What Holds The Customers CAPE?

With your permission, I have few more questions…

How can a firm maintain high customer satisfaction in challenging markets? How does a firm retain existing customers and turn them into firm advocates? And what guarantees customer loyalty over time?

After over 35 years of global customer management experience, I have defined for myself the mix of actions that can guarantee successful client management.

The challenges I faced recently with one of my employers had several aspects.

On the one hand, there were several consecutive years of more than doubling the number of customers, from a few dozen, to many hundreds. This growth is accompanied by the expansion of the company’s workforce, which doubled every year and has reached several hundred employees worldwide.

On the other hand, zero churn! Every customer who joins, stays. Customers are happy to recommend the company’s products. Customer satisfaction surveys yield high scores in every objective of the company evaluation index (NPS).

Firms that implemented and are implementing the strategy described here are proud of highly satisfied customers who have become investors in the company. In fact, these clients passed the recommendation stage. They want to be part of the success. Quite a few new customers confirmed that they were swept into the spirit of the positive attitude of their treatment.?The decision to invest in the company was easy for the clients. For them, a later evaluation of the purchase was deemed as a successful endeavor.

So, how do you do it?

There are several strategic issues that, in my experience, need to be considered in the company’s relationship with its customers. These topics are managed by Customer Success Managers (CSMs) or any Customer Facing roles, and they can produce the success I described above. In my opinion, the four main subjects are named C.A.P.E and they focus on people, product and customer relationships as follows:

C - Cultivating the person

Over the years I invested quite a bit of time in training, mentoring, and empowering the CSM and customer facing team members. They are the engine that drives the machine. The onboarding process takes several weeks, during which the CSM learns and experiences the company’s products, the environment, the work processes and the product speech. Later, the CSM undergoes regular training on a wide variety of topics. The goal is to train the CSM to be an advisor that is trusted by the customer. The investment in technical knowledge, management, and crisis management skills, as well as creating routines for daily management of the relationship with the customer, makes the CSM a professional in his field. Cultivating “team pride” strengthens the credibility of the CSM.

Customers can see this. They feel this. They appreciate even more the person and the company. In the end, training the person who takes care of the client and give them the tools and knowledge, will help make the CSM a loyal and trusted advisor in the eyes of the client and will ensure their loyalty over the years.

A - Annual activity plan

The CSM must define an annual plan that intends to provide continuous added value to the company’s customers. The plan outlines how the CSM will operate throughout the year. This is reflected in the setting of regular meetings (weekly, monthly, quarterly). The CSM continues analyzing the operation of the company’s solutions within the customer’s environment. This includes consulting as to how to improve the functioning and operation of the client’s environment and processes. The ongoing contact of the CSM with the customer also allows to resolve problems in a minimal amount of time. Ultimately, the goal is to give the customer confidence that both the product and the company is with him along the way. This activity plan helps to track the progress of the customer relationships, SLA and KPI compliance.

P - Product

A well developed product is a solution that meets the demands of the market and expectations of your customers. An organization should avoid the development of a “white elephant”.

Therefore, the CSM is responsible for passing feedback from the field directly to the product team. The goal is to improve the products, the services and the solutions offered. The teams that I have worked with have relied on dozens of ideas and suggestions for improvements that were received from the company’s customers. Those feedbacks contributed, contribute, and will contribute to making the company’s products unique and market leaders. It must be noted that the CSM’s feedback is a two-way relationship. They communicate to their customers the future developments and company’s roadmap. This is how the circle of feedback is closed with the customer and contributes to the client’s loyalty.

E - Enrichment activities

The Customer Success / Facing Group organizes periodic seminars, webinars and forums intended for customers only. In these sessions, the company shares with its customers the global experiences gained in the use of products that are in use. The sharing includes event analyses, tips-and-tricks for dealing with special situations, simulations, as well as recommendations for improving day-to-day operations. A customer forum, for example, provides an intimate platform where people from different organizations can discuss and share their daily experiences.

?In my experiences, the percentage of participants in these seminars is high (sometimes even over 80% of all clients). The reason for the high participation rate is based on the follow-up that the CSM does before and after the seminar. The action of closing the loop verifies with the customer whether he needs additional information and makes sure to provide it.

Closing the loop is the basis for the client’s participation in the next seminar.

?

The hanger to keep your CAPE is the firm’s love to their customers.

An organization should invest in the newcomers, as well as existing employees, and guide them to act according to the CAPE strategy. This will ensure that the spirit of customer success will guide them through a successful journey with firm customers.

I believe that:

A satisfied customer is a loyal customer >> A loyal customer is a customer who will be happy to recommend and act as a company advocate >> A client who becomes an advocate helps the company to expand its activities.

If, at any given moment, we remember that a satisfied customer is the reason for our existence, we will ensure the continuation of our successful operation.

About the writer:

Rafael Kaduri?- Senior Customer Success and Customer Facing Executive.?

Help companies to enroll loyal customers, meet and exceed their expectations, build long-lasting relationships that lead to business growth and expansion.?

Drive, coach, develop, mentor and manage global Customer Success and customer facing teams.