Customer Journey: Turning it into a Methodology

Rd ran a project to understand what success really meant to their customers. A Focus-Group ran 100 hours of customer One-On-One interviews. The same Focus-Group worked together to define the path to reach it. Rd had walked through a path of hyper growth, going from zero to thousands of customers solely using Inbound and our own software as customer acquisition strategies. If you’re looking for a better way to solve a customer’s problem,

The least mature company is the one who doesn't use Inbound marketing strategies yet. In such stage, all that matters is to prove the Channel: that's why this is the first phase. Phases define requirements to start, and usual time frame to complete each one of them. The objective is to set the right expectations.

4 success milestones were designed to be perceived by the customer as a moment where they get real value out of the software. The goal is to show the customer that they achieved something to be proud of, that they are getting closer to their objective. By Aligning the first milestone with the Onboarding project we simplified things. If customers get stuck at some point, or if it takes too much time to see any real value, they are very likely to churn before they complete it. 

We broke milestones down into tasks with small objectives. A task list is a step by step to do list to complete a particular milestone. Tasks don’t add value per se but they are necessary to hit the milestone. The Task List for each Milestone gives the customer a plan. A plan minimizes decisions they need to make, making them focused on a straightforward path. 

If you could design a lot of customized journeys, would it work better for your customers? certainly, but that’s not what a Saas is. A Saas is not a consultancy company or a product with a customized roadmap. Every customer thinks they are special and need something unique, but at the end of the day if they have discipline and stick to a standard methodology they will achieve the results they expect.

Actions inside the software: 

• Install the RD Station tracking code 
• Create and Publish one Landing Page 

If you automatically assess where the customer is on the journey, you can automate every message you send to him, or even Customize the software interface, based on the success milestone he is at. A success milestone is often an abstraction and not a crystal clear definition. Every morning Gainsight runs a rule (script) that assesses which customers have completed the ‘checklist' then it tags those customers with the correspondent milestone tag.

We used the success funnel to find bottlenecks in our customer journey. We compared the milestones with Churn rate and the result blew our minds. Our obsession became making the customer hit milestones faster. The result couldn’t be different: more of our customers will achieve success faster than we did before.

• Before: QBRs for every customer that hasn’t had one in three months 
• Now: EBRs for customers that are stuck in Success Milestone 2 
• Next: EBRs for customers that are at the same milestone for more than 3 months 

Every good business review should end with a plan for the customer to follow. A good CRM can help by summarizing the customer Profile and history. An Ebr is an executive business review, similar to the QBR but not tied to a quarter. We now tie EBRs to milestones so customers can count on a standardized quality of service.

A good customer success methodology always counts on excellent educational resources. If a company tries to do a bit of everything it achieves a bit of nothing. We created a methodology portal with all success milestones organized as a chain of projects. That way, customers get focused on overcoming that milestone. The portal also works as collateral material for the CSM job.

The Product team must also be accountable for making customers hit the Customer Success Milestones. Today at RD, every time they modify the product, an increase in the Success Funnel conversion rate is expected. That’s one of the ways we’ve been measuring the effectiveness of software improvements. 

The best benefits of designing a customer journey comes when you start using it as a success funnel. Knowing the conversion rate of a funnel makes you able to predict its throughput. You will turn your cs organization into a “machine” that delivers success in a predictable and measurable way.