I’m sure you would agree with me on the fact that customer success is the most important resource to help maintain customer trust in your business. And if given a chance, you’d like to be always with your customers and make them feel that you’re part of their team 24X7. Rather you don’t mind working right out of their office. But the recent global pandemic has changed the way we live and work. Hence, it would feel so good to deliver customer success remotely.
Alas! Wishful thinking…In reality, it looks remotely feasible. Your organization might have travel budget restrictions or you’re handling just not a dozen accounts but more than a hundred accounts or the restrictions and regulations imposed due to Whatever the challenge be your customers need to know they can rely on you at all times.
Customer Onboarding is the first and the most crucial stage in a customer’s journey. It lays the foundation on which a successful business relationship stands. No wonder, it plays a more important role while delivering customer success remotely. Check out this webinar on ‘How to onboard customers remotely‘. 👇
So, how can you be close to your customers without actually having to travel to them?
Here are the top 5 strategies that we have identified from our experience with our customers and the customer success leaders from the industry that will help you deliver remote customer success.
1. Real-time collaboration
Customers today have many options to choose from, especially in the SaaS space. You have to work hard to keep your customers and real-time collaboration is one of the ways of ensuring your clients stay happy and do not seek out other competitor products. When I say Real-time collaboration, it doesn’t necessarily involve expensive tools and technologies. It could be as basic as acknowledging the email sent by your customers immediately even if you do not have a handy resolution to the problem then. Just acknowledging the email and letting them know that you’re going to get back to them in the next X hours or so can go a long way to make them feel that you’re right there sitting next to them. It will make them feel a lot more comfortable and confident. When I say real-time response, I mean a personalized response and not an automated one.
2. Set up weekly or monthly calls with your customers
If you’re looking to maintain a high level of customer service, you will have to focus on not just real-time communication but on weekly or monthly calls with your customers even if that meant just at a functional manager level. This is especially true during your critical onboarding process. (You can find more about having the right onboarding process).
When you set up these weekly calls, you’re ensuring that you make progress every time you meet each other. None of you are in the “out of sight, out of mind zone”. And this sort of equation goes a long way in strengthening the relationship with your customers. This becomes more important when you are delivering client success remotely.
3. Join the internal call/meetings
Whenever your customers are having an internal call or a meeting to discuss your product or how your technology will get deployed at their site, insist on being a part of those meetings. Request them to allow you to be part of those meetings even if it just meant you being a fly on the wall. Being part of these will help you learn more about your customers and slowly with the time you will feel more invited and will be able to take active participation. When that happens, know that you’ve crossed the bridge and made your customers feel you’re a part of their team.
4. Be a part of the real-time communication channel that your customers live on
Your customers must be living on some communication medium like Slack, Flock, or whatever that may be. Try to be on them. Being on these channels will allow you to have fluid communication with your customers. You need not be on their internal organization channel but request them to make you a part of their private channel. In case their internal protocols don’t permit you to be added due to security or any other restrictions, try adding your customer to your organization’s slack channel. Even this will do the same wonder. Psychologically, it gives a feeling that you’re available to them in real-time next to their colleagues. This gives a different tone to your relationship.
5. Always get on a Video Chat
Whenever you are on a call with your customer, get onto a video chat. Always ensure your camera is on. To openly discuss the underlying challenges or problems that both of you are trying to solve you need to be comfortable and have trust in each other. And a video chat plays an important role in that. A popular saying among customer success leaders is that the connection through video always makes the client feel like you’re listening more even though your facts don’t change much.
Final Thoughts
Customer Success is no longer dependent upon you being physically present at the client’s workspace. The opposite can be made true. By using the right technology and strategy, you can stay not only connected with your customers but be 2X more effective remotely.
CustomerSuccessBox(CSB) tracks product adoption in Real-time, tracks accounts, and generates signals for Customer Success Managers (CSM) to intervene proactively. This works as if you’re with your customers in real-time. No more raising tickets, you’re right there proactively to guide them along.
If you’re looking to up your customer success game remotely, we can support you in defining your remote customer strategy and translating it into tangible actions to help you manage a larger portfolio while improving your MRR retention rate. See CSB in action here
P.S. – The main image has been taken from pexels.com
