5 Reasons Why Customer Success Is Imperative For Your Company Culture

As any Customer Success Manager (CSM) can attest to, customer success is not merely the work of a single person or even a single department. Ensuring customers see success and thrive with a B2B product takes the work and input of an entire organization, from the CEO down to the last intern. When an organization is truly focused on the outcomes and success of customer relationships, it can positively impact a company culture from nearly every angle.

Here are 5 reasons why focusing on customer success is imperative for any organization’s company culture:

1. It Brings Departments Together

A customer’s relationship with a brand begins with the very first sales call or email. Every single interaction from then on impacts the success this customer will have throughout their journey. This means that every department is responsible for a piece, no matter how small, of the overall customer sentiment and satisfaction.

Instead of shuttling a customer through the customer journey with a series of online-only phone calls or impersonal introduction emails, a customer-focused organization will orchestrate carefully planned interdepartmental handoffs, which are designed to help customers bridge the gap between journey stages and become comfortable working with new teams and faces. Well organized organizations will have a clear plan in place for how these handoffs occur, ensuring every department is in lockstep and customers are fully cared for.

2. It Helps Facilitate New Ideas

When an entire organization is committed to customer success, it can help foster new ideas and move the company forward. While CSMs and other customer support employees are on the front lines of customer interactions every day, other departments are ready and willing to engage and collaborate when the customer’s best interests—and ultimately their business—is on the line.

When customers have a product question or recommendation, for example, the product team can work directly with the client alongside the customer success team to determine the best course of action. This sense of collaboration can extend across various other departments as well. Keeping customers satisfied and engaged is what keeps a company afloat, and so it’s only fitting that departments work together to find new ideas to achieve these goals.

3. It Influences Every Department’s KPIs

From a day-to-day activities standpoint, many departments’ goals and KPIs should already focused around customer success. Sales team members work hand-in-hand with CSMs to get new accounts off the ground and handle any resulting business from the relationship. Marketers often must work directly with customers to capture success stories or develop upsell marketing campaigns. Product teams work to develop and build new solutions specifically requested to solve issues. Even administrative roles can help streamline internal processes or workflows for the smoothest customer experience possible. With every department involved in maximizing customer satisfaction and experience, every single person is working towards a connected goal.

4. It Keeps Internal and External Stakeholders Happy

As the oft-used saying goes, when the customer is happy the company is happy. Having a portfolio of satisfied customers who are content with their service and are ready to engage and communicate with a brand is a literal dream of any B2B organization. Organizations who are looking to become truly customer-centric must instil a sense of cohesiveness between customer sentiment and organization sentiment. Now, it’s important to realize that this isn’t telling a company as a whole to get up in arms when a customer is unhappy with their service. In fact, it’s almost the complete opposite. Organizations as a whole must realize when a customer is upset and rally together, as an entire organization, to fix the issue and restore the customer to their former happy selves.

5. It Guarantees Executive Focus and Commitment

At the end of the day, customer-focus trickles down from the top. If an executive team isn’t bought into the idea of a customer-centric organization, nobody else will think that way either. Executives must understand the impact customer success has on a business, including how recurring revenue is impacted. Executives can then take this insight and share with other stakeholders, including board members, to gain the full support of all decision makers at an organization.

When executive teams and other members of the C-Suite are focused on building and supporting a customer-centric culture, it guarantees customer success a seat at the table. This means working customer centricity and success into the overarching goals and KPIs of an organization. There is a lot an organization can accomplish when it’s fully customer-focused, but it needs executive buy in to get there.

Customer Success Must Always Be The Top Initiative

While there are often multiple focuses and objectives of B2B SaaS companies, customer success must be included among the top to survive and thrive. Building a culture of customer success not only influences day-to-day interactions with customers but also impacts the collaboration and communication between departments.

Customer Success eBooks:

Customer Success as a Culture: Customer Success Leaders Edition

Ultimate Guide to SaaS Customer Success Metrics

Customer Success Blog Posts:

3 Keys to Restoring Customer Confidence

5 Best Practices to Build a Customer Success Journey Map

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.