Measuring True Customer Success

What is customer success for a business? The rate of customer aquistion is one way to reach customer success, but there are more considerations too, including lifetime value.

This article looks at how you can measure customer success in your business.

Measuring Customer Success

Customer success is not defined as the largest amount of sales that a company can make. It is defined as what happens or is done by a company in order for it to manage the relationships with customers.

The main goal of this term (customer success) is to make each customer as valuable to your business as possible and to do that, you need to help them succeed. Not every transaction or interaction with your customers should result in a sale. Working synergistically with your customers to grow your business is how you measure customer success.

Lifetime Value

One sale should not be considered customer success. For a customer to be successful in your organization, you must know the lifetime value of that customer. For example, if you sell a monthly membership, how many months do you project the customer will keep the membership going? You should have some sort of customer success software to track this, or it will get lost in the cracks.

How to calculate lifetime value (LTV)

HubSpot has a very good article on how to calculate the lifetime value of a customer.

Information is power. Your high-value customers need your undivided attention to retain their business for longer. The calculation is not the total customer revenue divided by the time they have been a customer.

There are two methods and each will present a different outcome. Read this article and follow the instructions or use the calculators to do the calculations.

BusinessBlogs has an article on the topic of customer lifetime value too. You can never have too many resources to good high value content.

How To Improve Customer Success

Create marketing campaigns personalized for your high value customers. In the campaigns you can do the following:

• Surveys – ask questions to improve customer service
• Reviews – ask for and reward customer reviews
• Giveaways – give out samples of products
• Loyalty programs – provide discounts
• Customer service

Look after your high-value customers and all customers, so your business remains top of mind and a valuable supplier.

Customer service

Quick response to inquiries, fast delivery of online purchases, and efficient turnaround of replacements and other product-related service requests is crucial to customer retention. We all want an easy life and use services that provide it consistently and securely.

Surveys

Knowing where you need to improve is more valuable than positive feedback. Your trusted customers will give feedback and insights when you ask the right questions and show them you appreciate their time completing the survey.

Reviews

Seek customer reviews and also reward customers for them. For example, Dermalogica will send new product samples to customers and then ask them to provide a review. This strategy preempts their marketing of the new product.

Existing and new customers will see the reviews, which will assist them with their purchasing decision. Loyalty points can be added to the reviewer’s account for every review. It’s a win-win strategy.

Conclusion

Customer success is more than just the volume of sales and revenue generated. It should entail multiple sales strategies, accurate customer lifetime value (LTV) projection, and complex yet straightforward marketing initiatives to find your best and most loyal customers.

Customer acquisition is the first step in the journey towards real customer success. If you want to stay ahead of the competition, make an effort to define customer success with the methodology we explained. You will have more sales and customers who are happy to do business with you and refer others.