What is Customer Success?

Customer success is a method of serving customers that enables them to get the most value from your product or service for their own benefit. It’s a proactive approach to building strong, mutually beneficial relationships between customers and your business, going beyond the typical reactive customer service model.

• Increase revenue
• Improve customer retention
• Inspire customer loyalty and referrals

How Does Customer Success Provide Value for a Business?

Customer success can lead to less churn, more repeat purchases, and referrals, ultimately resulting in more money for your business. It helps minimize customer effort, informs them of new value propositions, and increases satisfaction.

• Reduced churn rates
• Increased repeat purchases
• Enhanced customer loyalty

Customer Success Metrics to Measure Value

Tracking customer success metrics is essential for understanding the effectiveness of your customer success strategies and the overall health of your business.

Churn

Customer churn describes the drop-off in engagement with a customer, whether they no longer actively use or purchase a product or formally end a service agreement or subscription. High churn rates signify low levels of customer satisfaction and decreased business growth.

Retention

Customer retention describes the ability of a company to maintain its current customer base after their initial acquisition. High retention rates indicate customer desire to continue using or purchasing a product or service, which leads to repeat purchases, increased revenue, and steady business growth.

NPS (Net Promoter Score)

NPS (Net Promoter Score) measures a customer’s desire to recommend a product or service. It’s measured on a -100 to +100 scale.

• -100-0 = Bad NPS
• 0-50 = Good NPS
• 50-70 = Excellent NPS
• 70-100 = World-class NPS

Average Resolution Time

Average Resolution Time measures the amount of time elapsed from when a customer support agent first opens a customer’s email to when they send out a final reply signifying the resolution of the query. The more effort put into customer success strategies, the easier it will be for customer support to resolve tickets, lowering the average resolution time.

Customer Success Strategies for Ecommerce Stores

Effective customer success strategies for ecommerce businesses are low-effort, high-reward, and scalable. They aim to provide personal assistance at scale, ensuring customers always feel supported throughout their buying journey.

Follow Up with Potential Customers from Your Blog

Encourage blog readers to provide their email addresses so you can follow up with them using email marketing software to send a message with a welcome discount or coupon code.

Check In with Customers as They Hit Benchmarks

Set up benchmarks to foster a personal connection throughout the buying journey. Use these assumptions to anticipate your customers’ needs and improve their success with your product.

Educate Customers on Similar Products

Present similar options to your customers to let them know about the differences and similarities between offerings. This will ultimately help them make an informed decision and feel more confident about their purchase.

Touch Base with Customers as You Add New Products

Use new offerings as a talking point to encourage repeat purchases and foster brand awareness. Pop into your customers’ inbox with some valuable information to encourage retention.

Upsell and Cross-Sell

Encourage happy customers to become even happier by upgrading or adding additional products to their shopping bag.

Offer New Perks to Previous Customers

Inform customers that you’re constantly innovating for them by adding new perks or listening to their feedback. For example, offer an incentive for referring a friend.

Provide Extra Assistance for Cart Abandonment

Set up an email marketing campaign to remind customers of the items they almost bought and provide answers to any lingering questions.

Hiring for Customer Success

When hiring for customer success roles, prioritize individuals who demonstrate a strong understanding of customer-centricity, possess excellent writing skills, and align with your company culture.

Ask Interview Questions for Culture Fit

Give a special focus to culture fit during your interviewing process through unique interview questions.

• In what type of work environment are you most productive and happy?
• How would past coworkers best describe your work style?
• What management style motivates you to do your best work?
• When working with a team, what role are you most likely to play?
• What were the positive/negative aspects of your previous job and work environment?

Prioritize Writing Skills

Writing is critical in customer success since the majority of interactions are done by email or chat.

Look for People Who Are Customer-Centric

Look for people who are very customer-centric. They’ll be the ones who bring fresh, creative approaches to customer problems.

Customer Success Tools

The right tools can help you prioritize customer relationships, automate tasks, and streamline your customer success efforts.

Groove for Customer Insights

Groove is a powerful tool for customer support that allows you to communicate with customers, organize inquiries, and track key customer success metrics. This data enables you to prioritize product requests and track feedback to keep customers happy.

ConvertKit for Marketing and Retention Emails

ConvertKit simplifies email marketing and customer retention efforts. You can set up automated email campaigns to welcome new customers, provide guidance for your product, or send cart abandonment emails. The platform also allows you to segment your audience based on user or product type for tailored product education and engaging with high-risk customers.

Calendly for Scheduling Customer Chats

Calendly makes it easy to schedule customer chats, removing the usual back-and-forth associated with scheduling. Plus, you can set up confirmations and reminders to include meeting links, reference docs, or phone numbers. Direct conversations with customers often yield the greatest customer success insights.

Tips for Customer Success Success

By understanding what customer success is, tracking key metrics, implementing effective strategies, hiring the right people, and leveraging powerful tools, you can set your ecommerce business up for success.

• Understand what customer success is and isn’t.
• Track key metrics like churn, retention, NPS, and average resolution time.
• Build customer success strategies that are low-effort, high-reward, and scalable.
• Focus on the most important qualities when hiring for customer success roles: culture fit, writing skills, and customer-centric mentality.
• Choose customer success tools that are simple, cost-effective, and speed up your workflow.