Customer success is one of the most important metrics you need to track if you’re running a B2B business.
It contributes to the overall customer experience, and high customer success can mean repeat business and more referrals. Maintaining a vibrant, effective customer success team is one of the most effective ways to boost your customers’ experience.
If your team is not performing optimally, you need to act fast.
The main aim of your customer success team is to build, maintain and enhance relationships with your customers. These relationships are to last for long periods of time. The deeper the customer connects with your brand through your team, the more likely they are to not only remain customers but also recommend you to others.
The more your customer is able to achieve their own business goals using your services, the more loyal they will be to you. Your customer’s business success is your success. This is why having an effective customer success team is vital to your business.
In this article, let us explore some tell-tale signs that your customer success team dynamics need to change for the better.
1. Reduced customer renewals
Customer acquisition and customer retention are vital to boosting your company’s lifespan. If you plan to start an online business or have been at it for a while, you need to know that retaining a customer is far easier than acquiring a whole new one. It is five times more expensive to gain a new client than retain an existing one.
The above shows you the importance of closely monitoring customer renewal rates. Any slight difference, especially a negative one, must be addressed promptly. It can be a sign that the dynamics of your customer success team need some changes.
Increased customer churn may be an indication of poor service. Good service is for all customers, not only the new ones but also the ones that have been using your services or products for some time now.
Save yourself five times the effort by retaining your already acquired customers and make the most out of your customer support team.
2. Mismanaged schedules
Teamwork makes the dream work may be a cliché, but it remains a core principle for business success. When all the teams in your company are working in synergy, you will meet your goals quickly. Your employees’ confidence increases when they know that they are part of a functional team.
As for your customer support team, it is no different. To boost teamwork and avoid having mismanaged schedules, consider having a fixed schedule for your team members. That will help you eradicate any uncovered shifts that may be present. Understanding the customer success team structure can help in developing these schedules.
Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than calling a company and getting no response, especially when they call during business hours. It could show that you need to improve your customer support team’s working dynamics.
However, ensure you do not compromise your team while creating the shift schedule. A well-rested, motivated team is more likely to give timely and satisfactory answers to your customers’ queries. Conducting meetings to discuss annual planning for your support team will go a long way in striking this delicate balance.
Are you unable to provide 24-hour support? No problem. Simply share your working hours with your customers through a virtual auto attendant or automated customer support emails when staff is unavailable.
3. Poor Net Promoter Score
In case you are not aware of what this is, the Net Promoter Score is an index that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company’s products or services to others. It is a helpful tool in gauging overall customer satisfaction & brand loyalty.
The best thing about today’s customers is that they will tell you all you need to know about your company and your customer success team. They are candid and open with their views. You can ask questions in your customer satisfaction survey to find out how well their needs are met by your team.
Companies with the highest Net Promoter Scores have one thing in common – top customer retention rates. It is calculated by taking the number of promoters of your company and subtracting the detractors. The answer you get is your Net Promoter Score.
Buffer has been applauded for being open with its statistics. Consider above how they have attained their score of NPS 57: 70% of Buffer customers are happy about the service they’re getting, while only 13% are not satisfied.
Keep an eye on public review sites as well. Identify common themes in customer feedback. These could highlight your current customer success team dynamics.
For instance, you might notice several reviews highlighting an issue with your payment or checkout page. That will help you know the customers’ pain points, fix the problem, and boost customer experience. If you’re wondering how to reduce customer churn in 2022, here are the key strategies to get your customers to return.
In addition, you also need to recognize your team when they receive positive customer feedback. Take a couple of positive reviews and share them with your customer support team. They will be delighted to know that their efforts are contributing to customer success.
A low Net Promoter Score is a sure sign that something needs to change in how your customer support team works.
4. Data from your calls and meetings
Review and look into the number of calls, demos, and meetings set up with your clients by your customer success team. But even as you check this, be keen. Look deeper. Set the correct Key Performance Indicators to measure the actual performance of your team. Do not only measure the first response time. Measure the problem resolution time as well.
If your team is quick at responding to customer queries but drags the problem resolution time, the customer will still not enjoy their experience with your company.
The world is data-driven. Your business is no different. You can increase the efficiency of your support team by using a sales dialer. It automatically dials numbers without someone having to do so manually.
You need hard data to assess the performance of your customer support team, especially if you are handling a big team of support staff.
5. Slow response time
Customers adore efficiency. Getting solutions at the click of a button is a desirable outcome for them. No one wants to wait a week for an answer to their query.
If your team is slow at responding to customer queries, customers will ditch your company and head right to your competitor’s doorstep.
Even social media platforms reward pages that respond promptly with a responsiveness badge. For instance, Nordstrom Rack received the “very responsive” badge from Facebook for responding to messages quickly:
Response time is an indicator of your team’s efficiency when it comes to resolving customer queries. If you notice that your response time is getting longer, it might be a sign that you need to improve the dynamics of your customer success team.
6. First Contact Resolution Rate
A prompt response to a customer’s query will not guarantee that you’ll solve their problem. This brings us to another metric to consider while measuring the performance of your customer success team – the time it takes to resolve an issue satisfactorily.
The First Contact Resolution Rate is directly related to customer experience. The higher the FCR, the better the customer experience with your brand. It is wise to ask your customers whether they find the answers of your customer success team satisfactory or not. Following a SMART framework, you can create meaningful and actionable goals for FCR rate improvement:
Check the overall resolution rate too. That will inform your decision on the success of your customer support team in assisting your customers comprehensively. If you are not satisfied with your findings, take that as a sign that you might need to modify the dynamics of your customer support team.
Conclusion
To sum up, customer experience is vital to your business’s success. A slight improvement in customer retention leads to a significant increase in company profit. So, it is worth the effort to retain your customers.
Change can be scary, but it is a good thing. To keep a great brand image and boost loyalty among your customers, be ready to change the dynamics of your customer success team over time. Your customers will appreciate positive change. It will show them that you care about their feedback and opinions.
As you change the dynamics of your customer support team, involve the team. That will make them feel part of the change, boosting their motivation.
Keep their welfare in mind as well. A motivated team will perform optimally and desirably. Hopefully, these tips will prove helpful to you in assessing the effectiveness of your customer success team.
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