Contrasts between Customer Support and Customer Success
Francisco Menéres
Certified Customer Success Manager - CCSM level 3 | Customer Strategy | Helping Others | B2B @HiveMQ
I often come across individuals who struggle to grasp the distinction between Customer Support and Customer Success.
While those in the Software as a Service (SaaS) or Customer Success (CS) realm may find the dissimilarity apparent, this article, aims to delve deeper and provide a comprehensive understanding of the dissimilarity, covering everything from A to Z.
Now, let's delve into the very first aspect:
Let’s talk about the Bussiness Model
First and foremost, it's essential to delve into the business model as it plays a crucial role in determining the necessity of a Customer Success team. Although it may not be the most exciting topic, understanding the business model is key.
In the modern tech industry and beyond, companies have realized that achieving higher and faster growth isn't solely about selling products or services independently. Instead, they have embraced a combination of both, often referred to as a subscription model.
To illustrate, rather than selling individual products as a one-time purchase, companies now offer subscriptions for a specific duration, typically on a monthly or yearly basis. This seemingly minor shift in the business model has far-reaching implications for internal operations.
Assuming the company can retain its customers, this new approach generates a continuous stream of revenue from the customer base, fostering consistent growth. Such sustained revenue flow was not achievable with the traditional perpetual product sales model (which applies to most industries).
However, this shift also brings about a new challenge—ensuring customer retention. To address this, companies must reevaluate their governance practices and adopt a more customer-centric approach. It is this imperative to safeguard and nurture the customer base that gives rise to the need for a Customer Success team.
Even at this point, you can already discern the difference, can't you? But let's continue exploring further.
Why should a company invest in Customer Success?
To clarify, establishing a Customer Success team is not the only approach to achieve the aforementioned goals, but it is the most widespread and well-known one.
One of the reasons for creating a Customer Success team is to have a dedicated individual or team responsible and accountable for ensuring a continuous stream of revenue from customers.
Another reason is the need for a specialized team that can better understand and consider the customer's interests and perspectives. By actively listening to customers and comprehending their current situation, needs, goals, and future plans, a Customer Success team can identify opportunities to expand the customer's account and product portfolio. It is important to note that these responsibilities are not exclusive to Customer Success but serve as examples.
However, one might question why these responsibilities cannot be fulfilled by Sales or Account Management teams. The answer lies in the fact that a company needs to acquire new customers to grow, and Sales/Account Management teams primarily focus on acquiring new business, while Customer Success teams concentrate on maintaining existing customer relationships. While there is much more to explore on this topic, it is beyond the scope of this article.
In most cases, a combination of factors comes into play. Ultimately, companies require revenue as it is the core purpose of their existence.
Customer Support in this world
Customer Support predates the conceptualization of Customer Success. Its primary purpose is to offer assistance, including specialized technical support, for product usage. This function is not directly linked to the business model but rather arises from the necessity of providing customers with support when they encounter challenges.
How are they organized?
When discussing Customer Support, it is important to recognize that there are various types of support, often referred to as:
While this is not an exhaustive list, and I won't cover every single difference, I will provide an overall view. Essentially, all of these roles belong to the same group, delivering technical support for applications or software. However, significant differences exist among them, primarily driven by the company's business purpose and internal organization.
For instance, Corporate Support and Application Support can be nearly identical, with Corporate Support focusing more on internal customers (in the case of shared services), while Application Support is geared towards external customers.
Another aspect to note is that Customer Support typically operates in tiers, with three to four tiers being the most common. These tiers represent different levels of knowledge or seniority among technicians/engineers. Tier 1 often involves a large call center, tier 2 consists of more specialized personnel who handle issues beyond tier 1's scope, and tier 3 is closer to software engineers, infraestruct engineers or quality assurance.
For the purposes of this article, I will refer to all of these roles as Customer Support.
In contrast, Customer Success operates fundamentally differently. The organization of Customer Success teams depends on the size and scalability of the company.
