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Feature Requests Process Challenge: A Dance Between Butter, Cream Cheese, and Personalized Delight

accounts — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:43:45 +0000

The eternal dilemma of choice: customization or standardization? For businesses, this question translates into a strategic conundrum of product offerings, service dynamics, customer satisfaction, and potential growth avenues

Leveraging Customer Product Requests To Fuel Innovation

Last week, my friend and colleague Bhagya and I got together to get some face time and complete some pending tasks. We were to meet at a Regus co-working space near my home. Bhagya, an early bird who thrives on breakfast, sought to fuel his morning with a quick pick-me-up. On his way, he stopped at a drive-through bagel shop. The bagel store was swarming with customers. A testament to its popularity.

There, amid the morning rush, teenage employees darted back and forth, rushing to customer car windows. Their aim, take orders and reduce waiting times. Bhagya requested a bagel – half of it slathered in butter, the other lavishly spread with cream cheese. Surprised and somewhat disconcerted, the server responded that it wasn’t possible. The bagel could be ordained with either butter or cream cheese, not both. Bhagya, taken aback, insisted that it was a simple request and asked if they could accommodate. The server, apologetic but firm, explained that it was against their process.

Joining me at Regus, a co-working space, Bhagya recounted the incident with a tinge of disappointment. He felt his request was straightforward, and the bagel shop’s inflexibility had dampened his experience. His sentiments were not lost on me.

In his 1922 autobiography, “My Life and Work,” automobile magnate Henry Ford recounted a sales meeting in 1909. When a salesman proposed adding more models, Ford resisted the temptation, vowing to build just one model, ‘Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.’ [1][2]

This narrative raises a pertinent question: Should businesses opt for standardization or customization?

We don’t see a dichotomy between these two options. To enhance profitability and customer experience, businesses should strive for a harmonious blend of both. Whether you’re a SaaS product offering a unified experience or a bagel shop, incorporating customer feedback is vital in evolving a more robust and richer product or service. Naturally, not all customer requests can or will be entertained, necessitating a structured approach to feedback management.

The common strategy is to pay attention to the demands of strategic customers or allocate resources to the most frequent requests. In the absence of anything better, these are certainly fine strategies. We have identified two primary gaps in request management — ineffective listening posts/data collection mechanisms and a lack of systems (and processes) for evaluating and appropriately responding to customer requests.

To overcome these challenges, we propose a three-point process that companies can adopt based on their tooling and organization setup. This process has three distinct steps:

Collection and Classification The collection process should be a combination of direct stakeholder feedback and telemetry. The best point of collection is closest to the user experience.
Distillation and Dissection Distillation entails filtering impactful customer requests based on predetermined criteria and earmarking them on the roadmap (yes, another aspect of filtering is that a large set of requests will get the boot). Dissection refers to deconstructing customer requests into manageable chunks for continual improvement. In the software development context, this could mean breaking down customer requests into user stories and individual sprints.
Delivery and Dissemination Delivery is about making product updates available after testing accompanied with necessary documentation and support. Dissemination refers to closing the loop with the stakeholders who made the requests, emphasizing their contribution, and sharing the availability of new features with all users.

For an in-depth guide to establishing an effective enhancement request process, please refer to our upcoming detailed piece on product enhancement blog post.

Circling back to the bagel shop – can you envision creative ways for them to collect customer feedback? One idea could be to install a “Feedback” button on their order-taking tablets, prompting employees to log a customer’s request each time they have to decline. They could gamify the process to encourage participation, offering rewards to employees collecting the most feedback. They might even allow customers to record their suggestions directly. This approach could uncover business opportunities the management may never have considered, sparking innovation and driving growth.

Innovation can flow in many ways. Customer feedback is one such way that could make companies wildly successful and quirkily endearing. There are other levers, but that, dear reader, is a tale for another time.

[1] Sullivan, B. “”Any Color the Customer Wants, as Long as It’s Black.” Henry Ford.” James Madison Museum, 15 Feb. 2023, www.thejamesmadisonmuseum.net/single-post/any-color-the-customer-wants-as-long-as-it-s-black-henry-ford.

[2] McIntosh, Jil. True or False: Did Ford really say “Any color the customer wants, as long as it’s black? November 3, 2021,

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Want A Change Management Toolset To Guide Your Customers To Success (Part -1)?

accounts — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:43:44 +0000

Frontline teams can leverage maturity models for better adoption and retention

What Is A Maturity Model?

