Ep. 88: How to Improve Customer Success Through Proactive Engagement

How to Improve Customer Success Through Proactive Engagement

The goal of every customer success (CS) team is to ensure that you drive value for your customers over time and help them to get the most out of your product. How can CS teams think ahead, help their customers to succeed, and avoid churn?

In this week’s episode, we have an engaging conversation with seasoned CS expert Mark Stagi (VP of Customer Success, Avoma) about why proactive engagement should be the top priority for CS teams across the board. Mark also discusses the mistakes to avoid, the importance of using a “strategy first” approach, what metrics CS teams should be paying attention to, and what steps they can take to be more proactive with accounts.

https://youtu.be/pqQikNTKASs

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Mark explains why proactive engagement should be a top priority for CS. [1:37]
• Some of the common mistakes and misconceptions around proactive engagement in CS, and how to address them. [6:55]
  • Putting in tools and technology too early
  • Generic outreach that’s not adding value
  • Not asking questions about the who, why and what
• Mark shares a story of how he turned a situation around where customers were planning to churn – and what he learned from it. [12:25]
• Mark shares some steps that CS teams can take right now as part of their proactive engagement and the quick wins. [27:46]
  • Map out the customer journeys (including those outside the CS scope)
  • Understand what value means to customers
  • Get to know every different persona within the company
• Some metrics that CS teams should pay attention to when it comes to proactive engagement. [35:59]

Companies & links mentioned in this episode:

• Mark Stagi on LinkedIn
• Avoma

Click here to access the episode key takeaways.

Transcript

SPEAKER

Christian Klepp, Mark Stagi

Christian Klepp  00:00

Welcome to B2B Marketers on a Mission, a podcast for B2B marketers that helps you to question the conventional, think differently, disrupt your industry, and take your marketing to new heights. Each week, we talk to B2B marketing experts who share inspirational stories, discuss our thoughts and trending topics, and provide useful marketing tips and recommendations. And now, here’s your host and co-founder of EINBLICK Consulting, Christian Klepp. Okay, welcome, everyone to this episode of the B2B Marketers on a Mission podcast where you get your weekly dose of B2B marketing insights. I’m your host, Christian Klepp. And today I’m joined by someone on a mission to take the customer success practice to the next level. So coming to us from San Jose, California, Mr. Mark Stagi. Welcome to the show, sir.

Mark Stagi  00:46

Awesome. Thank you, Christian, for having me on the show. Super happy to be here and looking forward to the conversation.

Christian Klepp  00:53

Likewise, Mark, and you know, I’m really looking forward to this discussion. And before we start, shout out to your buddy and my buddy too, Yaag, thank you so much for the introduction.

 

Mark Stagi  01:02

Yes, yes. No, that’s awesome. Cool.

Christian Klepp  01:05

So yeah, let’s, let’s kick off this conversation Mark. And I’d like to go back to a recent conversation that you have with your CEO Aditya, and it’s on the modern SaaS podcast. So you, you were talking about what CS (Customer Success) teams need to do when a big account churns. Now, when you mentioned something like that, it kind of sounds like a little bit of a reactive approach, or at least that could be viewed by some as such. So talk to us about why you think proactive engagement is the way to go and why that should be a top priority for CS.

Mark Stagi  01:37

Great. Yeah, no, and you’re totally right. I mean, when you do have something that happens, where a large account already churns, you’re really in, in reactive mode. And that’s the mo