CCSM Unit 1
A lagging measure is a measure or performance indicator that is slow to materialize.
False. A lagging measure tell you when youre done or where you have been.
We're are no longer in the "age of the customer', we're now in the 'age of the ______"
Subscriber
Which of the folllow is not true about team success metrics?
Team metrics are used to measure the effectiveness (quality) and efficiency (cost, speed) of internal processes and workflows. They are of no interest to customers (despite what you might think).
What are the four disciplines of execution?
The 4: Focus, Acting on Leads, Scorekeeping and Drive Accountability.
Which of the following is considered the main enemy of execution?
The enemy of execution is the whirlwind, those daily activities you need to complete in order to get your job done.
Select three types of demanding customers that we discussed
3 types: needy unreasonable and bullies.
The business metric ARR is for
Annual recurring revenue
A key action review can be used to track and communicate progress.
True. A key action review is very similar to a standup. They can be used interchangeably. Like a standup, you conduct a review to account for how everyone with a key action is tracking to completion and what you're going to do next.
What does the metric ACV stand for?
ACV stands for annual contract revenue.
Which of the following are benefits to other departments for helping out in customer-facing roles? Select all that apply.
When other departments help out in customer-facing roles, they can see/hear direct feedback from customers which will help them better understand the challenges customers face.
Milestones and actions must be time-boxed.
All activities must be time-boxed.
In the subscription economy, what percentage of lifetime revenues are typically captured at the initial sale?
According to data by Totango, only 5-30% of lifetime revenues happen at the initial sale.
__________ listening is a structured form of listening and responding that focuses the attention on the speaker.
Active listening is a structure form of listening that involves focusing attention on the speaker and responding.
A typical customer engagement model includes:
An engagement model should detail all proactive touchpoint that plan to have with customer, regardless of channel or medium.
When dealing with an angry customer you should immediately apologize for what happened.
False. The first thing to do - apologize for the fact that something happened but not for what happened.
Which of the following is NOT an example of how to increase customer-centricity?
Asking teams to avoid contact with customers is not going to help you create a customer-centric mindset within the organization. Instead, you may choose to guide them on their interactions with customers.
When re-engaging a customer it is important to _____
Be clear on what you want (don't create confusion by asking for many things) make it easy for the customer to respond. Provide some upfront value and tease some additional value if they respond.
You should mix-up style of delivery of a business review for your customers each time you hold a meeting.
False. You should create a business review so that the content and delivery style of your reviews remains as consistent as possible, changing only when you decide to make a process improvement.
You should expect a similar level of engagement across all of your customer accounts.
False. Engagement will vary across individual accounts and it may be normal for some accounts to engage less than others.
When talking with customers about their expectations is it important to display confidence and agree with what they want even if you know it will be difficult to deliver.
False. It is important to push back if you know a customers expectations are not realistic. Do not tell them what they want to hear if you know you cannot meet their expectations.
If you hav a portfolio of 50-100 accounts, you should aim to become a trusted advisor to all of your customers.
False. It is not realistic.
Success Plans should only be worked on at the beginning of your relationship with customer.
False. Success plans are living documents that should be updated at regular intervals throughout the customer lifecycle.
The Success Plan approach is only possible for high touch, high-value accounts.
False. Success plans are relevant regardless of customer size. However, the way you operationalize the process and the level of detail may differ for small accounts.
Business success metrics measure how well your internal processes are functioning.
False. Team success metrics measure the performance of internal processes, whereas business success metrics measure the performance of the company as a whole.
Which of the following is NOT a strategy for establishing a healthy relationship with a customer?
Your first call with the customer is critical and it's important that on that call you do a lot of listening and asking questions, rather than giving advice. In the customers eye, you've not yet earned the right to offer them advice.
The first step in dealing with an unreasonable client is:
It is always important to listen before offering a response but with unreasonable clients it is often helpful to repeat their unreasonable demand back to them. This can have the effect of causing the customer to self-regulate their demand.
Which of the following should NOT feature in typical customer discovery session?
Your role is to lead discovery meeting, asking open questions and doing a lot of active listening to collect information you need. You are the expert and your job is to lead the customer to success not the other way around.
For lower-value customers, it is acceptable to create generic success plans and apply them to different customers segments.
True. By automating the collection of data about smaller customers you can segment these customers into logical groups with similar goals and constraints and apply a generic plan to that segment.