The maturity model can be viewed as a structured framework that enables the assessment of a company, process, or product in relation to recognized benchmarks. Within an organizational context, the maturity model provides a clear vision of the desired end-state, illustrates its advantages, and outlines actionable routes to achieve it. Maturity models serve as valuable tools for time-pressed executives. They allow for a swift understanding of their organization’s current standing and future path, eliminating the necessity for niche domain expertise.

This may all seem a bit too theoretical, so let’s look at this with an easy-to-follow example. Say you want to learn how to roller skate.

Stage 1: You put on roller skates. You’re a bit unsteady and can only move slowly without falling (this is your current state). You hold on to things around you and manage to move just a few feet. It’s frustrating.

Stage 2: After a week of practice, you have gained confidence. You’re able to stop and start and skate at a decent speed. Occasionally, you still lose balance but manage to avoid falling. You are going further and further. You feel happier.

Stage 3: You’re about a month into practicing roller skates. Your intuition has gotten better. You can move fast, navigate obstacles, and even execute some tricks. You’re ecstatic. Roller skating has become as natural as walking for you.

The progression benchmarks in this example include maintaining balance, learning to stop and start, skating at a certain speed, navigating obstacles, and finally, how you feel. These benchmarks are similar to those in a maturity model, helping to assess current abilities against set specific goals. As you learn to skate, you will continually evaluate your progress, see how well you meet your benchmarks, and adjust your plan as needed.

Similarly, a maturity model facilitates continuous assessment and improvement. A decent maturity model equips the frontline teams to guide customers progressively through different stages of maturity. And, guess what – when you look at the big picture, it becomes clear that the entire journey may take several months, quarters, or even years to complete. It empowers the team responsible for contract negotiations to make a compelling case for longer-duration contracts.

However, there are things you need to watch out. The premise for the maturity models is that their architects have done deep and unbiased thinking to look at an aspect of the business through a specific set of lenses. The various stages of the journey should help customers get better outcomes over time. Vendors must ensure the model’s sole purpose is not just to line their pockets. That’ll quickly undermine the model and vendor’s credibility.

With these disclaimers behind us, maturity models can truly help paint a compelling picture in the pre and post-sales world. Show customers the path to reach the promised land and, in turn, secure new business and renewals. Next, we’ll talk about how to build maturity models.

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A Champion Loss: Navigating the Waters of Key Account Changes

accounts — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 16:43:00 +0000

Imagine a solid green large revenue account that has been a lightning rod of success for a company erupting into a raging inferno. With little notice, the procurement team sent an early notice of termination. The Customer Success Manager, completely blind-sided by this development, reaches out to the main stakeholder only to receive an email bounce-back. The CSM is now left ruing the missed warning signs – the main stakeholder’s absence from the last two meetings. A sinking realization sets in. Time seems to stand still.

Desperate for guidance, the CSM contacts their manager. With their manager’s guidance and amid the chaos of everyone’s busy schedules, a conference call with sales and leadership is arranged for the following week. The call is a whirlwind of differing opinions and suggestions. Yet, in the eye of this storm, a makeshift plan begins to take shape.

The Account Executive is charged with the mission of contacting the executive sponsor, while the CSM is tasked to scout out the successor. An internal follow-up is slated for the upcoming week. As that week rolls in, it’s apparent that their outreach attempts are going nowhere. Despite this setback, the team remains undeterred, agreeing that the strategy laid out still holds water and should be persisted with. The Head of Customer Success poses a question – is it time to adjust the forecast? “Not yet,” counters the CSM, clutching onto a thread of optimism, still believing that somehow, they can salvage the renewal.

This scenario might be unfamiliar territory for some, but trust me, it’s a real-life drama that unfolds more frequently than you’d imagine in companies around the globe. The most difficult part of this story is the late discovery of a key customer stakeholder’s departure, especially when the renewal cycle is drawing dangerously close.

When an account is lost, it leaves a blot on the CSM’s report card for the next quarter. In some situations, it may even impact their longevity at the company. Yet, the harsh reality is that often, CSMs are juggling more accounts than they can feasibly manage. This might not always hold true, but if I were a betting person, I’d say it’s the case for the majority. CSMs are stretched thin, constantly teetering on the brink of burnout.

In our next post, we explore a few practical and easy-to-implement strategies to address this issue of champion loss. We propose that first start by accepting the fact that each account will, at some point, experience a change in the champion. The key is to be prepared. Have a playbook at your fingertips, ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice when that change does occur.

