Post by account_disabled on Mar 4, 2024 21:23:39 GMT 9.5
Customer success is becoming one of the most critical functions in the modern business world, and one of the fastest growing. This shift is marked by the emergence of new technologies, changes in how users interact with software, and the insights and workflows that machine intelligence can help generate. Customer Success: The Central Hub for Information Flow No team is closer to your customers than Customer Success (or “CS”). This is especially true in the world of SaaS, cloud, and other subscription-based products. CS is one of the key determinants of successful product adoption by new customers. This is the starting condition situation that determines the outcome, informing the business of the final product or service delivered. The after-sales workflow is the focus of your customer success organization. These include, but are not limited to, customer onboarding, professional services, account management, support, customer experience and education, and in some cases renewals. But the scope of a CS team often extends further, overlapping with other organizations such as sales, marketing, product, or engineering. As a result, CS teams often become the central hub for information flow within many modern organizations. Customer Success is in High Demand (and Not Just in Tech) Customer Success Managers (or “CSMs”) are now one of the most highly hired positions in the U.S. job market. Customer success ranked sixth among emerging job categories last year, with an annual growth rate of new job openings of 34%, according to LinkedIn. According to a recent survey by Totango, 91% of CS leaders said their team size has grown in the past 12 months, and this growth has been even more pronounced since the onset of COVID-19.
Teams don’t just scale in high-growth technology startups. The CS hiring wave is hitting some of the largest companies in the world. For example, IBM's recent $34B acquisition of Redhat increased the number of representatives in its Paraguay Mobile Number List CS department from 300 to over 1,000. An estimated 72% of CS jobs are still in tech, but advertising, financial services, real estate and other non-tech fields are seeing an increasing share of openings. Demand for CSM is driven in part by the rapid growth of the subscription economy. Subscription businesses are on the rise and starting to surface outside of tech and in certain market segments, which may surprise you. Worth noting: The three largest cloud computing providers by revenue—Microsoft, Amazon, and Google—all now sell primarily on a subscription basis. This ongoing shift requires businesses to engage with customers more consistently. Not only do modern businesses now process more data than at any other time in history, but the way businesses interact with customers is following a similar trajectory. In addition to being able to participate in person, customers can now connect with businesses via phone, email, text message, instant messaging, social media, and many other third-party channels.
A byproduct of this setup is that the CS team now has more coverage area and more live requests than at any other point in time. We would be foolish to ignore the impact of COVID-19 on every sector of the economy. The push for digital transformation has never been more evident, and customers are, by definition, at the center of this journey. In today's world, where nearly all professionals are able to meet in person, companies need to figure out how to keep customers engaged and better understand how their products work and where there is room for improvement. Much of this discovery must be done through digital media. The shift from the physical to the virtual (or hybrid) world not only creates a window of opportunity for subscription-based products, but also places more burden on delivering tangible value. Products with a clear understanding of ROI are retained. Those with more ambiguous values were fired. In response, the GTM organization refocused, and the spotlight shifted (and shone brighter) on CS than ever before. The Next Frontier in Customer Success Software As the demand for computer science continues to rise, leaders will be forced to face new challenges. Growth initiatives need to be balanced with an increasing number of new communication channels and information flows. One way leaders can address this complexity is by embracing technology that helps them better understand the world around them. Leaders want to know what their customers are saying, where they should focus, and what actions they should take to have the greatest impact.
Teams don’t just scale in high-growth technology startups. The CS hiring wave is hitting some of the largest companies in the world. For example, IBM's recent $34B acquisition of Redhat increased the number of representatives in its Paraguay Mobile Number List CS department from 300 to over 1,000. An estimated 72% of CS jobs are still in tech, but advertising, financial services, real estate and other non-tech fields are seeing an increasing share of openings. Demand for CSM is driven in part by the rapid growth of the subscription economy. Subscription businesses are on the rise and starting to surface outside of tech and in certain market segments, which may surprise you. Worth noting: The three largest cloud computing providers by revenue—Microsoft, Amazon, and Google—all now sell primarily on a subscription basis. This ongoing shift requires businesses to engage with customers more consistently. Not only do modern businesses now process more data than at any other time in history, but the way businesses interact with customers is following a similar trajectory. In addition to being able to participate in person, customers can now connect with businesses via phone, email, text message, instant messaging, social media, and many other third-party channels.
A byproduct of this setup is that the CS team now has more coverage area and more live requests than at any other point in time. We would be foolish to ignore the impact of COVID-19 on every sector of the economy. The push for digital transformation has never been more evident, and customers are, by definition, at the center of this journey. In today's world, where nearly all professionals are able to meet in person, companies need to figure out how to keep customers engaged and better understand how their products work and where there is room for improvement. Much of this discovery must be done through digital media. The shift from the physical to the virtual (or hybrid) world not only creates a window of opportunity for subscription-based products, but also places more burden on delivering tangible value. Products with a clear understanding of ROI are retained. Those with more ambiguous values were fired. In response, the GTM organization refocused, and the spotlight shifted (and shone brighter) on CS than ever before. The Next Frontier in Customer Success Software As the demand for computer science continues to rise, leaders will be forced to face new challenges. Growth initiatives need to be balanced with an increasing number of new communication channels and information flows. One way leaders can address this complexity is by embracing technology that helps them better understand the world around them. Leaders want to know what their customers are saying, where they should focus, and what actions they should take to have the greatest impact.