This document discusses improving customer success processes through establishing maturity levels. It suggests starting by getting team consensus on priority problems like triage. Triage elements include policies for high risk customers, agreed categories and rules, and enabling quick responses. Capabilities then develop from ad hoc to repeatable, defined, managed, and optimizing processes. The document provides examples of building risk assessment capabilities and a day in the life comparisons of different maturity levels. It emphasizes problem-solving, consensus, and letting those doing the work identify problems as keys to progressing maturity.

1. AUGUST IST, 2013
LOUISE PHILP, PRODUCT MANAGER
louise@getamity.com
IMPROVING THE CUSTOMER SUCCESS
PROCESS
Where do we start?
Typical first steps
A 5 Level Maturity Model
Amity: a solution
Confidential. Copyright (2013) Amity.

2. Where do we start?
Ask the team: what gets in your way?
Get consensus. Then pick one process for your
team to focus on, and get very good at it.
Example:
If your main issue is firefighting, then your
team must get very good at Triage.
How do we do that?
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3. Elements of Triage
Policy:
“For high risk customers, when x happens, we will do y.”
But what do we mean by ‘high risk’?
Agreement:
On the categories and the rules.
Typical categories: Risk, Priority, Customer Type, Issue Type.
Enabling technology:
The ability to find out when x happens, and know
type/priority/risk.
The ability to respond quickly and appropriately.
Follow through:
Did we do what we said we would do?
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4. How new capabilities develop
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Ad hoc
Firefighting
Repeatable
Say what you
do, do what
you say
Defined
Best Practices
Managed
Predictive
Optimizing
Strategic
Triage is only one example of a Level 2 process
focus. Other examples are:
SLAs
Issue management
Customer engagement planning
Tracking activities, time spent
Focus on processes
that solve immediate
problems, e.g. Triage.

5. LEVEL ONE: FIREFIGHTING
First come, first serve; squeakiest wheel
gets the attention.
Lost opportunities with important customers
„Poor stepchild‟ when it comes to tools.
Bits and pieces of tools intended for other
functions
Little internal influence.
Out of the loop.
Doing a great job, but hard to
demonstrate value.
Nobody knows what I actually do – including my
boss!
LEVEL TWO: REPEATABLE
My priorities are clear.
I only see what I need to deal with right now
I know right away when something
important happens.
I’m clear about what to do
I can respond quickly and appropriately.
I have the right tool for the job.
The right measures, the right workflow
At the end of the week, I know exactly
where I spent my time.
I can show how I contributed to organization
priorities
The role and value of CS is clear in the
organization.
Confidential. Copyright (2013) Amity.
A Day in the Life … Before and After

6. Ad hoc
Repeatable
Defined
Managed
Optimizing
Firefighting /
Problem
Solving
Cost Center /
Cost of doing
business
Customer
reviews /
engagement
Tactical
Resource /
Knowledge
Center
Success
Planning /
Best Practices
Revenue
Generator /
Forecaster
Customer
effectiveness /
Benchmarks
Strategic /
Insight
Customer BPO /
Domain
leadership
Leadership /
Agenda Setting
Customer Relationship
A Relationship View of Customer Success
Process Maturity
Organizational Relationships
Confidential. Copyright (2013) Amity.

7. Example: Building risk
assessment capability
Ad Hoc
“I think this is
High Risk”
Intuition
Defined
“These patterns
mean High Risk”
Calculation
Repeatable
“These measures/
rules point to High
Risk”
Consensus
Managed
“Changing x
costs y, changes
Risk Value by z,
and has $$
impact.”
Attribution
Optimizing
“This is the
Risk Value
profile we will
have for this
cohort.”
Prediction
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8. Adding capabilities along the
way
Intuition
“I think this is
High Risk”
Experience and an understanding of the situation.
Calculation
“These patterns
mean High
Risk”
Correlation:
Processes, measures, thresholds, outcomes.
Consensus
“These
measures /
rules point to
High Risk”
Agreement. Basic measures.
Attribution
“Changing x
costs
y, changes Risk
Value by z, and
has $$ impact.”
Cause and effect analysis.
Prediction
“This is the
Risk Value
profile we will
have for this
cohort.”
Insight and
analytics.
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9. Bottom Line
We‟re not there yet – but there is a roadmap.
Walk before you run
Don‟t try to skip levels
Don‟t talk to a Level One about Level Three+
The secret sauce: get consensus on your top
problems, and solve them.
Never implement a solution without a problem
Key insight: the folks who do the work know the
most about the problems.
Confidential. Copyright (2013) Amity.

10. Customer Success. Simplified.
Confidential. Copyright (2013) Amity.

11. A day in the life of a Customer Success Manager.
Confidential. Copyright (2013) Amity.

12. • Reactive, ad-hoc, person-dependent.Firefighting
• Data distributed or not collected yet.
Incomplete
Customer Data
• Limited Credibility and Influence.
• Minimal reporting and dashboards.
Poor Internal
Visibility
• Hard to set, track and manage priorities.Lack of Focus
• Low and variable ACV per CSM.
No Purpose-built
Tools
TOP 5 Challenges of Customer Success Today
Immature Process and Workflow
Confidential. Copyright (2013) Amity.

13. Plan
Realtime Relationship Management
HOW IT WORKS
Pr
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Identify
Integrated Individual
Profiles
Mr.
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Customer Insight
Engine
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Engage
Intuitive
Workflow
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14. AMITY EXPRESS – ENGAGEMENT AND TASK MANAGEMENT
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15. Confidential. Copyright (2013) Amity.
AMITY EXPRESS – CUSTOMER PANORAMA
Sirius Cybernetics Corporationsirius
Arthur Dent

16. SIMPLICITY
Easy to Integrate.
Easy to Learn.
Easy to Use.
EFFICIENCY
Stay on top of
more customers.
POWER
Spend more
time working
with
customers.
FOCUS
Work on the right
opportunity at the
right time.
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17. Customer Success. Simplified.
Informed.
Proactive.
Engaged.
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