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Surviving a Champion Loss: A Playbook for Customer Success Managers!

accounts — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 16:30:00 +0000

In our preceding post, we urged the acceptance of the unavoidable reality: every account will, sooner or later, encounter changes in its key stakeholders. The crucial strategy here is readiness. Arm yourself with a well-structured playbook, always on hand, poised to spring into action the moment a shift in stakeholders becomes apparent. Below, we introduce a model that we’ve designed to address the challenges that arise from key stakeholder turnover in a strategic account. We’ve titled it the “DEFEAT” model, and it outlines the following detailed steps:

Discover: Turnover
Engage: The Stakeholders
Formulate: A Meaningful Touch
Elevate: Value
Aggregate: Alliances
Tune: In/It

While the first three steps specifically tackle the situation of losing a champion, the remaining steps represent fundamental best practices for customer success.

Discover (Turnover)

In sales, there’s a well-known adage: “Time Kills All Deals.” This maxim holds true in the realm of customer success as well. Detecting a change in the customer’s key stakeholder (or the champion) at the earliest possible time provides the team a fighting chance to save the account, which may otherwise drift away.

We recommend a few strategies to proactively identify potential customer staff changes.

Playbook Steps: Discover Turnover Early

CSM
Effort: Minimal
Impact: High
Add these calibrated questions to your regular customer touchpoint meeting:

Has there been any change within your organization recently? Are there any anticipated shifts in structure or staff?
Given our current standing, do you foresee any hurdles that might affect our renewal process?

CSM + Other functions
Effort: Medium
Impact: High

Ongoing generic communication

It is ideal to make sure that the customers are getting an ongoing electronic touch. This could come in the form of an email newsletter, new release updates, or a general join us for a webinar invitation. Bonus, any email bounce-backs is your early warning system and cue to jump on the account.

Product/Engineering/CS Ops
Effort: Likely high
Impact: High
Collect usage data, and stream it into a platform where customer success can view it without needing to move mountains. Create a “users added/deleted” report. Bonus points to add risk notifications when certain usage thresholds are breached. Many customer success platforms (CSPs) make it easy to implement this.

Engage (The Stakeholders)

In many situations, when a customer fails to show up for a meeting, the CSM almost sighs in relief. This unexpected window offers a rare opportunity to take a bio-break, stretch their legs, or grab a quick snack. There may indeed be a valid reason for the champion’s absence, but the fact that CSMs – those meant to be on the front lines of customer retention – barely have time to catch their breath doesn’t bode well for sustained customer retention.

There are many challenges in maintaining a sustained dialog with the customers. The challenge becomes even more acute when a champion has just left without a decent handover. Time is of the essence in these situations. Having an ongoing cadence and if the new person starts showing up there, it makes it easier to sustain the dialog. That may not be the case in a number of accounts. So, here are a few tips to initiate the dialog.

Playbook Step: Initiate The Dialog

CSM
Effort: Medium
Impact: Mileage may vary
Initiate contact with the former champion or another crucial stakeholder. Investigate whether they’re open to or capable of facilitating an introduction or sharing the identity of their successor. Deliver a warm welcome or a complimentary message to the incoming stakeholder.

Tip: An engaging video or a captivating graphic can significantly enhance your outreach, allowing you to distinguish yourself amidst an ocean of emails.

CS Ops/CS Leadership
Effort: Medium
Impact: High
Design several template versions for the introductory emails. This empowers the CSMs to respond promptly upon learning of a key stakeholder’s departure. Delay often results as CSMs deliberate over crafting the ideal version of a high-impact email.

Formulate (A Meaningful Touch)

We have heard this question a few times, “What if the customer declines to ongoing meetings?”

Many times, CSMs schedule check-in meetings that offer no real benefit to the customer. Wouldn’t you reject sessions that lack value and consume your crucial time? Wouldn’t you devalue a project if you saw no potential for success, and viewed your time being frittered away in futile check-ins? We suggest that you develop an orchestration template (standardized agenda templates) that cater to the needs of your key customer stakeholders. Below is a suggestion to consider following a key stakeholder turnover.

Playbook Step: A Meaningful Touch

CSM
Effort: Medium

Impact: High

The first meeting with a new stakeholder after the turnover is crucial. We recommend drafting a concise, focused agenda and ensuring its distribution prior to the meeting. Below is a sample agenda:

Introduction
Current Status
Goal Alignment
Contextual Updates and Actions
Mutual Action Plan/Next Steps

Pre-Meeting Preparation

Decide The Participants: Identify the key attendees from both your team and the customer’s. Essential members on our end include: CSM + Optionals: a technical expert (depending on the company/product/CSM expertise), Account Executive, Sales Engineer, and another Customer Success Leader/Executive.

Ensure everyone understands their role in the meeting. For example, the CSM could kick off the session with introductions, exchange pleasantries (congratulations), segue to open-ended questions, and set the stage to have the technical expert deliver a concise, persuasive demo to reaffirm the value of your products/services.

