Customer Success Intro deck by Raj Padmanabhan

1. Customer Success 101
A Playbook for
Customer Success
By Raj Padmanabhan

2. What is Customer Success?
1.Managing Self – Customer success begins internally with one global team.
It is a consolidation of process, training and product playbooks in order to
deliver the best solutions for customers.
2.Voice of the Customer – Customer Success Managers (CSMs) are given
leeway to build client relationships and share feedback with Account Execs,
TAMs and product teams.
3.Meet customers and engage with them. It’s worth the effort. Are your
CSMs customer-facing? Quarterly visits are essential for larger customers.
4.Show product value - CSMs should remove the friction of onboarding by
sharing thought leadership and highlighting value drivers as product evolves.
Source: https://rajpaj12.wordpress.com/2015/07/14/what-is-customer-success/Customer Success 101

3. 1. Handoff from
Sales to Customer
SuccessTeam
2. Customer Success
Kickoff with Client
Quickstart Checklist
For Customer Success
Managers
Customer Success 101
3. Onboarding
and Training
4. Best Practices for
Product Adoption

4. 1. Accounts should be segmented and assigned to Customer Success Team according to
revenue, size and strategic importance.
2. The Sales team should share contracts, customer histories and use cases with
individual CSMs. Data should be updated in Salesforce.
3. Handoff meetings should be held before the Kickoff meeting with new customers.
CSM should have strong familiarity with customer goals and signed contract. The Kickoff
session should focus on establishing onboarding process with proper stakeholders (business
sponsor, product champion, IT team and dedicated delivery resources).
4. CSM should have strong familiarity with trial usage of product. CS Tool instance or
analytics should be made available from onset of Kickoff. For example, a Gainsight view of
customer activities could be enabled. Adoption metrics should be tracked daily.
1. Handoff from Sales to CSMs
Customer Success 101 Source: https://rajpaj12.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/more-is-more/

5. 1. Introduce key stakeholders (Sponsor, Champion, IT Team, Dedicated
resources)
2. Understand Customer goals for onboarding ( use cases, product
requirements, implementation timeline, training needs, Go-Live date)
3. Gather initial requirements
4. Share draft estimate for implementation
5. Provide overview of available resources based on SLA
(e.g. 24x7 live support, global locations, knowledgebase, dedicated support
staff including CSM)
2. Kickoff meeting with Customer
Customer Success 101 Source: https://rajpaj12.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/more-is-more/

6. 1. Gather requirements (Out of box, Configuration, Customization,
Integrations) from stakeholders. High level requirements can be gathered in the
kickoff meeting. Department-level meetings can be held to gather detailed
requirements.
2. Perform technical setup activities in conjunction with Customer Champion.
Create sandbox environment if needed. Provide implementation checklist in order to
track progress of setup activities.
3. Perform testing of customer’s instance of product to ensure there are no defects.
4. Conduct Live superuser training sessions with admins, supervisors and trainers.
The “train-the-trainer” sessions are key prior to user training rollout.
5. Conduct Live or virtual user training in conjunction with customer superusers.
6. Support Go-Live and post-Go-Live activities to ensure proper launch. Go-Live
activities include recurring meetings to ensure full adoption and proper usage.
7. Drive a culture of collaboration during implementation and after Go-Live.
3. Onboarding andTraining
Customer Success 101 Source: https://rajpaj12.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/collaboration/

7. 4. Best Practices for Product Adoption
1. 100% of purchased software licenses are deployed. It’s a troubling sign if more than 10% of licenses are not
being used.
2. Usage metrics should be tracked on a daily basis (activities being performed such as log-ins, top users such as
admins and superusers, top features being used, features not being used, executive usage). This data should be
available to your customers so they can manage their accounts. These metrics can be culled from your BI tools or
by purchasing a customer success tool. Here’s a good list from TrustRadius: CSM Tools
3. In-person training should be offered for large customers. Customized training should be readily available.
Training must be performed to ensure proper adoption for major roll-outs and complex feature releases including
product integrations.
4. Monthly Webinars should be offered for your SMB customers so new users can be onboarded. Some large
customers will ask for best practice webinars.
5. Product Roadmap landing page gives your customers assurance that they are being heard. Here’s a nice one
from Trello: Sample Roadmap
6. 24×7 Support is a requirement if you want to ensure customer needs are being met worldwide. Product
adoption begins and ends with multi-channel live support.
7. Customer success managers (CSM) should be assigned to key accounts. This ‘people person’ is a trusted
advisor and coach for capturing the pulse of customers. CSMs should have monthly touch-points with customers.
Source: https://rajpaj12.wordpress.com/2015/12/09/product-adoption/Customer Success 101