Principle #5
Yes, a CSM and a Director of Customer Success will sit under an internal department dedicated to CS – much like content, marketing or sales. But it’s vital to look at CS as a movement in a modern-business sense, within the ongoing plight for customer-centricity.
Customer success can only flourish when it’s viewed beyond the parameters of the ‘team’ championing it. Any company can add on a CS team to give the impression of modernity and customer focus, but customer success’ mission statement needs to be valued on a company-wide scale.
As Eric Crane, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Flatfile echoes our sentiment, firmly believing that:
“You, as a success leader, are holding together a set of customers whose value realization determines the success or failure of your business.”
And finally, to return to the sage words of Shari Shrebnick, Client Success Manager (CSM) at Searchmetrics:
“[Customer success] should be an essential part of the company philosophy; it should be what everybody embodies. Because without the customers, we wouldn't be here. We should all be working collaboratively to make the customer successful.
“A successful customer is made by an entire organization, not just a department.
“It cannot be isolated to a department, it is a cross-functional effort across all departments. Not just that, it’s about having a passion for building relationships with people. Something so crucial can’t just be relegated to one department.”