ICYMI: Customer Success Blueprint for 1, 10 & 100 Customers
Last week I had a blast talking to founders and customer success leaders at an Atlanta Tech Village workshop.
The topic?
Customer success at startups, of course!
Want to get in on the fun? Here is the FULL SLIDE DECK with a bulleted summary below.
Not included: cheesy jokes and outstanding audience questions!
Your Customer Success Blueprint
At 1 Customer…
What Is Your Customer’s North Star?
- Seek a deep understanding of your customer’s pain, motivation, and what they get measured on.
- Build your product around this! (Duh. 😂)
What Customer Experience Will You Deliver?
- Start thinking about this now!
- Consider customer preferences, market standards, and competitive advantages.
Tools For Growth
- Start a support@company.com email
- #support Slack channel
- Talk to your customers!!!
At 10 Customers…
Your First Customer Success Hire
- What to look for & how to assess candidates
- It’s hard to go wrong with smart, positive generalists.
Tools For Growth
- Playbooks (TEMPLATE)
- Simple is great.
- Internal playbooks become customer resources and training tools.
- Slack channel for each customer
- Customer Service 101 Training Deck (TEMPLATE)
- Talk to your customers!!!
At 100 Customers…
Team Specialization
- Generalists become Support, Implementation, Account Management, and more.
Upgrades and Renewals - Sales or Customer Success?
- A timeless quandary worthy of its own post. 😉
Core Values
- Define them now if you haven’t already.
- Hire well, stay aligned, make decisions quickly, and deliver a consistent customer experience!
Tools For Growth
- CRM
- Help Desk/Support Ticketing
- Bonus
- Knowledge Base or Wiki
- Idea Exchange for Product Suggestions
- TALK TO CUSTOMERS!!! (Are you noticing a trend? 😁😁😁)
What tools, strategies, or systems work well for early customers? Any early stage customer challenges The O’Daily should cover?