Customer Success Managers: Roles & Responsibilities
In the competitive services industry, the only true differentiator of providers is customer care. As my working career winds down, I am proud of the way Flycast Partners delivers services to our customers, always striving for “Customer for life,” and I believe organizations loyal to this mantra are only able to achieve its meaning by developing and maintaining a focused, detail-oriented methodology. Without question, the methodology cannot be used sparsely. It must be incorporated into day-to-day business, and for our Customer Success Managers, it has truly become second nature.
Responsive, thoughtful, accountable, and on time are some of the many traits our Customer Success Managers have embedded in their DNA. We meet twice a week to discuss our customers and to ensure they have an open, bi-lateral channel of communication to provide feedback or express their concerns.
For over 40 years, I have been saying, “Take care of those that take care of the customer that take care of you.” This belief has worked well for the teams I have been fortunate to be part of. My first job was at IBM, an organization founded on three basic ideas: respect for the individual, superlative customer service, and the pursuit of excellence in all tasks. Alongside “Customer for life,” I have tried to live by these tenets. They have become ingrained in my outlook when leading teams, addressing customers, building processes and programs, and teaching young team members the importance of putting the customer first in each and every instance.
At Flycast Partners, all our Technical Support Customers have a Customer Success Manager assigned to them. Before new customers join our support family, they take part in a live video Welcome Call where we cover the following topics:
• Hours of operations
• Contact methods: email, self-service, and telephone
• Holidays
• Severity Levels
• Product Lifecycle
• How to access valuable information on the software publisher’s customer portal
• Escalation information if ever needed
• Chief Customer Officer’s personal contact information
Built into our exceptional white-glove treatment is the capacity to become immediately aware of any and all issues with our services. As the new year of Maintenance and Support (M&S) begins, we actively seek a clear and honest understanding of how we are doing. After 90 days of service, and again after 180 days, we speak with our customers to ensure they are satisfied in every respect with our performance.
Our proven Maintenance Renewal Procedure is a process containing 11 touchpoints, ensuring our customers have reliable opportunities to voice their feelings about their annual M&S investment. The process begins 150 days prior to the contract expiration and continues through renewal. We execute this process diligently in order to alleviate our customers having any surprises at renewal time. It is this active commitment to the needs of our customers which has allowed us to obtain such high customer renewal rates.
Our customers can choose any other service and support provider, but it is our dedicated team of Customer Success Managers and our years of experience devoted to practicing and refining a methodical approach which places Flycast Partners in its unique position to provide comprehensive, exceptional customer service.
