Company growth brings many exciting benefits but also introduces the need for scalability. As your customer base expands, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to increase the size of your Customer Success (CS) team. Whether a larger team is required depends on several factors, including your platform’s complexity, the availability of customer resources for self-service education and training, and the onboarding process. Read more here...
To manage this need for scale while maintaining operational efficiency and controlling costs, creating a Scaled Customer Success (CS) team is essential.
Scaled CSMs are part of a dynamic model where a group of CSMs collaboratively manages a portfolio of accounts. This approach allows for a balance between personalized attention and resource efficiency, ensuring customers receive comprehensive support without the need for a larger, more costly team.
With this transition in mind, it's crucial to communicate the change to your customers effectively. Ensuring they understand how this shift benefits them will help make the transition smooth and reassuring.
How to Communicate the Change to Your Customers
To ensure your customers feel valued and confident about the transition, follow these steps:
Direct Communication from Leadership: Have the message come from a Director or higher who oversees the CS team. This demonstrates that their concerns are taken seriously and provides an escalation point if needed.
Be Honest About the Reasons: Clearly explain that the change is driven by the company’s growth. Emphasize that evolving how you work with customers is essential to better support them as the business scales.
Focus on Customer Benefits: Not every customer desires a monthly one-on-one meeting. Many prefer flexibility and access to diverse expertise without being tied to a single CSM. Highlight how the pooled model offers:
Broader Expertise: Customers will benefit from a team with varied industry knowledge and platform insights, ensuring well-rounded support tailored to their needs.
Increased Availability: A team of CSMs means more availability and flexibility for scheduling meetings and seeking help, so customers are never left waiting for a response.
More Eyes on the Account: Multiple CSMs means enhanced oversight of the customer’s account, leading to quicker problem resolution and proactive support.
Comprehensive Support: The pooled model provides a holistic approach, leveraging the collective knowledge and ideas of the entire team.
Outline What to Expect: Let customers know about new features and services that come with the transition, including:
Monthly newsletters with tips and tricks for optimizing their platform use.
Access to an expansive knowledge base center.
Invitations to monthly webinars for additional learning.
Annual audits by the CSM team to review and enhance their experience.
Provide Guidance and Support: Ensure customers know where to turn for help. Make it clear that they are not left in a silo and provide contact details for immediate support if needed.
Reassure Ongoing Support: Emphasize that you’re always available for them. Encourage them to reach out directly if they need further support or if something seems missing.
By focusing on these benefits and communicating them clearly, you can help your customers see the transition to a pooled CSM model as a positive development rather than a disruption.
Template for Communicating the Transition
Here’s a sample template to help you communicate the transition in a way that highlights the benefits and reassures your customers:
Subject: Exciting Changes Ahead: Meet Your New Customer Success Team!
Hi {{first_name}},
As you may know, the Customer Compass Company has experienced tremendous growth over the past two years. To ensure we continue to support our most valued customers with an elevated level of service, we periodically re-calibrate our accounts and the teams supporting them.
As we end the first half of 2024, I would like to introduce you to our Customer Success Team which includes multiple Customer Success Managers, with expertise in varying industries and platform knowledge.
We believe that as a whole the Customer Success Team (CST) will provide you with a fully encompassing service that will be more relevant to your changing needs and will allow for consistent availability at the moment you need our team most.
The Customer Success Team will now act as your main point of contact and is available for any questions related to your account settings, platform trainings and strategic support & discussions.
In addition, the Customer Success Team will be reaching out at the beginning of each quarter to provide you with insights and updates on the The Customer Compass platform and specifically your Compass account.
Moving forward, you can reach out directly to the team via email at CST@thecustomercompass.com or schedule a meeting with the team for any questions or concerns you have in relation to your account.
The Customer Success Team has been brought to speed on your account, and they are ready to begin fully supporting you and your team.
Warm regards,
VP of Customer Success
Looking to Learn More? Explore our Compass Support Hub for a collection of articles on platform features and best practices. For immediate assistance or technical issues, contact our Customer Support team at support@thecustomercompass.com, call 555-483-4330, or use the in-platform chat feature in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.
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