The most successful companies align all departments around the customer journey, making Customer Success part of the organizational DNA.
True. Customer success is both a mindset and an operation philosophy used to guide the whole organization.
When dealing with a bully customer it is best to be firm and use powerful language.
True. It is important that you show your confidence and don't give in to the customer's threats. If you are shy and weak it will allow them to walk all over you.
The seeds of churn are often sowed during onboarding, even though it may be months or even years until they are seen.
True. Lack of effective onboarding ma cause many customers to walk away from you product - either right away or sometime in the future.
Engagement will increase if you repeatedly demonstrate to a client that you have something valuable to contribute.
True. Lead with value in every interaction and you'll maximize engagement.
"thinking like a customer" is an organizational mindset, not a process.
True. Thinking like a customer is not a 'process' that can be implemented and followed, it is an approach and a mindset that can be embraced.
"Thinking like a customer" is an organized mindset, not a process.
True. Thinking like a customer is not a process that can be implemented and followed, is it an approach and a mindset that can be embraced.
What are some of the reasons that make effective onboarding so difficult?
Onboarding can be a difficult process because it requires a transfer of the ownership, transfer of information, and a shift in the timing/amount of communication with the customer.
It is important to do a good job of onboarding new customers because:
Onboarding is a critical phase of the customer lifecycle and when done correctly, dramatically increases the customers likelihood of long-term success.
It is best to ask customer _________ questions when using the consultative approach.
Open questions encourage longer answers and are more likely to expose useful information
If you have a good relationship established with the customer, it's not really necessary to put any commitments either of you makes in writing.
False.
An executive business review is a tactical disucssion with a customer.
False. A business review is a strategic discussion where your goal is to help the customer maximize the value realization from their investment in you product.
In order to be a great CSM, you must know your product or service better than anyone else in your company.
False. A lot of customer success is about just being a good partner, a good listener and giving good advice but not necessarily being an expert in everything. The customer is the expert in their own business - you listen and help with connect the dots with experts on your side. You do, however, need to know your product pretty well.
A "Voice of the Customer" programs primary purpose is to identify positive experiences and encourage customers to share them on social media outlets.
False. A voice of the customer program is a way for the company to collect feedback and suggestions from customers in order to inform internal decision making one side benefit may be helping to identify advocates that can share reviews on social media, but his should not be the primary goal nor reason implementing a VoC program.
Business acumen in an innate ability - you either have it or you do not.
False. Business acumen is a combination of knowledge, skills and experience that is earned over time either by trading or more deliberate awareness.
Leading measures are important on their own. They do not need to be a shown to the entire team regularly.
False. If you are not keeping score, you are not going to win. Leading measure are critical and should be made aware to the team so they know how they are doing and if they are on track.
Best practice is to begin mapping the customer journey from the point immediately after the customer subscribes to your product or service.
False. The best companies begin the customer journey in the marketing and sales cycle, before the customer actually becomes a subscriber.
A success plan helps you articulate what success looks like for every customer.
True. A success plan is an important document that shows the goals, challenges and important milestones that you have determined for each of your customers.
Customer obsession often wanes as companies grow.
True. As companies grow larger the connection to customer usually weakens. Customer become more of a homogenous group and new employees maya lack the drive to keep the connection strong.
You can accelerate domain knowledge by researching the industry, subscribing to new feeds or reading trade publications.
True. It is important to know the ins and outs of the customer industry so you can better understand the needs of your customer.
An important component of onboarding is to set clear expectations with a customer, and this may sometimes mean re-setting incorrect expectations.
True. It is important to make sure that your customers' exceptional do not exceed what you can deliver to them. Sometimes this may mean re-setting or redefining previous promises made by the acquisition team.
Which of the following are classic examples of the 'inside-out' thinking? Select all that apply.
Two examples of inside-out thinking are over-prioritizing majority customer groups in the decision-making process and releasing MVP functionality to customers without ongoing development.
Which of the following statements is not true about active listening?
The goal of active listening is to understand the speaker as well as possible. There is no requirement to agree with what you are hearing and in fact, event if you don't agree, you should try to avoid building arguments while listening = because doing so will impede your ability to listen well.
A well-planned and executed onboarding process should lead to:
The onboarding phase of the customer lifecycle lays the foundations for successful long-term relationship. Get it right and all your key CS metrics should improve.
Which of the following is not a key component of a well-constructed story?
The purpose of story telling is to use prior events to convey facts in an authentic and engaging manner Speculation about what might or might not have happened will detract from you story.