In smaller companies that haven't yet scaled up, they may have Customer Success Managers. However, as they grow, more specialized roles emerge, such as:
As you can see from the job titles alone, they are distinct (except for the word "Customer").
Returning to the topic, when a company is still small, much of the work falls under the responsibility of Customer Success. This role typically begins after the deal is made, although in some companies, it starts when the Sales representative identifies that a deal is likely to happen.
In summary, the Customer Success Manager is responsible for the customer journey, including onboarding, training sessions, follow-ups, gathering information, building relationships, and celebrating with customers.
As the company scales, these tasks are delegated to specialized individuals. For example, an Onboarding Specialist will handle the onboarding process.
Who do they report to?
Once again, the organizational structure can vary significantly depending on the nature of the company's business. However, there can also be similarities observed.
In the case of Customer Support, particularly within an IT consulting context, a common structure involves the Customer Support team reporting to individuals with technical expertise. This often entails having a middle-management role, such as a Service Manager, who reports to a Director of Services. The Director, in turn, may report to either a Chief Information Officer (CIO) or a Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
For the Customer Success team, the reporting lines typically extend to business-oriented individuals. Depending on the size of the organization, there may be positions like a Manager of Customer Success or Principal Customer Success, who would likely report to a Vice President (VP) of Customer Services, Chief of Customer Service, or even a Chief Revenue Officer.
It is important to note that organizational structures can be unique to each organization, but the paths described here are plausible possibilities.
This difference in reporting approach between Customer Support and Customer Success is noticeable and reflects the distinct areas of focus and expertise within the business.
Main tasks and activities
In this discussion, I will provide an overview without focusing on seniority levels.
In the realm of Customer Support, the primary objective is to assist customers in resolving their issues. The process typically begins with customers initiating contact via email, ticket creation, or phone calls to a designated number. While this activity occurs at a high level, Customer Support professionals may need to collaborate with other teams, allocate time for error replication, diagnosis, and analysis. Addressing a single issue can be time-consuming and involve multiple individuals. The ultimate goal is to provide timely solutions, often resorting to workarounds until the underlying problem is fully resolved. It is common for the day to begin with a team briefing, allowing for alignment on priorities and discussions regarding the latest issues and obstacles.
The main activities of Customer Success differ somewhat. Generally, there are two types of Customer Success agents: those catering to digital accounts, where they manage a large number of accounts, and those focused on enterprise-level accounts, where the account volume is comparatively smaller.
To simplify, Digital Customer Success professionals concentrate more on numbers and data gathering, while Enterprise Customer Success professionals prioritize building strong customer relationships.
Digital Customer Success teams often handle hundreds or even thousands of accounts, making direct customer interaction challenging. As a result, they employ either a low-touch or tech-touch approach. A typical day for a Digital Customer Success professional involves analyzing usage patterns, identifying blockers, and occasionally reaching out to customers to gather insights and feedback.?
On the other end of the spectrum, Enterprise Customer Success professionals adopt a high-touch engagement model. Their focus revolves around engaging with customers in meaningful discussions regarding their business objectives, milestones, product usage, and addressing any obstacles they may encounter.
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It is worth noting that there can be variations or a combination of these approaches, deviating from the descriptions provided here.
The difference in the tools
Customer Support undoubtedly utilizes a ticketing system such as Jira or Zendesk. Additionally, they may employ various communication channels such as email, phone calls, and virtual meetings conducted through platforms like Zoom, Teams, or Webex.
On the other hand, Customer Success heavily relies on CRM systems and post-sales software like HubSpot, Salesforce, Gainsight, or Churnzero. When it comes to communication methods, Customer Success aligns closely, if not identically, with those used by Customer Support.
Payments Models
Regarding the models for Customer Support, there are the following options:
For Customer Success, there are typically two primary models:
Certifications
Customer Support is widely recognized and has extensive standardization through frameworks like ITIL and ISOs. Additionally, technical certifications are often mandatory for IT support professionals.
In contrast, Customer Success is relatively new and lacks global standardization. Instead, there are certifications available that share common traits or frameworks. These certifications can be obtained through specialized companies such as SuccessCoaching, PracticalCSM, or The Success League. Vendors like Gainsight or Cisco also offer certification programs in this field.