Positioning

Anticipate potential discussions around unresolved technical or commercial issues, service incidents, and customer feature requests. Be prepared to confidently address these, providing clear next steps. This may also be an opportunity to re-emphasize your product’s unique value proposition to the customer. It’s possible that you may need to fully resell your products to the new stakeholder. Having a sales rep or sales engineer could be beneficial as they engage in these activities on a daily basis.

Calibrated Questions for Information Gathering

What’s your primary focus currently?
How informed are you about our current progress?
How familiar are you with our product(s)/service(s)?
Have you been briefed on our implementation strategy and unique value proposition?
Have you considered your objectives concerning our project in the coming days?
How does our project align with your strategic priorities?

It’s perfectly acceptable if the new stakeholder responds with “I don’t know” – they’re still getting acclimated to their role. They might also mention that your product doesn’t align with their strategic priorities. In such cases, be prepared with follow-up questions:

Understandable. So, what are your strategic priorities?
Looking at the upcoming timeline, is there a point at which you foresee our product becoming a priority?
Will any of these changes impact our renewal?

Propose Regular Interactions

The following days and weeks could be pivotal to ensuring a successful renewal. Capitalize on this chance to establish a regular meeting schedule. If feasible, arrange a suitable time during the call itself that accommodates the schedules of essential stakeholders.

Wrap Up the Meeting Concisely

Conclude the session with a brief summary, underscoring any notable points from the mutual action plan.

A Word of Caution

While it’s crucial for a CSM to maintain a positive vibe during customer interactions, they should avoid falling into the trap of excessive optimism. Rather than focusing solely on positive feedback, strive for a balanced viewpoint and aim to comprehend the circumstances as they truly exist.

After the Meeting

Circulate a succinct meeting summary emphasizing the critical aspects of the mutual action plan. Stay on top of the agreed actions and regularly update the relevant stakeholders leading up to the next session.

CSM/CS Ops Tips

Develop a standard set of session management templates (including the agenda) for customers at different stages of their journey and in different scenarios, such as the loss of a champion. Standard slide decks or documents can save time and expedite action.

Elevate (Value)

Step 4 (Elevating Value) and Step 5 (Aggregating Alliances) epitomize the best practices in Customer Success. While they become crucial following the loss of a champion, we advocate for these strategies to be consistently implemented across all high-value accounts as part of standard business practices.

A stakeholder shift within an account serves as a reminder to revisit the fundamentals. The customer initially purchased our product to achieve specific, valuable objectives. With the arrival of a new stakeholder, these defined needs may have evolved. Therefore, it’s essential to determine the objectives the new stakeholder aims to accomplish. They may not be fully aware of our capabilities, which would necessitate a shift towards a more educative approach that empowers the new stakeholder and clearly demonstrates the value of our product. This introduces the concept of perceived versus actual value delivered. Our goal is to ensure both are high. We strive to move customers from the left-hand side (the sweet spot) to the right-hand side (the magic zone) where customers perceive that all their key needs are met. While achieving this may not always be feasible or necessary, ensuring customers perceive exceptional service and value for their time and investment creates a protective barrier against external threats. Two key components of this process are product adoption and proactive planning. A comprehensive discussion on this topic is included in our adoption playbook, it’s worth mentioning here that customers should always have a clear understanding of how they’ll continue to derive escalating value over time.

Playbook Step: Elevate Value

CSM
Effort: Medium
Impact: High

The intent of the calibrated questions in the previous section was to gain insight into the customer’s key needs and the dynamics of the account. In collaboration with the customer, construct a visually appealing, easily understandable mutual action plan. This plan should be progressive, focusing on delivering remarkable value. If the desired results aren’t achieved, take a step back to review and modify your existing strategies.

Ideally, this plan should be housed in a system accessible to the customer, with capabilities for automatic reminders. However, if such a system isn’t available, don’t fret over it; the importance lies in the plan’s execution and impact, not its storage method.

Aggregate (Alliances)

Being single-threaded in accounts constitutes a significant risk. As we navigate the challenges of losing a key stakeholder, it’s an opportune time to foster multi-threaded relationships and alliances. These networks can provide stability even in turbulent times. Relying solely on the Customer Success Manager (CSM) or the Account Executive to maintain all connections is a risky approach, as turnover can occur on our side as well. Encourage multiple team members to build relationships with various stakeholders, reducing the risk and facilitating more robust communication.

