Recently I was in a meeting discussing a customer that had been particularly slow to adopt our solution and someone said to me “Isn’t that your job?” and for a moment I felt personally culpable for the failure of a speedy time-to-value for customer X.
Whilst feeling emotionally invested in the success of each and every customer helps drive the Customer Success Team’s ambition and commitment, it is not going to solve every issue, it won’t make every customer satisfied. As a business, you cannot rely solely on one department to ensure and protect satisfactory customer outcomes.
For Avecto, firstly there is the Development team. We rely on them to spend years researching and innovating, to design and develop market leading unique features and functionality that will win and retain us customers. We rely on our QA team to make sure that the software leaves the building as robust and tested against every eventuality we can cover. We need our Sales team to honestly sell the solution to customers and not sell them a pipedream. Yes, it is going to take a period of time to implement this successfully in your environment. No, it is not magic. (Oh ok, there is a little magic of course – our solution is an innovative and completely unique approach to current endpoint security threats – but it is going to take a little time and effort from your team too Mr Customer).
Once the customer has purchased the technology they then embark upon an entire journey with us. Starting with the Customer Success Team who introduce the customer to all things Avecto, our customer portal, and a little bit about their upcoming journey, what to expect, and what success criteria they might want to aim for. Next our Post-Sales consultants will physically assist the customer in installing and implementing the solution and begin to help them see value from the solution by rolling out a successful pilot across the rest of the estate.
Our Technical Support team, who are mainly available to assist with any break-fix issues are real companions of the Customer Success Team. They go above and beyond to assist customers often advising and aiding way beyond a technical break-fix issue because they too want to ensure that Customers achieve success with the solution. Customer Success is their underlying mission too.
In fact, at Avecto our CEOs made Customer Success a corporate strategy. They recognise that it is more of an attitude, and a commitment, than just a team. They know that almost every single department has an input into how successful a customer is with the technology, and how likely they are to remain loyal customers of our company. It makes my job as Global Head of Customer Success a pleasure to do; I work closely with the heads of each function around the business to ensure that we are all working together on a wider plan for Customer Success for all customers and that myself and my team spread the gospel of Customer Success and are the purveyors of the mission.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, considering the input that each and every person that child comes into contact with along their life has, that shapes them, guides them, helps them along their way. Well it takes an entire company to raise a customer. Customer Success is about so much more than a team or department, it is a mission, an ethos, a way of life for an entire company.
