1.
How to Justify Investment in
Customer Success
Cliff Cate, ToutApp
Nathan Williams, LinkedInAudrey Warren, Bazaarvoice
Nigel Nugent, Enviance

2.
Audrey Warren
Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice is the leading provider of solutions that
allow retailers and brands to obtain and use shopper-
generated content in their businesses to increase
sales, build customer loyalty and increase profits.
Director, Client Programs

3.
time
maturity
Sell, sell,
sell
Oh my, we need
to hire someone
to “look after our
customers”
Hmmm…this is not
sustainable
Hiring frenzy
Mad rush for
technology solutions
Client segmentation
100% client retention.
Return of the 40 hour
work week

4.
Confidential and Proprietary.
© 2012 Bazaarvoice, Inc.
4
Activities Outputs Outcomes Impact
Measurement
Easy Easy Challenging Essentially
impossible

5.
Confidential and Proprietary.
© 2012 Bazaarvoice, Inc.
5
Create self-service
onboarding materials
Clients engage with
onboarding materials
Clients are able to quickly understand
what they need to be successful
Key client contacts are more likely to
become advocates for the program
because they understand the value of
the product and perceive the company
as “easy to work with”
Account Managers spend less time on
"the basics" and more time on strategic
consulting.
Less client churn
Happier customers
Lower service costs
Measurement: Number of module completes Qualitative surveys & interviews Churn, NPS, service spend*
Activities Outputs Outcomes Impact

6.
Cliff Cate
• Post signature - customer onboarding,
support, training and renewals.
• Previously worked at GoodData,
CaseCentral, Oracle, Stellent, Viant and
Andersen Consulting.
VP, Customer Happiness & Success
ToutApp

7.
ToutApp
ToutApp empowers sales and customer success teams by
streamlining email with powerful tracking, templates and real-
time scoring.
- 70,000 users
- Free trial to self service and traditional sales models

8.
ToutApp Customer Happiness & Success Team
• 4 Happiness Officers today, +3
immediately
• Everyone is currently a generalist and
loosely mapped to Sales AEs
• Break down of activities
• 30% On-boarding and training
• 60% Inbound customer tickets
• 10% Proactive outreach
• Continue to build an amazing team
• Renewal strategy and execution
• Scalable sales transition process
• Repeatable onboarding process
The Team Today Future
Priorities

9.
Justifying investment in customer success
• What metrics should you track?
• How can you plan or forecast the investment in customer success?
• How does company stage or product complexity affect the investment?
Questions to ask

10.
Nigel Nugent
VP, Worldwide Sales &
Customer Success
• Leading SaaS-based Environmental Compliance System
• Founded in 1999 – SaaS from the get-go
• Fortune 500 client base – Utilities, Mining, Oil & Gas, Railroads
• 30,000+ users in 40 countries
• Personally responsible for all client-facing activities:
• Direct Sales
• Existing Accounts
• Inside Sales
• Customer Success
• Services
• Sales Operations

11.
Current Model
• 2 Managers with 5 reps
• 3 reactive – Phone
• Help desk
• Log cases
• Liaise with Dev and Sales
• 2 proactive – On the road
• Training
• Renewals and Upsell
‘To-be’ Model
• Accounts segmented into 3 divisions
1. Safe, low upsell opportunity (CS)
2. Identified upsell or @risk (EA)
3. Enterprise (DS)
• Focus on user adoption, pre and post sale
• All sales groups play a part
• Success snap-shots
• Client dashboards
Customer Success Team and Strategy
Transform from reactive to proactive

12.
When should customer success activities start?
 During presales with ISD and always as part of the introductory pitch - competitive advantage
SaaS / Cloud “old school”
vs.
Traditional Perpetual Licensing
 We rely on your subscription, therefore we
have to care more!
 It’s a flexible model; you can decrease use if
needed
 Small initial capital outlay
 Cancel if you are unhappy with our
performance….and other “uninspiring”
reasons
SaaS / Cloud “old school”
vs.
SaaS / Cloud “new order”
 Focus on user adoption
 Real-time analytics
 Deep connection with client implementation team
 Set adoption targets
 Quarterly success review
 Usage dashboards
 Executive interaction
vs.

13.
Lessons learned?
Be active in the SaaS community and take time to seek out
new technologies, ideas and approaches
I should have done this three years ago!

14.
Nate Williams
Global Head, Customer Success
Operations

15.
Connect the world’s professionals to
make them more productive and
successful
Our mission

16.
For our members
The professional profile
of record
Connect all of the world's
professionals
Identity Networks Knowledge
The definitive professional
publishing platform

17.
For our customers
Hire
Power half of
all hires
Market
The most effective way for
marketers to engage professionals
Sell
The start of every sales
opportunity

18.
Customer Success Team
Expert Consultants
Worldwide
40+Countries
8+Avg. Years of Talent Acquisition
Experience per Consultant
150+ 10,000+Consulting Customers
Where do our talent acquisition experts come from? Places like…

19.
Customer Success
Be successful Feel successful
• Product Usage
• Product Success
• Add-on/Upsell
• ROI
• Net Promoter Score
• Customer
Satisfaction
• SLA Delivery
Retention

20.
Unhappy Achievers
(Re-confirm customer
objectives, evaluate non-
product sentiment, affirm
performance through objective
benchmarking)
Model Customers
They are successful and they
know it.
Frustrated
(Evaluate Product Mix, Initiate
Discovery to re-define
Customer goals)
Starry-Eyed
(Motivate higher performance
through objective
benchmarking)
Are
Successful?
Feel Successful?
No
No Yes
Yes

21.
Justifying Investment in Customer Success
• Define the role of the Customer Success Team v. Sales
• Connect all the dots from usage/sentiment  retention
• Understand how leverage ratios change with growth
• Invest in technology for productivity gains
• Don’t confuse access to data with technology
*Bessemer Venture Partners “Ten Laws of Cloud Computing”
The most important part of Software-as-a-Service isn’t
“Software” it’s “Service”
#8
The single biggest driver of long term profitability for your cloud
business is the renewal rate of your customers.
#5
LNKD Learning

22.
Q & A