Which of the following mechanisms will typically increase a company's ARR or MRR?
There are multiple mechanisms: Including all those mentioned.
Successful customers will ...
These are the three main ways that Customer Success will impact a recurring revenue business. Improved retention, upsell/expansion and advocacy.
Complete this quote. Success is never owned it is ____
"Success if never owned, it is rented. And the rent is due everyday."
How many hallmarks of customer success are there?
5 Key Hallmarks of Customer Success
When dealing with a tricky customer it is important to ______.
A best practice is to first consider that there may be some external factors that are causing the customer reaction you are observing. Assume the best of the customer and approach the situation with an open mind and calm composure.
At the end of the Business Review meeting you should:
A business review meeting on its own is a helpful exercise only if a plan is formed to take what was discussed and turn it into action.
A solid understanding of metrics is important for CSMs for which of the following reasons?
A firm understanding of metrics serves you in a number of different ways as a CSM.
Which of the following should be components of an effective business review?
A professional template and clear agenda are vital. However, a business review should not be exclusively focused on the past progress. It should be 50% reflection and 50% forward planning.
The discipline of Customer Success is about helping your customer to _______.
A robust customer success will help an organization to align around delivering outcomes making customers successful. The definition of success could vary, however, from customer to customer.
Which of the following is true about a well-executed business review?
A well-executed business review will deliver a multitude of tangible relationship and business benefits.
Which of the following statements are true about the customer journey? Pick all answers that are correct.
A well-mapped and well-understood customer journey is a key foundation fro building a successful customer success strategy. Start off with a simple, generic version, but then look for opportunities to improve it by creating personalized versions for different key customer segments.
Which of the following is not a best practice for a success plan execution?
Calls to track progress and the accompanying status reports should be short and on point.
Which of the following is NOT true? Establishing clear onboarding metrics enables you to:
Create pretty graphs
Which of the following statements is true?
Customers experience your brand through multiple interactions with the product. They ultimately form an emotional connection with the product. As a CSM, you want to be aware of the wide range of backgrounds and perspectives that make up your customer base.
Customers are now buying ___________?
Customers have always cared about business outcomes. However now, more than ever, they expect their vendors to care too. As a result, customers are buying solutions based on the outcomes they can deliver, not based on features and functionality.
During the kick-off or pre-work phase, your team should:
During the kick-off or pre-work phase, your team needs to: research the customer, gather information from the sales team, schedule a kick-off call and establish a timeline for onboarding.
If a company has 20% revenue churn its gross retention is?
GRR and Churn are just different ways of expressing the same measure. They always add up to 100%. So for example, if you have 0 churn your gross retention is 100% and 10% churn is 90% retention and 40% churn is 60% retention.
According to the old adage, if you have 10 goals you're probably going to accomplish?
If you have 3 you will accomplish 2. 5, you may accomplish 1. 10 you are likely going to accomplish 0.
Most SaaS companies achieve payback on the initial cost of the acquisition in which year of the customer lifetime?
In most companies, payback of the cost of acquisition usually occurs in the 12-18 month timeframe.
What are the three critical elements to making sure our goals and milestones are accomplished?
To be successful at execution, you need to have the commitment and focus amid everyone's daily grind (the whirlwind).
Lack of engagement for an extended period of time can lead to:
Lack of engagement weakens relationships over time and will ultimately impact your ability to deliver success for that customer.
The best approach for handling a needy, low value customer is:
Limit how much 1:1 time Help them understand the self-help options (free) Or help them recognize further paid training
Which of the following are common onboarding mistakes? Select all that apply.
Some common onboarding mistakes are: not having a complete playbook for onboarding, a messy handoff sales and onboarding team, and focusing on the speed of the process rather than impact on the customer.
Some questions that may be asked in a business review are:
Some questions that you can ask in a business review are: Where is the customer in their success plan? Have they met any milestones? What actions should we take next?
When you're getting ready to try to re-engage customer thats gone dark, what are some way you can prepare?
Some ways you can prepare to re-engage a customer is to make sure the customer isnt talking to other colleagues, research contact on social media platforms, and review product usage records.
Which of the following statements are true about storytelling?
Understanding your audience and adapting your story to best resonate with them, both at a rational and an emotional level, will produce the largest.
Which of the following are benefits to other department's for helping out in the customer-facing roles?
