Blogs
August 5, 2019
Author:
ClientSuccess

5 Questions Your CSMs Need to Know the Answer To

5 Questions Your CSMs Need to Know the Answer To

New mobile apps to keep an eye on

Auctor purus, aliquet risus tincidunt erat nulla sed quam blandit mattis id gravida elementum, amet id libero nibh urna nisi sit sed. Velit enim at purus arcu sed ac. Viverra maecenas id netus euismod phasellus et tempus rutrum tellus nisi, amet porttitor facilisis aenean faucibus eu nec pellentesque id. Volutpat, pellentesque cursus sit at ut a imperdiet duis turpis duis ultrices gravida at aenean amet mattis sed aliquam augue nisl cras suscipit.

  1. Commodo scelerisque convallis placerat venenatis et enim ullamcorper eros.
  2. Proin cursus tellus iaculis arcu quam egestas enim volutpat suspendisse
  3. Sit enim porttitor vehicula consequat urna, eleifend tincidunt vulputate turpis

What new social media mobile apps are available in 2022?

At elit elementum consectetur interdum venenatis et id vestibulum id imperdiet elit urna sed vulputate bibendum aliquam. Tristique lectus tellus amet, mauris lorem venenatis vulputate morbi condimentum felis et lobortis urna amet odio leo tincidunt semper sed bibendum metus, malesuada scelerisque laoreet risus duis.

Sit enim porttitor vehicula consequat urna, eleifend tincidunt vulputate turpis

Use new social media apps as marketing funnels

Ullamcorper pellentesque a ultrices maecenas fermentum neque eget. Habitant cum esat ornare sed. Tristique semper est diam mattis elit. Viverra adipiscing vulputate nibh neque at. Adipiscing tempus id sed arcu accumsan ullamcorper dignissim pulvinar ullamcorper urna, habitasse. Lectus scelerisque euismod risus tristique nullam elementum diam libero sit sed diam rhoncus, accumsan proin amet eu nunc vel turpis eu orci sit fames.

  • Eget velit tristique magna convallis orci pellentesque amet non aenean diam
  • Duis vitae a cras morbi  volutpat et nunc at accumsan ullamcorper enim
  • Neque, amet urna lacus tempor, dolor lorem pulvinar quis lacus adipiscing
  • Cursus aliquam pharetra amet vehicula elit lectus vivamus orci morbi sollicitudin
“Sit enim porttitor vehicula consequat urna, eleifend tincidunt vulputate turpis, dignissim pulvinar ullamcorper”
Try out Twitter Spaces or Clubhouse on iPhone

Nisi in sem ipsum fermentum massa quisque cursus risus sociis sit massa suspendisse. Neque vulputate sed purus, dui sit diam praesent ullamcorper at in non dignissim iaculis velit nibh eu vitae. Bibendum euismod ipsum euismod urna vestibulum ut ligula. In faucibus egestas  dui integer tempor feugiat lorem venenatis sollicitudin quis ultrices cras feugiat iaculis eget.

Try out Twitter Spaces or Clubhouse on iPhone

Id ac imperdiet est eget justo viverra nunc faucibus tempus tempus porttitor commodo sodales sed tellus eu donec enim. Lectus eu viverra ullamcorper ultricies et lacinia nisl ut at aliquet lacus blandit dui arcu at in id amet orci egestas commodo sagittis in. Vel risus magna nibh elementum pellentesque feugiat netus sit donec tellus nunc gravida feugiat nullam dignissim rutrum lacus felis morbi nisi interdum tincidunt. Vestibulum pellentesque cursus magna pulvinar est at quis nisi nam et sed in hac quis vulputate vitae in et sit. Interdum etiam nulla lorem lorem feugiat cursus etiam massa facilisi ut.

If there is one thing Customer Success Managers (CSMs) are good at, it’s answering questions. That’s just the name of the game when your job description includes various aspects of training, onboarding, troubleshooting, and support. While every customer account is different and has different goals, it is possible to bucket certain questions to create a general outline for customer success management. Most SaaS customers just want to get up and running on a platform as fast as possible and know how to use the product effectively enough to be successful. Thinking about customer success through this general lens of value can help your CSMs stay out of the technical weeds (although these weeds are sometimes important) and approach projects from a high-level of success.

Here are five general questions every CSM should be able to answer with any customer account.

1. How long will this take?

Questions about timelines and deadlines are incredibly common in SaaS onboarding because people are, in all honesty, impatient. Once they’ve invested in a new product or service, they want to start using it as soon as possible. If a 6-month activation is standing in their way, they’re going to be a little antsy throughout the process.

As a CSM, you should always have a clear answer to any question related to timelines or deadlines. This is a part of being completely transparent and honest with your customers. If the question is about a specific project, be as honest as possible (“this will be done by Friday”) to keep your customers in the loop. If the question is more ambiguous or relates to the entire onboard process as a whole, try to answer based on timeframe. It’s okay to break down your onboarding process by 30/60/90 days to give your customers a better idea of where they stand.

2. What is the value in it for us?

This type of question is all about the value your product will deliver to your customer. No matter how many customer accounts you’re responsible for, a CSM should be able to specifically address specific business cases and articulate product value for individual accounts. To make this easier, work with your sales team to ensure you have the most up-to-date SOW on hand for every new account.

In other situations, the actual end-users of a product who are going through onboarding exercises with your customer success team aren’t the ones who were involved in the buying process. This means they might not know why your product was chosen or what the value is from the get-go. It’s up to you as a CSM to articulate this value, answer any speculative questions, and soothe any lingering doubts.

3. How will this work with our other platforms?

As much as you may wish your product was the only one in a customer’s mind, that is never going to be the case. According to Siftery, today’s organizations use an average of 37 different software platforms and tools on a day-to-day basis. In order to ensure your solution is adopted correctly and used on a regular basis, integrations with a customer’s current tech stack should be top-of-mind. Because platform integrations are so important to today’s customers, CSMs should be well prepared for these kinds of conversations and have answers prepared in advance.

4. Will this help us get [this] done now?

When it comes down to nitty-gritty CSM conversations, it’s things like uploading data files, explaining new features, and going through extensive training exercises that bring new questions to the forefront. While a customer might have purchased your solution for one use case, actually seeing the platform in person can open up a whole slew of new opportunities. If a customer asks if they can do a specific action or see something specific on your platform, we’d hope the answer would be a resounding yes! But, if that kind of functionality requires an additional add-on or expansion product, then have that information ready to capitalize on the excitement of your customer in the moment.

5. Who else needs to be involved?

It’s not uncommon for CSMs, product teams, administrators, and end-users to be the only ones involved in new product onboarding discussions. But, in order for maximum user expansion and customer dependency, you might want to get other people in the room. When your customers ask who else needs to be involved, or if other team members should be included in a kick-off meeting or call, see if you can bring in other resources like the c-suite or executives. Just be careful that if a customer executive joins your meeting that there is an executive representative from your team available as well. While a CSM could do a great job discussing the specific use case and the product, customer executives will appreciate the respect and personal touch another executive’s presence can deliver.

Ready to learn more? Check out these other resources for more customer success best practices and to learn more about delivering amazing onboarding experiences to customers:

Ready to Get Started?
Request Your ClientSuccess Demo
Get started
Subscribe to our newsletter

Success!

Thank you! We have received your submission.