People use Facebook not because they have a particular desired outcome to achieve — it’s purely low energy entertainment. Nobody wakes up and think “I wish I could watch more funny videos of cats, but it is so damn hard to use Facebook.” Unfortunately, that also applies to B2B software.

Customer Journey: Turning it into a Methodology

A methodology presents a form of levelling the customer, so not everyone has to start from the beginning. A success milestone is something meaningful for a customer to achieve; when a real value is perceived. To benefit from a defined customer journey we needed a strict way to assess if the customer had achieved it or not.&nbsp;We set a group of actions the customer had to carry out inside the software, and minimum values for certain KPIs the customer should achieve.&nbsp;

Designing the Customer Journey to be 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,

How we run the project

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.

Phases

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.&nbsp;

Success Milestones

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.&nbsp;

Task Lists

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.

Does one size fit all?

Actions inside the software:&nbsp;<ul><li>Install the RD Station tracking code&nbsp;</li><li>Create and Publish one Landing Page&nbsp;</li></ul>

Mapping customers along the Journey

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.

The Success Funnel

<ul><li>Before: QBRs for every customer that hasn’t had one in three months&nbsp;</li><li>Now: EBRs for customers that are stuck in Success Milestone 2&nbsp;</li><li>Next: EBRs for customers that are at the same milestone for more than 3 months&nbsp;</li></ul>

The Rule that generates daily CTAs (tasks) to the CSMs

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.

Aligning the Journey with the CSM work

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.

Education

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.&nbsp;

Product Team Objectives

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.

Start Creating Your Own Journey Now

I describe how we ran a project to design our Customer Journey and turn it into a Methodology. Now customer can count on a path with clear steps towards the success.

Stashed ideas

Customer Experience (CX)<ul><li dir = "auto">Considers the customer from the very beginning</li><li dir = "auto">The CX team relies on understanding how the customers think adn feel towards the company</li><li dir = "auto">Every interaction performed whether human or digital, feeds into the understanding and development of a great customer experience</li></ul>Customer Success (CS)<ul><li>The CS team works to understand how the customer engages with the product post-sale in order to identify ways to optimize their engagement</li><li>They work with the product teams in order to heighten the amusement and improve upon the frustration points of the customers</li></ul>

Customer Experience vs. Customer Success

<ol><li dir = "auto">When we get a new customer to set up and optimize on a product we call this onboarding</li><li dir = "auto">Escalations happen when we address the issues that flows over the scope the mainline customer service</li><li dir = "auto">For the products that have a fixed but renewable relationship, the Customer Success team ensures that the customer stays with the company or product, this is renewal</li></ol>These are the lenses that the customer success team must look through in order to have the customer's experience more enthralling.

The Customer's Journey

<ol><li>Location in the customer journey - Customer Experience (CX) begins before the consumer is knowledgeable that they are in the buying journey; while Customer Success (CS) places the spotlight on the post-sale time frame.</li><li>Team goals - When CX contends to build an overall positive relationship and experience with the customer, CS strives to assist the customer to get the most out of a specific product or service.</li></ol>

The Difference between CX and CS

A true customer-centric company should realize that both customer experience and customer success exist to deliver great outcomes for the customer.

Learn the key differences between customer success and customer experience, and discover why both roles are important for delighting customers.

customerexperience

Customer Journey: Turning it into a Methodology

Customer Journey: Turning it into a Methodology

Customer Experience vs. Customer Success

Customer Experience vs. Customer Success: Explained - Help Scout