When other departments help you in customer-facing roles, they can see/hear direct feedback from customers which will help better understand the challenges customer face.
The 15 minute rule refers to _______.
Whether you settle on a 15 minute rule or a 30, the point is to have some discipline around how long you personally spend working on an issue alone before involving others. Escalations are usually time-sensitive and involving other from your team who have specific experience or subject matter - leads to fast resolutions.
Why is prospect preference a barrier to customer success?
Whilst it's important to be responding to the feature needs of prospective customers, many companies put too much priority on doing what it takes to acquire logos and fail to consider the fact that existing customer represent the majority of revenue and feature needs are arguable more important.
It is best to keep your boss in the dark and only tell them about an escalation if it gets really bad.
False.
Team success metrics are more broad, holistic metrics that describe the overall health of the company.
False. Business success metrics are the big picture metrics that describe the overall health and performance of the company as a whole.
As long as you get off to a good start with a new customer, you don't have to worry too much about the experience they have later in the customer journey.
False. It is important to continue to put yourself in the customers shoes and to think about what they customer at every stage of their journey. You need to be constantly 'earning' the right to keep their business.
You should focus on the short-term, immediate problem you are trying to solve.
False. It is important to focus on the long-term "big picture" of what your client is trying to achieve.
When a customer asks you to escalate a problem, you should do so immediatley.
False. It is important to keep ownership of the problem instead of automatically escalating it.
The two main types of tricky customers described are angry customers and analytical customers.
False. They are angry and demanding.
According to Geoffrey Moore, over the last decade we've shifted from the Product Era to the ____ Era.
Geoffrey Moore refers to the 'Service-led Era.'
Customer complaints, whilst often unpleasant to deal with, should be regarded as gifts because they give you valuable insight into how your company can improve.
True. Do not view complaints as a negative thing even if it feels that way. They are pieces of info that can be helpful that can benefit lots of customers.
The biggest positive impact on customer success can be found by fire focussing on the onboarding process.
True. Effective onboarding minimizes risk factor and lays a strong foundation for a positive relationship with customer for the present and future. Strong foundations and early success will compound over the course of the customer lifecycle, creating bigger success in the future.
When negotiating with a demanding customer, it is often helpful to share your perspective and decision-making logic with them.
True. It is best not to simply tell them "this is the way it is" and instead show them your thought process and what information you have that has helped you make your decision.
Gross Revenue Retention differs from Net Revenue Retention because it does not factor in upsell or expansion revenue.
True. NRR simply compares the increase or decrease in the amount of revenue you earned from the same set of clients over a given period of time, including all of the expansion and upsells that have occurred within those client accounts.
Product adoption is a term generally used to measure how comprehensively a product is being utilized.
True. Product adoption tells you how much a customer is using specific parts of your product.
Metrics are the language that leadership teams use to measure the performance of the company.
True. Understanding metrics allow you to talk about customer success at a leadership or aggregate level rather than an individual customer context.
When calculating logo retention, the revenue of customers does not factor into the calculation.
True. When calculation logo retention, all customers are assumed equal and the calculation simply looks at what percentage of logos were lost during a given period.
You should use the customers emotional cues to show empathy
True. You should listen to the words your customer uses to describe their emotions and mirror them in your response.
CAC is the acronym for which well-used business success metric?
customer acquisition cost is a measure of the total cost to acquire/sign a net new customer. It typically includes all marketing and sales expense.
If something goes wrong due to bad choice made by your primary contact, it is important to make sure that their manager (decision maker) knows it wasnt your fault.
False. Even if something is the customer's fault, do whatever you can to deflect and shoulder the blame so that the customer is still looked upon favorably by their management. This will help build trust and rapport with your key stakeholders.
During a business review, the discussion should be limited to topics that are directly related to your business relationship with the customer.
False. The business review should also be viewed as an opportunity to understand the wider business context - for example, the macro trends in the industry in which your customer is operating. These conversations can unlock unique insight that will help you provide better advice to your customer.
When reviewing the success plan during a business review, you should only focus on positive process or milestones that have been met.
False. You should also address any areas where things have no gone the way you've hoped so that you can problem solve how to get them back on track or prevent future occurrences. Nothing is perfect, and pretending it is when the customer knows it isn't a sure-fire way to lose credibility.
What do you mean by achieving 'first value'?
First Value is when a customer uses your product (or service) to extract the first piece of meaningful value for their business.
