The Early Bird Gets the Renewal: Introducing the New Head of Customer Success at Invoca

In the "subscription economy," where consumers pay recurring fees for products and services rather than one-time transactional costs, renewal and expansion rates are tremendous levers for financial growth. If you are familiar with the benefits of compounding (like Warren Buffett), you know that even minor improvements in these metrics can supercharge the long-term prospects of your business. And while many “subscription companies” have embraced the importance of customer success, many have not yet realized that delivering on that customer success mission starts early - far earlier than you might think. If a customer enters the renewal window with doubts in mind, it is often far too late to change a decision that has already been made.

As a consumer, one of my favorite examples of “getting ahead of the renewal” is how American Express has evolved their credit card program over recent months. Like many frequent business travelers, I paid their annual membership fee to accumulate membership points that I could redeem for family vacations, and to enjoy additional travel-related program benefits, like monthly car-sharing credits. Once the COVID-19 pandemic struck and I was "grounded" at home, the value of those travel-related benefits dropped immensely. But instead of waiting for a challenging discussion at renewal, the American Express team shifted their mix of perks in real-time, offering new incentives like billing credits for streaming subscriptions and wireless services. And they didn’t wait for me to discover these benefits -- they used a variety of digital touch points, from push notifications in the American Express mobile app to personalized messaging in my monthly email statement, to drive awareness of these programs and help me activate them. The end result? I switched my recurring Netflix and T-Mobile bills from a debit card over to American Express, saving $40 a month in the process. And those savings virtually guarantee that I will renew my American Express card for 2021, even though I’m no longer racking up membership points on hotel stays or stopping by the Centurion lounge at SFO. By getting ahead of a “retention problem,” American Express turned me into a more loyal customer.

This mindset of “delivering customer success from the very beginning” is one of the reasons I am so excited to welcome Jennifer Lovette to Invoca. While Jen has a long and proven track record in post-sales roles at enterprise software companies (including Citrix / LogMeIn, Imperva, and Commission Junction), I was particularly struck by her personal passion for getting the customer experience right -- straight out of the gate. Far too often, companies wait until early warning systems go off, customers show up on red account reports, or even worse, non-renewal notices are served before action is taken. Jen likes to say that “success starts before a customer signs an initial contract” and is hyper-focused on making the onboarding and early adoption part of the lifecycle as seamless as possible. This is especially important at Invoca, as we help marketers maximize the impact of their digital advertising investments -- and getting return on investment quickly is crucial as marketing budgets are under heightened scrutiny.

So Jen - welcome to Invoca! And while I personally am more of a night owl than an early bird in terms of when I get my best work done, I am tremendously excited to see your impact on helping customers have a better experience from day 1 of their journey with us.