Understanding the customer success pyramid is vital for the upliftment of your business. You will have to walk down the lane where your product meets the customer’s needs – a path that wreathes longstanding loyalty and commitment. How do you build that road? By understanding your customers – their expectations, desires, demands and emotions. And history has it – with Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’, we saw how simply the basic to complex human aspirations were described and disseminated. This blog will shed some similar light on the customer success pyramid and state its major implications for customer success. Without any further ado, let us get started.

The Customer Success Pyramid

1st Stage: Precision

The most fundamental aspect of customer success that lies at the base of the customer pyramid is the support and help you provide to them – this must be accurate and precise. You should know what they want from you. Your solutions should be directly targeted to their queries that will eventually benefit them. As this is the first stage, you must start prioritizing. As this is when you build a relationship with your customers and imbue trust, you cannot afford to misinform them at any cost. Also, keep attending to this as you grow. Often, people ignore this stage when they move on to the second stage. Stellar support and solutions have the power to drastically lessen the need to go around hunting for answers. And this is the pivotal target of your foundation.

2nd Stage: Proactivity

Whether you like it or not, a customer does not like to wait. They do not want to be hung on the other side of the phone and wait endlessly for an answer. You will have to proactively attend to their queries and answer them as quickly as you can. So, how can you achieve this? First and foremost, hiring the right team is the key here. Resourced teams who are pretty efficient know how to attend to the customer’s queries in a fast and responsible manner. Aside from this, deploying an AI-chatbot on your site will assist you in many ways. They can take up the question that an occupied support rep can’t. Further, they will save you enough time and take some workload off your shoulders as well. this calls for a perfect win-win for you, right?

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3rd Stage: Personalization

Why should your customer spick you over the sea of competitors that you have? What is the USP that sets you apart from the rest? How you approach your customers and interact with them defines and changes the ball game altogether. Train and educate your staff to build a personalized relationship with the customers. See it as an opportunity to relate to the clients on a personal note. As and when you start building great customer rapports, you make it a point to deepen the level of trust that your clients have in you. Also, think of it in this way – a good relationship with a client means they will tend to cut you more slack than usual when something goes wrong from your end. They will be willing to forgive the blunder and give you a second chance. In fact, things might work out in your favor – who knows?

4th Stage: Preemption

As now we are gradually moving towards the head of the customer success pyramid, it is time to delve into a rather elusive and ambitious level: preemption. So, what does this mean? Of course, some amount of churn is inevitable. You also know that your customers will leave your business on a certain day. How do you minimize it? At the very least, how do you minimize the churn rates of those customers who willingly wish to leave? Early warning systems are a good way to trace out the at risk customers. This is where you are being more proactive and less reactive. Successful preemption involves identifying patterns of behavior that trigger an alert when a user needs help. The trick here is to prioritize which clients are worth saving and which aren’t.

5th Stage: Prediction

The present is technology. We are in the hands of technology’s grace. Cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning have successfully taken over the preemptive work and have aided in guiding the customers to get easier and faster resolutions. When you deploy the essence of AI and ML in the right way, you will start to see the power and scalability that they have to offer. The advanced pattern recognition will automatically render a super customized experience for your customers. This is something that the new millennial customers of yours look up to and want to interact with. Deploying your time and energy here will help you deliver better offerings to customer success as a niche.

Parting Thoughts

Now, not every customer success pyramid will look alike. And why is that so? The answer is simple – not every customer will exactly need the same engagement to get success with your product. It is different and it will vary from person to person and industry to industry. But one thing remains the same, the higher up the pyramid you tend to manage and operate, the greater are the chances that you are going to achieve a successful outcome for the company as well as your customers.

WRITTEN BYJoseph Henson

Highly accomplished, motivated, and adaptable sales and operations professional with a track record of successful leadership. Known for an empathetic and consultative approach that consistently exceeds growth and revenue goals.

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