just as important as having the customer’s desires drive your strategy.
While having a customer-first approach is of paramount importance, Rebecca Fenlon, Head of Customer Success at Cognassist believes that “if you don’t have data to base your customer success strategy on: you’re doing it wrong.”
For Arun Kumar, Head of Renewals & Customer Success (APAC) at NetApp, “any retention strategy should be designed based on hard data and not gut-feeling or assumptions.”
Finding the right balance between technology and human interaction is the central battle for Brian Nicholls, VP of Customer Success at UserIQ. He's of the opinion that tech should be used to enhance the human touch of CS, believing that “your customers are still human; humans are still buying from humans, and even in today's high-tech world, I don't see that changing anytime soon.”