Behind the complete success of an organization rests the success of its customers at large. One of the greatest factors that lead to that is the cross-departmental collaboration for customer success. And for the best collaborations, it is of high pertinence that the various units under customer success sync in and tune together internally, before it is broadcasted on an external note.

All those banners that tout the customer-centric approach are sometimes not enough. What matters is making moves to permeate this approach through the entire team in the company. One of the first ways to do so is by encouraging the other functional teams to gel up with customer success and preen their roles in making their service a huge success. Here is what we will be delving into today:

• What is Cross-Departmental Collaboration?
• Sales and Customer Success
• Marketing and Customer Success
• Product and Customer Success
• Operations and Customer Success

What is Cross-Departmental Collaboration?

Cross-departmental collaboration is an approach that wreathes a ‘customer-first’ mentality in each of the departments of a company. It aids in fostering the customer’s needs and makes achieving the targets easier.

When there is a disconnect between the teams, that adds up to much chaos and forms unnecessary mayhem. To steer clear of this mess, all of the teams must go hand-in-hand with customer success. And here is how that takes place:

Sales and Customer Success

To form a mutually beneficial relationship, the team spirit between customer success and sales should be friction-less. Get a kick-start by defining the responsibilities and targets of each of these teams. It is a given that the clients who receive a positive customer experience with your brand will stick around more often.

And they will be a part of your success. If things work out even well, who knows they might go for some quick referrals or call out plaudits in front of their friends or relatives? All of which boosts up your sales, after all.

For instance, say, the sales team dig into various sub-sections like culture, communications, customer’s pain points, etc. But when these are exchanged with the customer success unit, it will not only bring in smoother onboarding but also help in expanding the client’s account.

In simpler words, if the CS team dives into the nurturing aspect of a customer, the sales folks ensure that the handoffs and transitions take no backseat. Without smooth communication between the teams, it won’t only become challenging to be on the same page, but also will lead to more gaps and inconsistencies.

Marketing and Customer Success

When it comes to customer marketing, the CS teams, and marketing unit must align their policies and strategies. Together, they must see that customers get the requisite value that they deserve. The role of marketing is to implant the right tools in the right place.

To ensure a hit, content is one such criterion that is specially placed and augmented. Not only content, but various spheres such as webinars, events, or posts too can do magic. The content plays a great role in driving and enticing traffic. In such a case, the marketing team must come up with new and innovative ideas to take content a notch up.

Such spheres will help convert a mere customer to a brand advocate. There is a good chance to see a client turn into a raving fan when they see and receive the best of customer service. When marketing couples with the customer success unit, they will know what it takes for a customer to tick.

And how best to deliver that to them with the right channel. Thus, when marketing and customer success unite, they can pave the way for enhanced retention, growth, and opportunities.

Product and Customer Success

It all simmers down to the product quality in totality. The exceptional quality of your product or service speaks for itself and lets the customers revert for some more. Once a prospect comes up to make a purchase, it is vital to ease the shopping experience and execute seamlessness and excellence. And you can achieve that only when you combine the greatness of customer success with the product team.

Additionally, having a world-class support team is a plus as it can handle the break-fix communications with everyday clients. This, in turn, takes off the load from the CS and product team to better focus on their duties. It is always better to have a team especially aimed at ironing out urgent fixes and bugs from the support unit.

When CS and product teams align, they must give more room to constant conversations. These communications ensure that all of the product updates and features releases are not missing out from either of the team. Also, sharing feedback across the teams allow them to be on the same page. This will help in sharpening the company’s mission and vision holistically.

Operations and Customer Success

To align the operations unit and customer success, you must imbue the same or similar technological facets in both the teams. Operations are seen as the operative arm of customer success. When clubbed in together, they can bring in more insights to how do we refine the onboarding process or, should CSM training be a monthly affair, and much more.

Over and above, the operations unit can prioritize the feature requests on the basis of the recent customer feedback. Later, this monitors the CSA platform and keeps track of the entirety of the customer’s records.

That’s a Wrap

Developing a cross-departmental collaboration amid teams is a must if you wish to ensure fluidity and seamless flow. This calls for better benefits over time – be it with the recurring revenue or on chopping down the churn rates. In the end, what matters is the quality by which you get people’s perception. When you have harmony in each of your teams, you atomically sync in tune and generate more success.

WRITTEN BYSwati Somineni

An implementation engineer with six years of experience is a seasoned professional specialising in implementing and integrating complex systems and technologies for businesses. Possessing a diverse skill set that combines technical expertise, and project management capabilities.

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