How to Improve Customer Success Through Proactive Engagement

The goal of every customer success (CS) team is to ensure that you drive value for your customers over time and help them to get the most out of your product. How can CS teams think ahead, help their customers to succeed, and avoid churn?

In this week’s episode, we have an engaging conversation with seasoned CS expert Mark Stagi (VP of Customer Success, Avoma) about why proactive engagement should be the top priority for CS teams across the board. Mark also discusses the mistakes to avoid, the importance of using a “strategy first” approach, what metrics CS teams should be paying attention to, and what steps they can take to be more proactive with accounts.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Mark explains why proactive engagement should be a top priority for CS. [1:37]
• Some of the common mistakes and misconceptions around proactive engagement in CS, and how to address them. [6:55]
  • Putting in tools and technology too early
  • Generic outreach that’s not adding value
  • Not asking questions about the who, why and what
• Mark shares a story of how he turned a situation around where customers were planning to churn - and what he learned from it. [12:25]
• Mark shares some steps that CS teams can take right now as part of their proactive engagement and the quick wins. [27:46]
  • Map out the customer journeys (including those outside the CS scope)
  • Understand what value means to customers
  • Get to know every different persona within the company
• Some metrics that CS teams should pay attention to when it comes to proactive engagement. [35:59]

Companies & links mentioned in this episode:

• Mark Stagi on LinkedIn
• Avoma