Playbook Step: Aggregate Alliances

CSM and Account Executive
Effort: High

Impact: High

The human aspect of customer success is as important as the value delivered. Consider ways to enhance these relationships:

On-site visits: Plan regular on-site visits to understand their work environment better and demonstrate commitment.
Joint Recreational Events: Casual environments often foster deeper connections and shared experiences.
Educational Workshops: Conduct educational workshops, even on topics beyond our product’s scope. This positions you as a valuable partner and not just a vendor.
Networking Opportunities: Facilitate opportunities for customers to connect with each other. This could be through webinars, conferences, or social media groups.
Customer Advisory Board: Establish a customer advisory board to encourage dialogue and feedback. This demonstrates that you value their insights and are committed to improving their experience.
Recognition of Contributions: Acknowledge customers’ contributions publicly or privately, as permissible. This can boost their sense of value and investment in the relationship.

By implementing these steps, you can transform a single-threaded account into a multi-threaded partnership, significantly reducing risk and fostering deeper relationships with your customers.

Tune (In/It)

Tune In

The final stage of this process requires you to adapt and adopt this playbook according to your business realities. While the strategies and steps outlined here are particularly relevant for large or mid-size strategic accounts, they can be tweaked and applied even to accounts with lower Annual Contract Value (ACV).

Tune It

Regularly assess the “Loss of Champion” playbook and fine-tune it to ensure its alignment with your unique circumstances. It’s through persistent iteration and constant refinement that you will craft powerful plays that yield exceptional results. For any further questions or queries, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at success@nextorbit.co.

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Why Prioritizing Customers’ Success Ensures Your Own!

accounts — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 16:43:00 +0000

Today we want to talk about a fictional company – “Dreamy Websites Inc” (DWI), and its challenges. Dreamy Websites (DWI) makes websites for new entrepreneurs. Dreamy makes compelling product placement websites. They tout themselves as a one-stop shop for new entrepreneurs.

DWI operates in a fiercely competitive market, where customer acquisition costs are exorbitantly high, and it is hard to go against powerful platform players. Recently, DWI has lost several key accounts. The management team is deliberating about how to turn the ship around.

In this landscape, understanding what success truly means for its customers is not only crucial but also a defining factor for DWI’s sustainability and growth. At first glance, success for DWI’s customers is centered around their primal need: building a visually stunning and functional website. As a web design company, Dreamy Websites absolutely needs to excel in fulfilling this requirement. Their ability to deliver exceptional website designs and seamless navigation are the table stakes.

One of the DWI product managers undertakes to talk to some of the existing customers (entrepreneurs). Excerpts from his discussion:

So, is having a website optimized and having the infrastructure to handle a massive influx of new customers sufficient for you?

“Yes and No,” says the entrepreneur. “Our biggest challenge is getting the website visitors.”

“Is it just the net new visitors or also the repeat visitors? asks the PM.

“Both.”

The discussion keeps going. The DWI product managers synthesized that not only are the entrepreneurs trying to build great websites, but they are also trying to get traffic to their websites; they also want their visitors to hang around and do something.

The next order question is whether a beautiful website with a ton of converting traffic represents success.

“For the most part, yes,” says the entrepreneur.

The entrepreneurs seek to attract web traffic and engage their visitors in specific actions, such as making a purchase, sharing opinions, or enrolling in their movement. They recognize that a beautiful website alone is not enough; they need their web visitors to hang around and do something meaningful.

“Their need is not just traffic but targeted, engaged and converting audience.”

In the current situation, with a plethora of website-building tools available – DWI’s narrow focus on just delivering websites may be a losing proposition. To truly be a one-stop shop, Dreamy Websites needs to expand its perspective and broaden the definition of success for its customers. The success of entrepreneurs extends beyond mere website visits and engagement. The ultimate goal is to create an environment where visitors take desired actions that result in tangible business outcomes.

Imagine a scenario where entrepreneurs enter a conveyor belt process, starting with nothing but ideas about their website, and emerge at the other end with a stunning website and a substantial volume of real-world traffic. This seamless experience, addressing multiple needs, represents the epitome of success for Dreamy Websites’ customers. The conveyer belt metaphor captures the comprehensive value chain where Dreamy Websites guides entrepreneurs at every stage, from conceptualization to operationalization.

On a side note, with this simple idea, could you make a dent in this universe? If done well – I bet you could. I don’t know many companies that do that conveyor belt solution.

Just to be clear, this is not to say that for every business broadening the lens view is the right strategy. Because it is not. Start-ups have limited funds with a finite runway. So, sometimes it is better to sharpen the focus and go narrower. You may need to adjust the scope based on available information and customer needs.

The more salient point is that when we truly focus on what makes our customers successful, our own success will follow.

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