By Attie Vandermerwe, VP Customer
Success Consulting, Mainstay Company
Customer
Success programs are now an essential part of selling cloud services across
every industry. This idea was abundantly clear from everybody I talked to at
this year’s Summit for Customer Engagement (SCE) in Silicon Valley, the world’s
premier event for customer reference and advocacy professionals.
The world of
customer success management isn’t standing still. Thought leaders at SCE talked
about changing customer expectations and new challenges that are emerging in
the field. Former “best practices” are being replaced by better practices that
drive higher renewal and satisfaction rates.
But a few
fundamentals haven’t changed, key players said. More than ever, companies need
to articulate the business value and impact of technology solutions to
executives and boards. How do you do that? Tried and true communication
vehicles like white papers, ROI case studies, TCO calculators, and infographics
are still needed to drive the decision-making process.
The fact is,
decision-makers crave objective and independent content to inform their technology
investments. That basic objective will never change, even if the data sources, communication
styles, and delivery mechanisms may evolve.
Driving
customer retention lies at the core of the new subscription business model
sweeping the modern global economy. Realizing success is what drives customers
to renew – and buy new and related products.
If you don’t
have a great customer success communications program, you are losing out to
competitors that have caught on to this mega trend.
I hope to
see you at the next Summit for Customer Engagement, so we can leverage the
latest techniques to keep customers coming back for more.
To learn
about how Mainstay can help, visit us at www.mainstaycompany.com/.