The era of software automation is here. As advanced AI increases the rhythm of how companies interact with customers, the new customer service (CS) growth engine has transformed from its pen-and-paper roots to a digital behemoth used by two-thirds of those surveyed by McKinsey in 2020. Dubbed CS 2.0, the chatbots and self-service functions of automation-powered business functions seemed like the logical evolution.
No wasted manpower on follow-up emails and calls. A full suite of tech pipelines for tackling bigger picture account management. In a time when vacuums run on a schedule and fridges can make video calls, scaling the CS experience seemed like a job for the robots as well. But not everyone sees this as a solved problem.
“Sometimes it’s best to just pick up the phone,” said Micah Kasdan, VP of client success at DISCO. For his team, balance is key to scaling not just for volume, but also quality. It still takes a human touch to make authentic connections with customers. After all, it’s another human being on the other side.
For many of these companies, having a core tech stack is still essential. Backed by a hiring pipeline with strong CS talent, these software platforms have the efficiency necessary to handle an influx of customer accounts. But to expect automatic success from automation is to underestimate what clients expect from a CS relationship: Only 61 percent of companies achieved their 2020 automation targets, McKinsey reported.
BentoBox Director of Customer Success Lauren Byrd maintains that a human-first approach is necessary for direct customer-CSM rapport. “Relationship building, consulting, empathy and strategy — it’s something AI just can’t replace.” For her team, working in a specific industry like the restaurant space means settling into the mindset of how culinary operators might think; an empathetic approach synonymous with a human one.
“Client success exists because human interaction is what customers crave,” said Ellery Shawver, director of client success at Reachdesk. Follow-up emails and basic Q&A can be delegated to the stack, but having the right team for a holistic approach means getting that next client meeting. To see this tightrope balanced successfully, Built In NYC sat down with companies that use technology as a means to support their client-forward authenticity, but never forgetting to simply pick up the phone.
monday.com is an enterprise work operating system.
What are the most important considerations when scaling a customer success team?
While there are many important considerations when it comes to scaling customer success teams, we’ve discovered that processes, knowledge, culture, collaboration and prioritization are among the most critical. I’m grateful that our culture is the strongest thing we have at monday.com. Because of that strong culture, people feel inclined to share knowledge across the team.
As an example, last year I initiated a session called “knowledge share” where we meet every other week and talk about topics that are crucial for our team, such as customer stories and learnings, processes, tools, apps and more. That has allowed us to have a space where we reflect and dive deep into topics of interest. Taking the time to think about what we need to succeed has opened a lot of doors to collaboration across different departments that don’t typically meet, with a common goal we all share: Enabling our customer’s success.
What tools or technologies do you use to make customer success more scalable?
Two of the most impactful technologies in our case are Loom and monday.com. I understand we’re biased here, but having a powerful work OS platform for building your customer success workflows is a game changer.
On monday.com, we track our customer initiatives, personal tasks and metrics with the teams. We even use it to design what strategies work for specific scenarios, such as when an account’s health score drops. Another great example is we have a board with successful email campaigns that we can all use, consult and add on to. At the end of the day, every amazing initiative gets documented.
We also use Loom, a recording tool that allows us to create quick videos that we then share with our clients. For example, if a client isn’t sure about how to use a specific part of the platform, instead of setting up a meeting with them, we send a short video explaining that feature. Or if the team is rolling out a new process, we use Loom to let everyone know. It helps us create value by giving that personal touch to quickly help communicate as if we were face to face.
How are you striking the right balance of automation and human interaction, and how do you know which tasks can be automated and which ones are more effective when handled by a CSM?
I strongly believe human interaction adds a lot of value and is something that technology will never do. Things like a video call and exchanging ideas together, or knowing the person on the other side and what they care about. Not only at a professional level but also a personal one.
Technology and automating things is also a very powerful tool, so my thought is, if you can combine technology with more personal information you know about the other person, that’s the winning combo. You’ll be personable and efficient, and will create impact. A good example here is sending mass emails to clients and using tools like Yesware, where you can personalize the content for some key contacts based on recent interactions or conversations you’ve had. Maybe it’s related to the email you’re sending or just a personal follow up like “How was your son’s practice?” — those little elements take an extra minute but will go a long way, and will probably guarantee your next meeting with them.
I strongly believe human interaction adds a lot of value and is something that technology will never do.”
DISCO offers AI-powered, cloud-based legal solutions.
What are the most important considerations when scaling a customer success team, and why?
Before considering how to scale a customer success team, it’s important to examine what kind of team you want to build, and create a strong foundation. This means hiring people who bring an insatiable curiosity about the product experience, who are passionate about clients feeling a strong return on investment and who view improving the client relationships as a driving motivation and inspiration. With this foundation across a team, scaling to the business and our clients’ needs becomes much more simple.
What tools or technologies do you use to make customer success more scalable?
We use a combination of different applications including Salesforce, Pendo and NetSuite that provide us with a holistic view of our client base and their usage of DISCO products. We have also developed custom dashboards using the business intelligence tool Amazon QuickSight, which helps our CSMs view data points that provide an overview of what is making up each client’s product experience. Additionally, we leverage products like Chorus and SalesLoft to help improve soft skills and stay consistent with user outreach.
