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- Win with Strategic Customer Success (Part 1)
Win with Strategic Customer Success (Part 1)
Transform customer success into a growth accelerator with 4 proven tactics.
Tomas
February 24th, 2025
Featured Article
Customer success isn't just another department—it's your growth accelerator.
For Medium Enterprises, this is where you can outmaneuver bigger players with deeper pockets. I've seen this work dozens of times, and I'm handing you the playbook that delivers results:
1. Stop Treating Customer Success as a Cost Center
43% of companies now view customer service as a strategic growth lever—not an expense line. The smart ones are winning because of it.
Do This Now: Run a quick company audit on how your team perceives customer success. Then get people from sales, product, and marketing in a room and map exactly how CS directly impacts revenue. Form a cross-functional squad to break down the silos killing your growth potential.
2. Knowledge Sharing Is Your Secret Weapon
66% of organizations know knowledge sharing should be priority #1, but most just talk about it. When done right, it eliminates the "sorry, let me check with my manager" response that drives customers crazy.
Do This Now: Build a living knowledge base—nothing fancy required to start. What matters is making sure your front-line team can find answers in seconds, not minutes. Set up a 15-minute weekly huddle where team members share solutions to tricky customer problems.
3. Talent Matters More Than Tools
60% of companies say investing in CS talent is critical. Yet most throw money at software instead of people. Big mistake.
Do This Now: Create clear growth paths for your CS team. Set up mentorship pairings. Run skill-building sessions twice monthly. And actually listen to your team—they know where the customer pain points are better than anyone in your C-suite.
4. Get Ahead of Problems
60% of companies recognize that reactive service is yesterday's game. The winners spot and solve issues before customers even realize they exist.
Do This Now: Start tracking early warning signs in your customer data. Look for patterns in usage drops, support tickets, or engagement metrics. Then build a simple outreach program for your top 20% of customers. Once you prove it works, expand it.
This isn't about massive budgets or fancy tech stacks. It's about making strategic bets on what actually moves the needle. Your competitors are still sending satisfaction surveys and calling it a day. You're going to be different.
Watch for Part 2 next week.
P.S. Have you noticed how often people mix up Customer Experience (CX) and Customer Success (CS) in LinkedIn debates? I break down why the distinction matters—and why it’s not just semantics—in my LinkedIn post here.
Quick Tips
1. Elevate CS in Your Organisation
Schedule a "Customer Success Day" where CS team members present success stories and impact metrics to the entire company.
Include a customer success update in every all-hands meeting to keep it top of mind.
Create a simple one-pager outlining how CS contributes to company growth and distribute it to all employees.
Do this first: Set up a 30-minute meeting with your executive team to discuss repositioning CS as a strategic function.
2. Supercharge Knowledge Sharing
Set up a Slack channel (or similar) dedicated to sharing customer insights and wins across teams.
Implement a "Knowledge Champion" program, recognising team members who contribute the most valuable information to your knowledge base.
Schedule monthly "Knowledge Exchange" sessions where different departments share customer-related insights.
Do this first: Conduct an audit of your current knowledge management practices. Identify the top three gaps and prioritise addressing them.
3. Level Up Your CS Talent
Create a skills matrix for your CS team, identifying areas for development.
Implement a "CS Buddy System," pairing newer team members with experienced ones for mentorship.
Offer a stipend or time allowance for CS-related courses or certifications.
Do this first: Survey your CS team about their career aspirations and skills they'd like to develop. Use this to inform your talent development strategy.
4. Activate Proactive Service
Set up automated alerts for key customer health indicators (e.g., drop in product usage, increase in support tickets).
Create email templates for common proactive outreach scenarios to save time and ensure consistency.
Implement a "Customer Health Score" system to help prioritise proactive outreach.
Do this first: Identify your top three leading indicators of customer churn. Set up a process to monitor these closely and trigger proactive interventions.
Events
Save The Date
CX Symposium 2025
📅 Date: April 2-3, 2025
📍 Location: Hunter Valley, Australia
🌐 Website: https://ashtonmedia.com.au/symposiums/customer-360-symposium/cx-symposium/
TSIA World INTERACT 2025
📅 Date: April 29 - May 1, 2025
📍 Location: Orlando, Florida, USA
🌐 Website: https://www.tsia.com/conference
X4 Summit 2025
📅 Date: March 18-20, 2025
📍 Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
🌐 Website: https://www.qualtrics.com/x4summit/#overview