Why Customer Success is a Crucial Measurement of Your Business’ Overall Health

Although it is difficult to define, customer success is when your customers achieve their desired outcomes through their interaction with your business. Desired outcome is the sum total of what your customers seek to do with your products, as well as the user experience they get in interacting with your company. It answers the question, does product A from company X do what I need it to do effectively and adequately and what has been my experience dealing with company X?

To expand this further, a company can explore the UserIQ model, which brings together user intelligence, targeted engagements, and consumer health to figure out what your customers need and help you meet these needs as well as deliver meaningful interactions.

The traditional sales funnel where a buyer’s journey ends after a purchase is made, is no longer the reality in today’s business world. Think of it more like a cycle that needs to be fed and cultivated through and through over a period of time.

Why is Customer Success Important

Plainly put, whether your business stays afloat or not largely depends on this principle. If your customer succeeds using your products, they will come back and bring in more business through referrals. If they have a negative experience with your products, not only will you lose repeat business, but also some potential first-time clients.

Again, being in the information age has its downside to business. All it takes is a negative review online, and you could potentially lose customers. On the other hand, positive reviews can improve your reputation and bring in new business. The same goes for the kind of experience and interactions customers have when they engage with you. The emphasis is to keep the client longer while enriching the relationship .

Customer Success Impacts your business in the following ways:

• Increased sales which may translate to increased revenues.
• Increased publicity and media coverage.
• Improved online ratings.
• Increased cross and up-sales and customer retention.

Common misconceptions on this principle

1. Customer success and Customer service are synonymous

The most significant differentiator between these two concepts is that customer service is reactive while customer success is proactive. Customer service usually kicks in after a negative occurrence has already happened, while the latter tries to pre-empt and resolve issues before they become a “problem.”

2. It is a one-department function

Operating on this notion is bound to fail you miserably because this is not, and cannot be a one-department function. Rather it’s a value that needs to be in a company’s DNA, top to bottom.

3. NPS and customer satisfaction surveys give an adequate measure of success.

While gathering information through these channels is useful, they are too self-limiting when looking for specific, actionable feedback. You can use them regularly, but formulate other means of getting qualitative, in-depth information such as that gathered by the UserIQ platform.

Regardless of the type or size of business, this is not a principle that can be ignored. When you break this concept further, it disintegrates to the core of any business, which is winning and retaining loyal customers.