After listening to all 82 episodes of the ’nuffsaid podcast, I found the following themes:
- Basing customer health on outcomes (value/impact delivered or maturity along the customer journey)
Most health scores are based on available data (engagement, usage, configuration, CSM sentiment). Better companies correlate these measures with retention but most are still ‘eye-balling’ this. Consultants are advocating for outcome-based health scores. It is hard to argue with that recommendation conceptually, but outcomes have always been highly subjective and/or difficult to measure, esp. due to overlapping attribution. Periodic customer maturity assessments are a decent proxy. The ultimate goal here is to break the cycle of churn escalation by taking actions that prevent low health scores from arising to begin with. - Being digital-forward in all customer segments
Even users in high-touch segments often prefer digital to human engagement, esp. if it gives them 24/7/365 answers to basic needs. - Merging CS and Support (or even replacing CSMs with TAMs)
These related themes are two of the more provocative ones. Both support and CS are proactive and reactive. In theory, support is focused on technical fixes and CS is focused on business fixes. However, this line is very blurry. Some companies, esp. those with hyper-technical platforms, are opting for Technical Account Managers (TAMs) who span pre- and post-sale and have both business & technical expertise. - Tuning the degree to which CSMs have commercial responsibility (renewal, upsell, and cross-sell)
Except for very transactional situations, the general trend is toward CS having no direct commercial responsibility. Instead, they should be ‘up-telling’ and sending customer qualified leads (CQLs) over to sales. - Compensating CSMs
The most common approach appears to be bonuses closely tied to team net retention goals. - Getting CS involved during pre-sales
While CS does not realistically have veto power for bad-fit prospects, they should be involved at least in the most strategic/complex deals to ensure smooth handoff. - Ensuring prospect/client feedback makes it way from sales, CS, and service to the Product team.
This remains a challenge. Some of the better ideas being discussed are periodic fire-side chats with customers attended by sales, CS, and Product. - Hiring CSMs
No one seems to have actual data on traits or backgrounds that statistically lead to better CSMs. Pretty much everyone shares the usual set of opinions that apply to every role (communication, critical thinking, collaboration, grits, etc.). As with other roles, diversity remains a key hiring goal. - Reporting structure for CS and CS operations
No one seems to have any data on which org CS and/or CS ops should report into. CS leaders do have a strong preference to have CS ops report directly into them (of course) but the counter-argument is that having CS ops on a centralized ops team allows them to push back when needed and to work better cross-functionally. No right answer here. - Sharing goals
Nothing contentious here – many are advocating to have net retention be a major compensation component for everyone on the executive leadership team. - Building customer advocacy
- Using NPS
It seems to be in vogue to say that NPS is dead. However, NPS remains a decent measure and should of course be accompanied by a second question asking some variation of, “What could we do that would make you more likely to recommend us?” or “What was the reason for your score?”