Every SaaS company needs a customer success plan to ensure customers are achieving success with a need or problem they have. Otherwise, they will churn, and revenues will drop. A customer success planner can make sure that customers are following a well thought out plan that has no cracks that a customer can fall through. Customer success is achieved, and long-term subscriptions drive revenues up, with reduced churn. 

A customer success planner will be committed to ensuring that customers are both happy and satisfied with the results they see due to using your product. This individual will also follow up with them occasionally to ensure they can be retained as long-term customers who are loyal to your company and its product. 

Customer retention is the end goal for a customer success planner. This is what drives revenues up. They will also deepen their relationship with customers, which can lead to upsells and cross-sells. Any gaps in a customer success plan are also identified and closed. This role is integral to ensuring a customer success plan is followed seamlessly. 

Creating a Customer Success Plan Template 

A customer success plan is something a customer success planner can develop, to ensure customers are seeing the results they anticipate. We are going to take a look at how to easily create a customer success plan template, so that your company is not operating blindly. Here are the steps that should be taken to develop the template. 

Define What the Expectations Are 

A good plan needs to start with what the expectations are. Without expectations, there is no working plan. What do your customers expect to get from using your product? What has compelled them to subscribe to your product? Do they have pain points? What are their goals? What do they consider a success? 

Once you get this defined, you them want to define your ideal customer, as well as several variants. This involved the creation of a customer persona. Multiple customer personas will allow you to address the needs of each type of customer. Having several personas rather than one will address high churn rates due to a one-size-fits-all product. 

Are you unsure what your customers are expecting to get out of using your product? Ask them! This can help you gain an accurate assessment of what your customers are looking for, ensuring your actions will be effective in actually addressing the needs of your customers. 

Activate Processes 

Once you have figured out what your customers expect to get out of your product, you will have to activate processes that will guarantee you meet and exceed their expectations. These processes can differ, depending on how a customer wants to proceed. Some customers prefer to dive right into using a product with minimal handholding, while others want their hand to be held at every step of the way, deeply understanding all the nuances of the product. 

It can help to document what the processes for onboarding are beforehand. This will be a make-or-break point of your relationship with a customer. If they do not feel they can achieve customer success due to not being onboarded properly, you will not enjoy product success. Document the processes that will be followed, so that customers can feel your product is easy to use, with assistance provided by either manual or automated support systems at every step they take. 

Measure Objectives 

You will want to make sure the objectives you set are measurable and can be acted upon. This ties back into the expectations your customers have. By measuring objectives, you can keep an eye on customer health and see if there are any pain points that arise along the customer journey. You want to take swift action and catch issues before customers realize they are problems. 

When you have measurable objectives, you can see if your customers are getting the best value for what they are paying you. This helps reduce churn by making the products of competitors less appealing to them. Create measurable objectives to ensure your customers are succeeding in their goals. 

Develop a Customer Success Plan 

Help your customers develop a plan that can measure and track their success due to your product. This could be something simple and encompassing one page or spreadsheet. You will want to set a specific timeline and adhere to it. However, stay malleable enough to work with the customer if necessary. As long as you follow the customer success plan, you will not have any issues. Also, maintain a gap-free plan by assigning responsibilities to the stakeholders who will want to see the customer succeed. 

Implement the Plan 

The last step in creating a customer success plan template is implementing the plan. To conduct this properly, you should regularly check in with customers, ask them for feedback, and make sure they are on track to achieving customer success. 

When you follow these steps, you will be able to easily identify what the best way to engage with your customers is, and when. Also, you will significantly reduce churn, which will lead to increased revenues for your business. Pay attention to how your customers are doing, identifying pain points and addressing problems before customers realize there are any. Provide them with guidance so that they achieve success because their success is your success. If a customer success planner is committed and dedicated to seeing customers achieve success, it will become a mutually beneficial relationship. 

Wrapping Up 

When your customers achieve success, your company achieves success as well. A well-developed customer success plan begins with a customer success planner following a template that outlines the steps needed to help customers succeed. When you help them do this, they will turn into loyal, long-term customers who will spread the word about their success to others, bringing in more customers. Demonstrate the value your product has and how you can help your customers achieve success. 

Now that you have a customer success plan template to follow, you can help define the expectations and goals of both your company and customers. This will ensure processes and ideas can be reached and met to achieve success. It will take some planning and dedication, but it will all pay off in the end. 

WRITTEN BYRakhin V

Rakhin has over 10 years of experience driving business development and client services. In his prior roles, he stayed close to customers to understand their requirements and help them achieve their business goals. He is passionate about customer success.

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