When a customer contacts you and complains that a future doesnt work that way they expected in the product, the best course of action is to...
It is always best to understand the why behind any question or request a customer brings to you. Sometime the customer may not actually be asking the right question so dont waste cycles trying to answer the question until you better understand the reason for them to asking.
Some ways to make sure communication gaps don't occur is:
It is important to recognize that every person has their own communication preferences and the better you understand these and adapt your behavior accordingly the more successful you will be at engaging.
The knowledge transfer phase of onboarding specifically refers to the act of _______
Knowledge transfer sales to onboarding is one of the most critical handoffs that happens in the customer lifecycle. Making sure this is clearly defined with an onboarding playbook will ensure it goes smoothly and the customer experience during the handoff is a good one.
Which of the following outreach tactics is most likely to engage a customer?
Leading with value will always increase the likelihood that the customer will respond.
Which of the following is not one of the elements that helps prevent escalations from occuring?
Making it harder for customers to escalate issues when they occur is not the answer. The solution is to reduce the root causes of escalations so that they happen less frequently.
Storytelling is a useful tool to improve the likelihood that a customer will act on your advice.
True. A storytelling conversation makes a very powerful, emotional statement that will help you connect to your customer and increase your ability to influence the customers behavior or actions.
It is important to be aware of seasonality trends in the customers' industry as this may explain why they are not responding to your outreach.
True. Every industry has peak season where they may be less available to communicate with you.
It should be your priority as a CSM to prevent escalations from occurring.
True. It is best to prevent them from happening in the first place, rather than spending massive amounts of time and energy putting out fires.
it is important to share what you learn from customer interactions with everyone who is a part of your organization.
True. It is important for you to be open and share stories with others so that all of the team members can learn and grow from you interactions with the customer.
It is important to share what you learn from customer interactions with everyone who is a part of your organization.
True. It is important for you to be open and share stories with others so that all of the team members can learn and grow from your interactions.
You can show your customer that you are dedicated and committed to their success by planning for both good (opportunities) and bad (obstacles) events along their journey with you.
True. It is important that you are prepared and knowledgeable about the big picture of the customer success journey so that if things go wrong you can help them get back on track efficiently.
It is always advisable to position the value of your solution based on how it addresses specific business needs that your customer has, or provide them with competitive advantage.
True. It is important that you do not regurgitate sales pitches or marketing speak to the customer. Instead, find solutions that will help you overcome challenges or gain advantages over their competitors.
It is imporatnt to have a backup plan when working on resolving a serous escalation.
True. Its always good to have a plan b.
It is important that all key stakeholders are present at the business review meeting.
True. Not only should i include some of the people who use your product day-to-day (for example, power users) but also that people that are making the decisions about whether your customer continues to spend money on your product.
Those who practice good upfront expectation management make their job easier and their customers happier.
True. People who practice good expectation management know how to communicate, organize and direct conversations around getting things done.
It is a good idea to under-promise and over-deliver with reason as much as possible.
True. Set yourself up for success by building in a cushion and not being too aggressive with deadlines or targets.
During the onboarding process, it is important to find ways to communicate progress and value-realization to key stakeholders within your customers organization.
True. The key decision maker will be anxious to show that their purchase decision was a wise one. So its important that you keep them informed of progress and then demonstrate some early value.
It is important to make customer-centricity within your organization a habit, not a fad.
True. The more consistent you are with how you demonstrate customer-centricity within your own team, the more likely it is that other departments will notice and adapt their own behaviors.
It is important to establish clear roles and responsibilities for every team member involved in the onboarding process.
True. This prevents mistakes from being made or things "slipping through the cracks".
The onboarding process should be designed in the context of the entire customer journey, and best practice is to share the process with the customer before starting.
True. When designing an onboarding process, you cannot think of it in isolation. You must understand and envision the entire journey of the customer and share, in a simplified form, with the customer to help set expectations about what happens next.
At the conclusion of the onboarding process, it is important to collect customer feedback regarding their onboarding experience.
True. You can use this guide onboarding process improvement that will benefit future customers.
Is it recommended to be more available than usual to a customer who is currently in the middle of the escalation process/
True. You should encourage the customers to reach out if they feel they need to. Lack of availability is likely to cause further issues once an escalation is underway.
When trying to solve a problem it is a good idea to give the customer at least a couple of options to choose from.
True. You should give the customer some option and discuss the advantages or disadvantages of each. This way the customer owns the decision about which option they end up choosing.