Customer Success 5.0: The AI-First Era

I’m thrilled to share strategic moves we’re making to define the future of customer success. Our mission has always been to empower companies to deliver extraordinary customer experiences and “build relationships that last.”

Over the last few decades, we’ve seen several evolutions in the customer success space, and we believe we’re entering a new revolutionary era which we’re calling “Customer Success 5.0” (CS5.0). CS5.0 comes to the forefront after the earlier eras that evolved from the reactive retention era (CS1.0), to the proactive adoption era (CS2.0), to the outcomes-focused growth era (CS3.0), and most recently, to the digital scaled success era (CS4.0).

You’ll hear more from us about CS5.0 in the coming weeks and months, but today I wanted to talk about two major shifts in B2B SaaS that we believe will define this new transformative CS5.0 era.

CS5.0 = Unified Platforms Driving the Customer Experience

First, we’ll see a shift away from narrow, best-of-breed tools to suites of products that deliver a unified solution for all teams executing the entire customer journey. No longer will you see every team bringing their own tools to the table, trying to stitch the data, workflows, and insights together while delivering a patched customer journey. CS5.0 will demand a unified suite of solutions for a unified team delivering a unified customer experience.

That’s why we acquired Baton, a leading customer onboarding and implementation solution. While basic onboarding playbook functionality has been a standard for Customer Success Platforms (CSPs), we recognized the opportunity to set ourselves apart. Many of our competitors offer playbook capabilities and a few even offer some onboarding functionalities, but we’re the first CSP to fully commit to an all-encompassing customer onboarding and implementation solution.

Why focus so intensely on onboarding and implementation? The answer is simple: onboarding is the cornerstone of the entire customer journey. It’s where trust is built, value is first realized, and the trajectory of the customer relationship is set. But it’s also where many companies struggle the most, facing challenges like misaligned expectations, inconsistent processes, and delayed timelines. These pain points can derail even the most promising customer relationships. Plus, onboarding, implementation, professional services, and customer success teams are tired of working out of disparate tools with fragmented workflows, insights, and execution. Adding Baton to ClientSuccess is not about adding a couple of onboarding features to the platform. This is about bringing the full capabilities of an established onboarding and implementation platform to provide a seamless, end-to-end customer journey. With Baton, our customers can now expect unparalleled efficiency, reduced time-to-value, better collaboration, and a superior customer experience - from new to renew.

And we’re not stopping there. We’re actively looking to build or acquire other solutions that break down the silo walls for those executing the customer journey, with another exciting announcement coming soon. ??

CS5.0 = (EQ + IQ) + AI

The second massive shift fueling CS5.0 is an explosion of AI-first technologies. Not AI sprinkled into features here and there, but infused as the foundational DNA of SaaS products. At ClientSuccess, we’ve always believed in the power of human intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ) as the cornerstones of building meaningful and lasting customer relationships. Contrary to some opinions, we don’t believe that’s going away. The human experience will always be the true defining magic touch of the customer experience. However, we believe that AI will significantly enhance the ability to scale human experiences to deliver significantly improved customer experiences, empowering humans to be more intelligent, more efficient, more contextually aware, more in tune, more present, and more successful. And AI will replicate the human experience in a personalized, scalable way without taking the “soul” out of the customer experience.

This is why we’re also doubling down on our SmartCS AI? technology - our innovative generative AI engine. We believe AI-driven platforms need to deliver significant substance around what we call ‘The 5 Ps of AI-driven Customer Success’ - proactive, predictive, productive, prescriptive, and personalized. Specifically, AI in customer success technology should power proactive engagement, predictive insights, productive operations, prescriptive solutions, and personalized experiences. These are the fundamental pillars of our SmartCS AI?, and we look forward to introducing more innovative AI capabilities in the near future.

As mentioned, you’ll hear more from us about Customer Success 5.0 and these transformational trends in the coming days. Our commitment to Customer Success 5.0 is not just about acquiring and building new technologies; it's about reimagining the future of customer success - together!