5 Ways to Improve Internal Communication Around Customer Success

 

The best brands and companies, especially the companies that we look, build products, services, and experiences that focus on the success of their customers. As you dive into what makes these companies successful, you’ll find that they have one thing in common: they build strong internal communication channels, processes, and strategies that center on their customers. This sort of focus helps these companies rally around the customer and their success.

Here are five ways to improve internal communication around customer success:

1. Start With “Why”

Simon Sineik is best known for popularizing the concept of “Why” and for the talk he gave on the subject that became the third most watched talk of all time on TED.com. But Simon’s seemingly simple question of “Why” is also incredibly relevant to Customer Success. Every great company surrounds themselves with the “Why” and that’s exactly where they start. The “Why” seeks to answer the question about your company’s values, what matters most, and what success looks like. The reason for being in business is not the money – at least, not for the great companies and the leaders of those great companies. Great companies are in business for the positive life impact the product or solution solves. This concept is absolutely essential for the companies that nail internal communications and customer success.

This “Why”, if articulated across your company, will clearly impact you they way your teams think and act toward the customer. Start with the “Why” and showcase stories internally that show it in action.

2. Make Customer Quotes Real Time

Many organizations have adopted Slack as a way to communicate internally to their teams. They use it to communicate via Slack’s channels, or direct message other members of the team. While many people have a love/hate relationship with Slack, at ClientSuccess, we decided to keep it simple with our Slack implementation.  We use simple and clear communication channels to communicate as a team. To create a constant focus around customer success, we created a Slack Channel called #csquotes. In this channel, all members of our team are encouraged to post quotes from our customers. These quotes are for the internal audience of our business, but are constant. It’s key that the contributors are across every department, too, so we see quotes from CSMs, Marketers, Product Leaders, Development, Finance, and so on. This internal communication strategy really brings energy and focus around our customers and their success.

3. Communicate Product Road Map Clearly

Your customers ask for the product road map constantly. They want to know what products your company is working on so they know how to prepare and can anticipate how processes will need to change in the future. But is your team all on the same page of where the product road map is heading, but most importantly, what it will be? What’s coming and when is the real launch date? How will it impact your customer?

This internal communication will be vital to building a business that your customers trust. A best practice we use at ClientSuccess is to have our product and product marketing teams work together to build an internal communication plan, training, and collateral around a release and the roadmap. The road map should be clear, simple, prioritized, and real before it is communicated to your internal teams. This is important as internal teams ultimately communicate it out to customers, so it’s important that it’s clear and simple to understand.

4. Share Success Stories

There’s no better way to align a company on customer success than to share how customers are really impacted by your product or service. Teams get busy doing their respective jobs and the great stories live in inboxes, text messages and phone calls that never make it out to all the other employees who aren’t customer facing who had a hand in making that customer successful.

Share success stories to the internal audience in your company—everyone! Often times those in marketing, sales, and customer success know these stories and are used to hearing about customer wins and great successes, but the rest of the departments don’t. Build a communication culture that celebrates the success of your customers. Communicate them in meetings and place them on the walls of the office.

5. Share Uses Cases Around Challenges

Customers current product challenges can really push your company to become better and help you think through problems from a customer’s point of view. Make sure these challenges are communicated via use cases. For instance, state out: The customers are trying to do “X”. Many times the entire conversation about the challenge is all about product features, which can be the spiral of death. But if you shift the focus to use cases, it helps you and your team clearly define the challenge. Use cases drive towards solutions, and these use cases – if properly communicated – will help your whole company rally around solutions.

How Does Your Company Keep Internal Communications Focused on Customer Success?

Does your company ensure that customer success is the focus across all departments? If so, what are some of the tactics your company uses to ensure internal communications across all departments are focused on the customer? Internal communication about customers will help you infuse your company with a strong focus of Customer Success.

Check out our resources below for more Customer Success best practices and insights for how your organization can approach customer success with the customer at the center:

eBook:

5 Ways to Surprise & Delight Your Customers

Blog Posts:

The Golden Rule of Customer Success: 8 Guiding Principles

6 Listening Techniques of Great Customer Success Leaders

Learn more about how ClientSuccess can help your company develop a strong Customer Success methodology and strategy with easy-to-use customer success software by requesting a 30-minute demo.