Customer Success Mail bag
🤔 Ideal engagement cadence
Here at The Customer Initiative, we get lots of questions about Customer Success practices, whether during the course of our work, casual conversations, or even through (e)mail… so let’s start answering some of those questions here on the blog!
Here’s one from a client currently standing up their first Customer Success initiative:
Once a customer is engaged, what is the suggested frequency to visit them or check on them?
Great question, and the answer is “It depends.”
While timing may vary even once a standard schedule is established, engagement frequency depends on many things, including (but not limited to):
What you have to discuss or share with the customer. The guideline is that every interaction you have with the customer should provide value to them. If you schedule meetings that are just ‘checking in’ or only gathering information that helps you instead of helping the customer, then they will soon stop accepting your meeting invitations.
You can also vary topics and purpose for different engagements. You may have a monthly metrics review to show results from last 4 weeks, then a different type of meeting that focuses on strategic planning once a quarter, then an annual Business Review where you share your strategic results from the past year and review roadmaps for the upcoming year, etc...
Do you have a specific project in progress with the customer? If so, then the work of the project will drive the frequency of engagement.
What is the customer working on, are they in a busy period, do they need more or less engagement with you? For example, if you are typically on a weekly meeting schedule, you may need to reschedule during month-end when the client is busy.
If you are collaborating on long term goals, the cadence of checking on those goals my be longer to allow them to make progress on any changes or new work they have committed to.
How frequently does the customer WANT to meet with you? How does this balance with what change you are looking to drive in the customer, or what goals you are mutually trying to accomplish?
What experience are we striving to provide for that customer? High touch with frequent engagement is reserved for our most valuable customers - which is where the segmentation strategy comes in.
How many customers are you trying to manage, and what are your other company work commitments? Your capacity is limited.
The One Key Thing
It’s crucial to remember the Golden Rule of Customer Success:
Always Deliver Value
I’m sure your customers like you as a person, but they have day jobs that keep them busy. They won’t want to take time out of their schedule to meet with you just to chat. Bring something of value to the Customer at every engagement, or they soon won’t even answer your calls.
When you work with The Customer Initiative, we will ultimately define a recommended schedule of engagement, based on the customer segmentation model and Customer Journey, with some playbooks that align to those engagements - with the ability to flex where needed.
Got questions about Customer Success you want us to tackle?
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