“Do more with less”. In the ever-evolving tech and economic landscape of 2023, this has become the battle cry of beleaguered customer success professionals around the globe as they attempt to scale their function.
But it isn’t so much about doing more with less, it’s about shifting the perspective on how to provide value to customers at scale to ensure they’re successful. It’s about leveraging technology purpose-built to support digital-led programs designed to meet customers where they are. It’s about freeing up CSM’s time allowing them to focus on areas of greater impact.
In fact, data from Forrester’s recent report, The State Of Customer Obsession In B2B, 2023, is clear on the value of knowing where to meet your customers. Customer-obsessed organizations outperform their peers in growth, retention, and profitability, and a full 100% of them say that they prioritize customer needs when making product or process decisions and use the latest technology to provide better customer experiences.
To deliver an experience that ensures customers attain value, stay, grow, and advocate, you must know what your customers need and have the tools to deliver it. Those tools include customer success platforms.
The Forrester Wave™: Customer Success Platforms, Q4 2023
Our first Forrester Wave™ evaluation of this market reviews customer success platforms that deliver a breadth and depth of functionality while enabling B2B companies to provide the appropriate experience, leading to retention, growth, and advocacy.
If you are considering a customer success platform, look for solutions that provide:
- Data and technology. Unify customer data from your tech stack through out-of-the-box and custom integrations.
- Engagement across the customer lifecycle. Support customer engagement efforts through journey orchestration, customizable messaging by segment and persona, joint success plans, and health scores.
- Process and workflow. Digitize your strategy through automated workflows and playbooks, and break down operational silos through cross-functional collaboration and task management.
- Insights and reporting. Demonstrate CS’s impact to the business through detailed revenue reporting, create accurate revenue forecasts, and mitigate risk through customer health dashboards.
- Support and guidance. Realize the value from your investment through a variety of engagements, including customer success.
Which CSP Vendor Is Right For Me?
Clients, be sure to download the Wave scorecard (the XLSM attachment on the right side of the page) to dig into the evaluative scores and scales. You’re able to customize weightings based on your own evaluative needs, allowing you to see how each vendor scored in the criteria most important to you.
As always, I am here to help you! Forrester clients looking for guidance as they evaluate CSPs can book a guidance session with me. We will get you sorted.
