Customer success managers (CSM) have a lot of expectations put on them. 

Their official job is to protect (and expand) revenue. But within that mandate comes a lot of things: client education, making plans to reduce churn with customer engagement, keeping up with evolving market trends, and staying up to speed on product updates.

And it’s not enough for the CSM to simply do these jobs decently. They must do them well, quickly, and efficiently without wasting resources.

But how does the company accomplish this without adding more employees to the payroll or burning out the CSM?

The answer lies in efficient customer success processes. Here are a few tips you can start using today to make your CS motions a bit more efficient.

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1. Perfect the Sales to CS handoff

Hopefully, your sales team asked good questions to get to know the client better before they signed on the digital line. Don’t let that information get lost after the sale. And don’t make your customers repeat it at different stages of their journey.

Keep well-maintained and easily-accessible records of information pertinent to the SaaS/customer relationship. 

Include information such as:

• Client industry and their products/services.
• Problems they’re hoping your product/service can solve.
• Tools in their tech stack.
• Products/services of yours they have bought.
• Time estimate of when they would like to have your product/service fully launched.
• Your level of involvement in helping them integrate your product/service.
• List of next steps and actions.
• Products/services of yours they could likely use in the future.

PS—Leverage this Sales-To-CS Handoff template to speed things up even more.

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2. Help customers help themselves

Your clients need to know how to use your software. Just like any CSM, clients have to manage busy schedules and will appreciate educational materials—a knowledge base—they can easily reach at their convenience. Ensure they know where to find help and training materials.

Customers with questions are customers who require your help. Tools that address common concerns and questions allow customers to educate themselves and find solutions to their own problems.

Pro tip: Not all customers will log into a help page to get the information they need. Consider adding in-platform prompts and leveraging tech-touch customer success to meet customers where they are at.

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3. Focus on solutions to personalize your sales approach

When it comes to educating your clients, it’s tempting to point out all the bells and whistles that make your product outstanding. However, too much information upfront can overwhelm someone just learning the ropes. Instead, focus on a solution for an individual client’s pain point instead of explaining all the cool features. Bite-sized chunks of information are often easier to internalize, reducing the chances you will overwhelm your audience.    

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4. Collect intel to replicate what works‍

Without data, it’s very difficult to develop critical insights that help you identify the good from the bad. For example, you won’t know if you’ve delivered helpful service and support or provided the right amount of face-time or hands-off materials without collecting the right information.

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Collecting data about your processes and the effects of those processes is an essential step toward learning to replicate what works. Determine what your clients like and what could be improved. Add educational and service options but do so cautiously and measure the effects.

In addition, track the amount of time spent with a customer and the number of tasks you do for each. These numbers allow you to see if a customer consumes too much of your time. More attention and activities don’t necessarily translate to more value to the client.

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5. Use the right technology 

‍Scaling out customer success involves a lot of data gathering and compilation. That’s nearly impossible to do well (let alone at scale) without technology.

Technology—and in particular automation—helps you to:

• Educate and keep tabs on your accounts.
• Identify expansion opportunities via a Customer Success Qualified Lead (CSQL) process.
• Send timely follow-up and educational materials via your clients’ preferred channels.
• Give the customer a more personalized touch.
• Collect necessary data about your clients and your strategies.

Technology allows you to keep in touch with dozens of accounts simultaneously. It’s how you stack your habits to work smarter and achieve greater, lending personalized support to those who need it and saving you and your customers time when they don’t.

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CSP: The easy, efficient solution

Customer success platforms (CSP) make it easier to scale your CS processes. You can do more with your time and resources when capable technology boosts your efforts. 

Sure, you can piecemeal different services together, but that is bound to be more expensive, time-consuming, and unfruitful. Check out our article on choosing the best customer success tool (in just three easy steps) to get started today.

Infographic

If your customer success team is overwhelmed by their workload, this infographic will provide practical tips to help them work more efficiently and productively. Customers today expect quick responses, so companies need to ensure their CS processes are up-to-date and effective. Utilize these strategies outlined in the infographic to enhance efficiency with your customer success efforts.