Focus & Behaviours
The core objectives of Customer Success and Customer Support differ significantly, although they may share some overlapping activities.
In certain cases, Customer Support and Customer Success may be handled by the same individual or team, particularly in small-scale operations where specialization is not feasible. However, as operations expand, a clear distinction emerges between the focus on technical support and post-sales operations.
Customer Support primarily concentrates on promptly addressing and resolving customer tickets. On the other hand, Customer Success proactively engages with customers, delving into their businesses and investing substantial time in gathering and analyzing data.
In summary, Customer Support primarily operates in a reactive(event-based) manner, responding to specific events, while Customer Success adopts a proactive approach to ensure long-term customer satisfaction.
Customer Success will have a heightened focus on proactive customer engagement, conducting extensive market and vertical research, and leveraging its network to stay updated on the latest trends. This will enable a deeper understanding of customer needs and preferences.
Frequently, we refer to Customer Success as the Voice of the Customer. This is because it closely interacts with customers, actively listening to their feedback on the product, services, and future expectations.
Interact with other Teams
Customer Support primarily engages with technical teams, and it is common for them to collaborate with others as well, such as Product Managers, Product Owners, and Project Managers, as they may not always be able to resolve every ticket independently.
Customer Success also interacts with these individuals, but they also engage extensively with Sales, Pre-Sales, Marketing, and Product Management. Each of these interactions serves a distinct purpose.
Interactions with Sales and Pre-Sales are focused on guiding customers through their journey, transitioning them from prospects to satisfied customers, and fulfilling their expectations.
Marketing interactions revolve around creating content that can generate future leads, prospects, and sales.
Product Management relies on Customer Success to gather valuable insights and feedback about the product and its roadmap.
Collaboration between Support and Success
Customer Support and Customer Success collaborate closely and complement each other's roles. In many cases, Customer Success receives certain issues from customers, and while it can offer some assistance, there are limitations. In such situations, Customer Success relies on Customer Support to provide further help and address the customer's needs.
Furthermore, it is essential to highlight the significance of addressing scaling issues. Being intimately involved with the customers, Customer Success understands the importance of prioritizing certain tickets over others based on their urgency and impact.
Conversely, there are instances where Customer Support requires assistance from Customer Success. This assistance could involve obtaining additional information or holding the customer accountable for responding to the tickets effectively.
Metrics and KPIs
Customer Support and Customer Success have distinct metrics and performance measures.
For Customer Support, the KPIs typically align with Service Management and include:
On the other hand, Customer Success focuses on different metrics, such as:
These metrics help evaluate the effectiveness and success of both Customer Support and Customer Success teams in their respective areas of focus.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this article turned out to be longer than initially anticipated, but it has thoroughly covered the various aspects that distinguish Customer Support from Customer Success.
While both roles involve working with customers, their objectives and approaches are fundamentally distinct.
Customer Support exists to offer technical assistance when customers encounter difficulties, resolving their issues promptly.
On the other hand, for companies aiming to maintain a consistent revenue stream from their customers, investing in a Customer Success team becomes a logical choice. This enables the customer's voice to be represented within the company, ensuring their needs are prioritized and fostering a strong customer-company relationship.
Founder at Las Vegas Coed Soccer | Operations Manager & Customer Success Leader | B2B Expert | SaaS & AI Specialist | Driving Revenue Growth & Client Retention | Let’s Connect! ??
1 年???? Fantastic article, Francisco! ?? Your comprehensive explanation of the differences between Customer Support and Customer Success is incredibly insightful. I appreciate how you covered everything from the business model to the organizational structure, tools, payment models, and even certifications. It's clear that you have a deep understanding of both roles and their unique objectives. The way you highlight the collaboration between Customer Support and Customer Success is particularly noteworthy, emphasizing how they complement each other to provide exceptional customer experiences. Thank you for sharing your expertise! ????
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1 年Great work Francisco Menéres!