3 Obvious and Non Obvious Signs Customer Product Usage is Slipping
Spot at-risk accounts early. Learn 3 non-obvious signs product usage is slipping: fewer support tickets, customers going dark, and falling satisfaction scores.
TL;DR
- Product usage is a key leading indicator of customer account health, so a slip in usage is an early warning of risk.
- Three less-obvious signs usage is slipping: the number of inbound support tickets starts to decline (users may no longer be logging in), customers go dark and miss calls or appointments, and customer satisfaction metrics like NPS and survey scores start dropping.
- When usage drops, engage the customer directly and quickly, working one-on-one to find the root cause rather than the surface issue; automated usage alerts and a weighted health score help CSMs catch declines in advance.
As a customer success manager (CSM), your goal is to help your customer accounts change their behaviors by using your product(s) to drive positives outcomes and ROI throughout their entire journey with your company. Tracking and measuring product usage is one key method customer success professionals use to determine success and risk along a customer lifecycle. Though it's important to realize not to just focus on product usage alone. When it comes to determining the health of a customer account, product usage is one key leading indicator. In this blog post, we will also discuss 3 other non obvious signs that might also let you know that product usage is slipping.
3 Other Not Obvious Signs Product Usage is Slipping
Here are three signs product usage could be slipping:
1. Number of Support Tickets Coming in Starts to Decline
For customer success managers and their counterparts on the customer service side of the business, support tickets can be akin to headaches. It’s important to track these, however, for a few reasons. First, tracking support tickets can help your product team detect any deep-running issues across multiple customer accounts. Second, it can help you identify ‘needy’ customers that might be costing your organization. And finally, tracking support tickets can help identify if a customer is at-risk. If you notice there are fewer tickets coming in, it could be a sign that users are no longer logging in to the platform.
2. Customers Start to Go Dark and Miss Calls/Appointments
This is a pretty big sign that many CSMs chalk up to busy schedules instead of product usage issues. It can be tempting to write off a missed customer meeting to one-off circumstances, but be careful – this is typically a sign that your customers are starting to lessen their product usage. Most don’t like confrontation, so it’s not unusual for customers to just fade out instead of addressing actual problems or issues. For CSMs, this just means you need to pay closer attention to the cadence of your customer attendance. Additionally, try to pay closer attention to the overall attentiveness and engagement of customers when you’re actually in meetings, as this could be another sign of potential product usage slippage.
3. Customer Satisfaction Metrics (NPS Scores, Surveys, Feedback, etc.) are Declining
All customer success teams track some sort of satisfaction score, whether through the Net Promoter Score (NPS) or surveys. To call attention to product usage, try asking customers specific questions that highlight usage patterns. Additionally, keep your eyes peeled for any ‘red flag’ answers that come up. In the end, however, declining satisfaction metrics are what should stand out the most. Are customers who are usually top-of-the-pack suddenly down near the bottom? Have you received erratic or out-of-character responses from certain customers? Any sort of declining satisfaction metrics should be cause for worry about usage rates.
How to Catch Falling Product Usage Rates in Advance
One thing many CSMs ask is how they can catch these falling product metrics in advance without constantly stalking their customers or digging around on the back-end of their platforms to determine usage rates. The answer is by using customer success product metric tracking solutions that uncover specific insights into how customers are engaging with your product and other key areas of health through a strong health score strategy.
To take usage metrics tracking to an even higher level, set up automated product tracking alerts for various metrics so your team is notified the moment a customer’s product usage starts to decline. We have developed a very simple way you can track product usage and alerts in ClientSuccess. This way, your team can be proactive about addressing these issues as soon as possible. They can start to be very proactive.
What to Do When You Notice Dropping Product Usage Metrics?
Knowing exactly how to handle declining usage rates is the key to preventing possible customer churn. If you start to detect declining usage rates, engage directly with your customer as soon as possible. Additionally, try working one-on-one with the customer to figure out the root cause of the issues. It also could mean a change in goals, management, or another key initiative. Make sure to arrive at the core of the issue and not become distracted by the surface issue.
Accurately Track Product Usage and the Three Non Obvious Signs with ClientSuccess
Keeping real-time tabs on customer usage rates can help eliminate any surprises for your team or your customers. With ClientSuccess, your team can have unparalleled insights into how your customers are engaging and using your solution. You can also use usage and other customer data indicators to build out a weighted health score that will help you develop an early warning of success and risk. You can learn more by scheduling your personal consultation today!
eBooks:
Ultimate Guide to SaaS Customer Success Metrics
Customer Success as a Culture: Customer Success Leaders Edition
Blog Posts:
3 Reasons Why Customer Health is LIke a Gallon of Milk
Three Keys to Understand Customer Health
Learn more about how ClientSuccess can help your company develop a strong Customer Success methodology and strategy with easy-to-use customer success software byrequesting a 30-minute demo.
Frequently Asked Questions
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