Why is now the time to invest in customer success?

Welcome to the very first Success Stories Newsletter! We’ll be sharing real success stories from our customers and how you can share in the success too! You can learn more about Totango and what we do here.

Why is now the time to invest in customer success?

With a possible recession in our near future (check out the NY Times on What is a recession, and when is the next one going to begin?), companies are doing what they can to prepare. Even when hiring is put on hold and you’re evaluating where to make cuts, customer retention is absolutely essential. The cost of acquiring new customers is significantly higher than retaining existing customers, and it doesn’t hurt that existing customers can bring in more business through word-of-mouth.?

How can Totango help?

This newsletter series is all about the many ways that our customers have implemented Totango for their own customer success. The modern customer success story relies on a different engagement strategy. Scale has become the top challenge. Digital customer success is no longer limited to a tech touch market. It’s essential for success across the board. Today, we’ll focus on Mastering Scale with Digital Customer Journeys, where Jamie Bertasi of Totango met with Taylor Cunningham of Trustpilot and Karla Russell of Monster as they shared their experiences with Totango and their customers.

Both Karla and Taylor manage a customer base of about 500,000. With a customer base of this size, you need a model that implements technology. Organizations just don’t have the manpower for this many customers.?

Here is how Trustpilot and Monster have implemented our digital customer technology for success:?

Trustpilot?

When Trustpilot was growing exponentially, they knew it was time to enable customer onboarding at scale. So they asked: how much can we approach digitally? Trustpilot has a robust free product for businesses where they can test new approaches, so that’s where they implemented tech touch onboarding. The plan was to eventually build a hybrid solution of tech and human touch for their paid customers.?

One simple way to begin is automating your welcome email. And if that can be automated, where else can you implement digital touch? Trustpilot already had the content, they just needed to figure out when it was best to get that content to customers, and when human interaction was essential versus just helpful. But when did tech touch need some help? If the goal of your email isn’t being met, are you comfortable with a lower conversion rate with those actions if it means a larger scale? Trustpilot’s goal was to implement tech touch across their paid customer base in a way that wouldn’t sacrifice engagement for scale.?

They implemented tech touch with all customers using their free platform, about 80% of customers at their entry-level paid platform, and fewer higher-paying customers. As a result, they were able to implement human CS outreach exactly where they needed it—with their most valuable customer base, and their CS department became much more efficient.?

Monster

Monster is a global leader in connecting people and jobs. They’ve generated millions of dollars in revenue through digital. In 2019, Monster sent approximately 47,000 emails per campaign with an engagement rate of 34% and over 3.5 million dollars in revenue as a result of digital efforts. In 2020, they were gearing up to take the same approach with their customers, but when the pandemic hit, most businesses were focused on just keeping their doors open. Monster had to make adjustments to their approach rather than attempting to sell. They shifted their messaging to various ways to get through the pandemic. Despite seeing a decrease in revenue, Monster was able to expand its scale and opening and engagement rates. They also received valuable feedback from customers, saying they appreciated the shift from sales to more informative messaging at a time when expansion was not a possibility for most businesses.?

Totango has allowed them to work with sales and customer success leadership teams to schedule digital communications that have an impact.?

So where does Totango come in for you?

Totango can help you with four key considerations:

1. Data: Understand what’s happening with your customers.
2. Non-Linear Workflow: Every customer journey is different.
3. Lean into Automation: Start by automating one section. Get that running smoothly, then open it up to other segments.
4. Rapid Learning Cycle: Iteration and optimization are key strategic components.?

An impending recession is out of your control, but finding the most efficient use of your digital customer journeys is entirely in your hands. And Totango is here to help.

Ready to take the next step in retaining your customer base through whatever comes next?? Join our Boldly Grow in an Unstable Economy webinars or use our Invest in CS SuccessBLOC bundle to engage customers, detect risk, and analyze customer health.

And don’t miss Customer Success Summit: Teams this Sept 14-16! Get tickets here.

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