I've kicked off my blog by curating expert insights on some of the most viewed, shared, and discussed topics for founders.
As part of setting up my blog, I've watched a wealth of YouTube videos on growing businesses. This post highlights the videos I've found most helpful for entrepreneurs tackling customer success.
I believe aspiring CSMs will also gain valuable insights from these resources. Check out the videos below to enhance your customer success skills or to explore a potential career path in this field.
The customer success program is vastly different between a startup and a full-blown enterprise company. As a startup, you want to make sure every customer is hugely successful and that the team goes well above and beyond everything the first 50 or 70 clients need to succeed.
The eight core areas and tools you need: adoption management, co-browsing, calendar, surveys, metrics, help center, screen recording, and app uptime.
Customer success is no longer a nice-to-have. The earlier you invest in it, the more dividends it pays in the long run. Imagine having a higher renewal rate, higher adoption rate, and higher engagement rate on day one. Consider the compounding returns on that in year one, year two, year five.
When your customer comes on board, it should be very clear why they are here and what they are trying to achieve.
There is literally no statistical relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. Think about what a customer is signaling when they call to complain: they are engaged. When a customer is frustrated about something, it is probably because it matters to them.
One common mistake is trying to scale too soon. Self-serve should be the end goal, but it should not be your priority from day one. Your priority from day one should be the startup mantra: do things that don't scale. Jump on as many customer calls as you can for user research, onboarding, and product feedback.
Sales should contribute to every onboarding piece because they understand why the buyer purchased and what specific use case they want to solve. The post-sale phase is about delivering on the value promise, including passing along the trust the sales rep built by making a warm introduction.
CSMs have a tendency to overshare and create risk in the deal. We tend to overshare because we want everything to be clear. But in the sales process, that is not always great. We have to find a fine line: sharing enough to set clear expectations, but not so much that we are oversharing.
At Shaqti Ventures, we help founders build the systems and strategies that turn new customers into lasting ones.
Let's Talk →