With the recession looming, there are many things a CS leader has to consider in order to ensure that the customer success department is still thriving. With so many layoffs happening in Tech it is equally as important to ensure that your customer success department is proving value rather than being a cost center. For example, how are you able to keep your team focused on the success of their customers during such turbulent times? And how can you do more with potentially fewer resources?
On this month’s episode of The Customer Success Channel Podcast, brought to you by Planhat, I chatted with Jennifer Yorke, Chief Customer Officer at Omertria about how to ensure the success of your CS department during a recession.
The SaaS industry is going through a lot at the moment with the pandemic, the great resignation, and now a recession. Many CS leaders are asking themselves “how do we prove value during such turbulent times?”. Jennifer and her senior management team agreed that if they, for example, reduce the team by a certain size, that’s gonna negatively impact their customers. Instead, they will keep investing in their customers in order to come out on the other side of the recession.
In our discussion Jennifer helps answer some of the tricky questions when it comes to customer success in a recession:
- Even when times are good, CS is always having to prove values, how do you prove value when times are bad?
- Looking for new avenues of revenue is something you have to be creative with especially during a downturn, what are your thoughts on a paid-for service for CS? Have you done any sort of pricing for customers for CS?
- What are some tactical tips that our listeners can do today in order to ensure CS continues to be recession-proof?
Some key takeaways from this discussion:
- Show the value of customer success even before a recession
- This is your time to be creative. For example, what you can deliver from a digital perspective versus getting maximum value from your individuals?
- This time is also an opportunity to stop doing things for your customers that does not drive value anymore, no need to waste your time and resources when you only have a finite amount of time and resource.
Make sure you listen to the full episode and let me know your thoughts in the comments!
