# Top 10 in Customer Success - What to know for Week ending August 30, 2019

Published: 30 August 2019
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/customer-success-week-ending-august-30-2019

I spent the early part of this week hosting a Customer Success workshop with the amazing and customer-passionate [Kirsty Traill](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstytraill) in Auckland. The topic is fresh, so we’re making this newsletter a 100% customer-focused special.

## 1. CUSTOMER CHURN

In SaaS Churn is the silent killer and the primary reason why customer success is so important. Here are [3 ways to evaluate and address customer churn](https://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/3-ways-to-address-customer-churn-02192123).

Link: https://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/3-ways-to-address-customer-churn-02192123

## 2. PRODUCT TO CUSTOMER TRANSITIONS

Getting started - Many established companies have historically been product focused and [Customer-experience transformations](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/the-ceo-guide-to-customer-experience), just like digital-transformation, are organizationally hard. Here are [the seven deadly sins to look out for with customer-experience transformations](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/avoiding-the-seven-deadly-sins-of-customer-experience-transformations). Survey Monkey has a downloadable PDF on [7 ways a company can actionably put customers first](https://cdn.smassets.net/assets/cms/cc/uploads/SurveyMonkey-CX-Customer-Centricity-Report.pdf), compare that to HubSpot who [also have their (CRM Focused) 7 step version](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-first-strategy).

Link: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/the-ceo-guide-to-customer-experience

## 3. CUSTOMER ON-BOARDING

On-boarding is one of the most critical parts of the relationship with a customer. [This is HubSpot’s 6-part playbook](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/onboarding-best-practices) to make sure you have a well understand criteria for what an optimally on-boarded customer lost like and Sixteen Ventures have a [great article (with a Trello template)](https://sixteenventures.com/customer-onboarding) on their approach

Link: https://blog.hubspot.com/service/onboarding-best-practices

## 4. CUSTOMER JOURNEY

To add-on to the articles above, clearly [mapping out a Customer Journey via a visual map](https://www.custify.com/how-to-create-a-customer-success-journey-map) is a great way to know at what points a Customer Success Team need to be involved (and what their responsibilities will be) [via engagement models](https://www.gainsight.com/blog/map-customer-journey-engagement-models/).

Link: https://www.custify.com/how-to-create-a-customer-success-journey-map

## 5. CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Another tie-in to above’s reference of engagement models. Visualizing the various interactions via customer journey mapping is actually [replacing traditional sales funnel strategies](https://customerthink.com/reasons-for-starting-customer-journey-mapping-with-your-sales-team/) as a means to close sales.

Link: https://customerthink.com/reasons-for-starting-customer-journey-mapping-with-your-sales-team/

## 6. CSM MODELS

Not all CSM’s are built the same. And it depends, based on stage and strategy, as to how your CSM teams will evolve…...but they will. [Gainsight propose 5 basic kinds of CSM](https://www.slideshare.net/GainsightHQ/gainsight-csm-org-structures), along with a corollary org chart. But keep in mind IRL they all will be different hues. SaaSx have [this model](https://saasx.com/2019/05/26/a-saas-startup-sales-team-org-chart-example-3). Which one best resonates with you?

Link: https://www.slideshare.net/GainsightHQ/gainsight-csm-org-structures

## 7. COST ATTRIBUTION

How do you account the cost of a CSM team? The team at Gainsight dive [deep into this question](https://www.gainsight.com/2016/01/29/how-do-you-account-for-the-costs-customer-success-team/) and come up with some fantastic insights event though the question itself is complicated and the answer end up being non-monetary. Owning the renewal, up-sell, x-sell is a key delineation point between expense attribution to departments.

Link: https://www.gainsight.com/2016/01/29/how-do-you-account-for-the-costs-customer-success-team/

## 8. CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION

In order to calculate cost for CSM’s, it’s best to segment customers out in order to understand efforts required. Chartmogul have [this great visual](https://blog.chartmogul.com/proactive-customer-success/) and once again Gainsight take a look at how to Benchmark efforts over segmentation. [Here is what they found](https://www.gainsight.com/blog/customer-success-team-planning-cost-benchmarks/). The median amount of ARR that an Enterprise CSM can manage is between $2M and $5M and The median amount of customers an Enterprise CSM manages is 10-50 - these revenue figures drop with mid and SMB customer segments and increase fairly dramatically with number of customers per CSM.

Link: https://blog.chartmogul.com/proactive-customer-success/

## 9. CUSTOMER OUTCOMES

The test of long-term success for a modern tech company is with their ability to demonstrate value to customers - which can determine whether a startup can continually generate waves of success that are sustainable. [Here is a playbook on mastering the art of successful (laser focused) customer outcomes](https://firstround.com/review/mastering-the-art-of-the-outcome-how-guru-turned-customer-success-into-a-company-cornerstone).

Link: https://firstround.com/review/mastering-the-art-of-the-outcome-how-guru-turned-customer-success-into-a-company-cornerstone

## 10. CUSTOMER PRICING

In the SaaS world, great pricing prioritizes the customer’s success over that of the businesses. That logic seems a little counterintuitive, but the profitability of a customer in SaaS happens waaaaay after a customer becomes an actual customer. OpenView [expands on this reasoning more in this complex post](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/how-to-achieve-net-negative-churn-by-using-value-metrics-in-your-pricing#.XUniRpNKhTY) on achieving net negative churn (where the average revenue per customer increases at rates which offset any churn) by using customer based value metrics as a pricing strategy.

Link: https://openviewpartners.com/blog/how-to-achieve-net-negative-churn-by-using-value-metrics-in-your-pricing#.XUniRpNKhTY

## POD OF THE WEEK

HeavyBit crank out great content. [This podcast from them features Bob Tinker](https://www.heavybit.com/library/podcasts/enterpriseready/ep-11-customer-urgency-with-bob-tinker-of-mobileiron), former CEO of MobileIron and author of [Survival to Thrival](https://survivaltothrival.com/) where they discuss the framework he developed for tech companies to build a go-to-market playbook.

**BONUS**: Next month (September 18-19 Pacific Time Zone) Survey Monkey are hosting on [online Curiosity Conference](https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/curiosity-conference) looks to be a bunch of session designed to leverage feedback to make actionable customer-driven data-driven decisions.

Link: https://www.heavybit.com/library/podcasts/enterpriseready/ep-11-customer-urgency-with-bob-tinker-of-mobileiron