Proactive Customer Success Strategies: Staying Ahead of the Game

According to Zendesk, 92% of consumers reported that being contacted proactively by a company improved their perception of the business.

When it comes to being an effective Customer Success Manager, one trait truly separates the average CSM from the great CSM: The ability to be proactive.

Customer Success can often fall into a more reactive role, constantly addressing evolving customer needs and putting out fires as they arise. This reactive approach can leave CSMs scrambling to keep up. Being proactive means taking full control of the customer relationship, anticipating needs, and addressing potential issues before they escalate.

Easier said than done? Absolutely.

This article outlines effective strategies that any SaaS Customer Success team can start implementing to be more proactive, reducing time spent on reactive, repetitive tasks.

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What Proactive Customer Success Looks Like

Proactive Customer Success involves taking preemptive measures to ensure your customers achieve their desired outcomes and avoid potential problems. This approach is a stark contrast to traditional customer support, which is typically more reactive. More on this later.

85% of customers want proactive communication from organizations they do business with. In other words, your customers want to know they are being taken care of. Having a proactive outreach strategy is the way to ensure this is communicated to them.

There are numerous benefits that proactive strategies can bring to your customer relationships. These include:

• Risk Mitigation: Identifying and addressing potential issues before they escalate.
• Enhanced Satisfaction: Continuous engagement boosts customer satisfaction rates.
• Improved Adoption: Encouraging widespread product adoption and usage.
• Increased Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Fostering loyalty and long-term advocacy.

Any SaaS organization and its customers can benefit from these strategies. The key is to see your customer relationships as much more than a contractual agreement. Each customer relationship should be viewed as an opportunity to build a lasting, mutually-beneficial partnership.

Customer success is about making your customers as successful as possible in using your product, and that means being proactive in understanding their needs and solving problems before they even know they have them.- Lincoln Murphy, Customer Success Evangelist.

Proactive vs. Reactive Customer Success

The primary difference between proactive and reactive Customer Success is the approach to addressing customer needs. With a proactive strategy, companies take a preventive stance by anticipating problems and offering preemptive solutions. Reactive support, on the other hand, involves reacting to issues as they arise.

Here are some key distinctions between the two approaches:

• Focus: Proactive support is focused on preventing issues, while reactive support focuses on resolving them after they occur.
• Timing: Proactive support happens before a problem arises, while reactive support occurs after an issue has been reported.
• Efficiency: Proactive support can save time and resources by preventing problems from occurring in the first place. Reactive support may require more effort and resources to resolve issues once they have occurred.

Both have their place, but when thinking long-term, it's obvious that the proactive approach is what will help your customer relationships grow and strengthen.

Customer Success Proactive Activities

Now that you have an idea of what proactive Customer Success is and why you need it, let's talk about how to get started. Implementing proactive CS can be done through a range of activities designed to keep your customers engaged and satisfied. Every organization is different, so what works for one may not work for another.

When creating proactive outreach programs for your customers, consider the following starting points:

• Onboarding Programs: Ensure new customers are set up for success from day one. Provide comprehensive onboarding materials, personalized training sessions, and regular check-ins to address any initial hurdles.
• Regular Health Checks: Conduct periodic reviews of your customers’ usage and satisfaction. Identify any declining usage patterns or dissatisfaction signals and address them promptly.
• Educational Content: Provide ongoing education through webinars, tutorials, and knowledge bases. Help customers fully understand and utilize your product’s features, and share best practices for achieving their goals.
• Customer Feedback Loops: Actively seek feedback and act on it. Use surveys, NPS scores, and direct interviews to gather insights and make continuous improvements.
• Account Management: Assign dedicated customer success managers to high-value accounts. These managers should regularly engage with customers, understand their evolving needs, and offer tailored solutions.

Proactive Customer Engagement

Customer Success should involve several strategies that can help build strong customer relationships and achieve long-term growth. It all starts with educating customers about your product’s features and sharing best practices for achieving their goals. This can be done through a mutually agreed-upon success plan.

Once the plan and goals are in place, seeking customer feedback actively is important. This can be done through multiple ways:

• CSAT Surveys
• NPS scores
• Direct Interviews

This allows you to gather insights and make continuous improvements.

Staying ahead of the game also means maintaining consistent and meaningful engagement with your customers. Non-scaled accounts benefit from dedicated Customer Success Managers who regularly engage with them, understand their evolving needs, and offer tailored solutions. A CSM can regularly offer value beyond your core product through industry insights, exclusive content, or special offers, showing your commitment to your customers' overall success. Personalized communication using customer data, such as addressing customers by name and acknowledging their unique challenges, fosters a deeper connection.

That sounds simple, but it makes a huge difference.

Another way to be proactive is through automated systems. These can alert customers to important updates, new features, and potential issues, ensuring timely and relevant notifications. This can also reduce the amount of time your CSMs spend on technical issues, which will allow them to be more proactive in addressing larger customer projects and initiatives.

And finally, building a sense of community through forums, social media groups, and user events allows customers to connect, share experiences, and learn from each other. This will also reduce the amount of support issues CSMs spend time on and gives your organization real-time feedback into customer needs.

Enhancing Proactive Engagement With B2B Customer Interface

EverAfter’s B2B Customer Interface is revolutionizing how teams approach proactive customer success. By intuitively knowing the customer’s next best action, the platform is designed to guide them through their journey, driving them toward maximum results. This level of insight allows Customer Success Managers (CSMs) to anticipate needs and provide timely interventions, ensuring that customers stay engaged and on track.

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Leveraging EverAfter’s B2B Customer Interface makes customers proactive by providing a centralized hub for all information and communication. Customers have everything they need at their fingertips, clearly outlined and easy to access. This streamlined approach ensures they know exactly what to do at each step, making the experience not only more efficient but also more enjoyable. The platform eliminates confusion and complexity, transforming the onboarding and engagement process into a seamless, rewarding journey that customers are eager to participate in and complete. With EverAfter, both your team and your customers are empowered to achieve their goals with confidence and clarity.

EverAfter wrote a free E-book on effectively engaging with customers beyond their onboarding stage.

Conclusion

In the subscription economy, proactive Customer Success is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. By anticipating customer needs, addressing potential issues before they arise, and maintaining meaningful engagement, you can transform your CS efforts from reactive to proactive. This shift not only improves customer satisfaction but also boosts retention, loyalty, and growth.

Start your proactive Customer Success journey today. Remember, staying ahead of the game isn’t just about solving problems—it’s about creating a seamless, value-driven experience that keeps your customers coming back for more.