At the end of the day, the most important tools that we need to effectively do our jobs are pretty old school — email and phone calls. Our primary goal is to connect person to person. Sometimes it’s best to just pick up the phone.
How are you striking the right balance of automation and human interaction, and how do you know which tasks can be automated and which ones are more effective when handled by a CSM?
This is a challenging question for any customer success leader. The nature of ediscovery, which is what DISCO’s primary product addresses, makes this even more challenging. In most business to business (B2B), software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, leaders can easily map out the client journey, from onboarding to renewal, and identify a variety of trigger events along the way. But our flagship product is for lawyers who are working on legal cases, so it’s not a traditional enterprise relationship. We need to be able to meet the needs of legal teams at each place in the journey of each legal matter. This makes our challenge a hybrid of B2B and business to customer (B2C). So for us, human interaction is critical.
Automation helps our customer success team plan outreach cadences, from emails to phone calls, and to make sure we’re staying in touch with our user community in a meaningful and productive way. But the importance of human impact cannot be overstated, and my team proves this to ourselves every day. We can measure the direct impact we’re having on the client experience by their usage of our product over time and growth across our product line.
At the end of the day, the most important tools that we need to effectively do our jobs are pretty old school — email and phone calls.”
BentoBox is a marketing and e-commerce platform that helps restaurants with the guest experience.
What are the most important considerations when scaling a customer success team, and why?
The most important consideration is meeting your customer where they are and anticipating their needs. We support the restaurant industry, so our customers are experts in hospitality. This sets a high bar for us to meet them at that same level of service. Frequent communication, asking for honest feedback and keeping their best interest in mind in business decisions are all crucial as we scale. We need to have a full understanding of where the gaps are in their operations in order to bridge them and help make running their business smoother.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation here. We really get to know and understand our customer’s day-to-day, because even within our customer base, we have three service approaches depending on the type of business they run. Also, listen to your gut. We have had moments where we realized, this CS structure isn’t right, and we pivoted to better align with restaurants’ needs.
What tools or technologies do you use to make customer success more scalable?
We take advantage of a whole stack of technologies to scale the volume of customers we can support. Some tools that have been very helpful for us are Salesforce, a CRM to have one source of truth; Asana, a project management tool to work collaboratively with other departments on customer projects; Involve.ai, a customer health score platform for assistance in preventing churn; Qualtrics, an experience management tool for NPS to collect feedback on what’s working well and learn where we need to improve; and UserVoice, a product feedback tool to gather and organize customer feedback that drives product decisions.
How are you striking the right balance of automation and human interaction, and how do you know which tasks can be automated and which ones are more effective when handled by a CSM?
We use tools and technology to support our CS Team in our human interaction with our customers. We automate the information that goes to our CSMs to provide the fullest pictures — a customer left a great NPS, a customer sent feedback on how the product could be better, a customer hasn’t logged into their website in a while, a customer needs a tutorial or help driving revenue.
In turn, our CSMs go into their conversations informed and able to help to the fullest extent. However, when it comes to the direct relationship between our customers and CSMs, it’s a human-first approach. This allows for relationship building, consulting, empathy and strategy — something AI just can’t replace.
This sets a high bar for us to meet them at that same level of service.”
Reachdesk is a corporate gifting platform for direct mail and digital deliveries.
What are the most important considerations when scaling a customer success team, and why?
In order to successfully scale your team, it is fundamental to have the correct systems in place. Cloud service providers (CSPs) like Gainsight that work synchronously with your customer relationship management (CRMs) will aid in ways to effectively and efficiently automate and personalize customer-facing activities, initiatives and interactions.
In addition, developing and enabling consistent processes and workflows will allow certain segments to operate in the same way, and is a pivotal piece in scaling a business. Operationalizing, whether it is by segment or not, will allow for greater knowledge sharing across the organization, eliminate the need for Q&A and ensure consistency between customer success managers.
There is no perfect answer for the balance between automation and human interaction.”
What tools or technologies do you use to make customer success more scalable?
A reliable relationship management system, such as Salesforce, is critical in scaling a business. These tools allow for both consistent knowledge sharing across business partners, efficient and effective contracting processes, and reliable forecasting methodologies.
A CSP should be the core of your tech stack when it comes to scaling. These tools are most effective when they are reliably synchronous with a business’s CRM and empower CS teams to scale with the information they need. This means a comprehensive view of your customers, and the ability to use data to uncover trends and risks and turn them into insights.
How are you striking the right balance of automation and human interaction, and how do you know which tasks can be automated and which ones are more effective when handled by a CSM?
Client success exists because human interaction is what customers crave. They want QBRs, strategic counsel and recurring touchpoints; when we think about service level, every customer expects to be treated the same.
There is no perfect answer for the balance between automation and human interaction, as this will vary based primarily on the effectiveness of your UX, buyer personas and expectations set in pre-sale. Human touch points such as onboarding, QBRs and recurring meetings are most effective when it is handled via one-to-one human interaction.
With the right tools in place, we can share best practices, industry knowledge and product updates through automation. Not only do you need the right tools in place to achieve successful automation, but you must also have the right teams built internally to help execute on powerful and consistent automation tactics.
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