#TechBUZZ2016, Churn-Fighting Techniques & CCOs

We begin this week with some shameless self-promotion: ChurnZero is honored to be one of the sixteen start-ups to be showcased at the first installment of MAVA’s year-long TechBUZZ program for 2016! On Wednesday, April 6th, we will take the stage to share our unique approach to customer success and reducing your churn to zero (in a fun, fast-paced, four-minute format!) to an audience of fellow innovators, experienced company-builders and active investors. #TechBUZZ2016 will be held at PNC Place, the largest LEED Platinum building in Washington, DC.

Use code TBCZFAN for $10 when you register for the event. Hope to see you there!

Stop focusing on saving the relationship….

And instead concrete on strengthening and growing it. But what does this really mean?

The problem: Most of the C-suite is focusing time and energy on generating new leads, while ignoring the lowest hanging fruit for rapid, predictable revenue: their current customers.

The solution: Try these three techniques to ensure you are optimizing your potential impact within an account.

• Treat account management/customer success groups the same way you treat the sales org: Traditionally businesses hold sales teams accountable for keeping their growth and new business goals clear, but then they typically look at the account management function as maintenance, responsible for generating only a marginal amount of net new business. What if we expected a high renewal rate and 100% growth of key accounts year-over-year instead?
• Treat your current customers as well as your new prospects: Every business works hard to support new prospects – they have cadences for proactive reach-outs, extensive tools to identify net new targets, marketing strategies and dollars devoted to net new. But many of these same businesses lack rigor when it comes to the account management function. Obviously, we need to bring new clients into the fold or we have no business, but what if we spent even a fraction of our marketing efforts on further penetration of current accounts?
• Create a perpetual sales cycle mentality within the organization: We need to think of our customers’ life cycle as a true cycle with new beginnings and endings happening throughout our relationship. We should constantly find new reasons to engage a company at different points and divisions where we can have a potential impact. The best way to mediate customer churn is to stop focusing on saving the relationship, and instead concentrate on strengthening and growing it.

Is there a Chief Customer Officer at your Exec Table?

Imagine if every company had a Chief Customer Officer…

The CCO position is a relatively new, but important, addition to the C-Suite. In the age of the customer, companies are putting greater importance on the whole experience, not just part of it. A CCO’s priority is protecting the Customer Experience, from start to finish.

That being said, CCOs face several common problems that impact their success including an inside-out thinking culture, organizational silos, validity, and patience. We strongly recommend learning more about identifying and resolving these problems in your company – could be the difference between success and failure.

Word to the Wise

This week’s wisdom comes from Tom Weeks, the VP of Customer Success and Digital Strategy at Apigee: “Customer success is a mindset, not an organization.”

We wish we could heart this 1,000,000,000 times.

The Customer Success mindset means always thinking about your customer’s point of view and how you can solve their real business problems in a timely manner. This is not a one-time thing, in fact, it’s a long-term journey where you’ll have to be continually adding value and adapting as your customer’s needs and expectations change.