2023 is far from an easy year to be in SaaS Customer Success. The macro-environment is tough and your business wants you to "do more with less".
In times like this, it's easy to look at all the risks and go into a defensive mode. But in my experience, that's not a winning strategy.
To win, you gotta zig when others zag.
That's why I want to share 2 bold bets you should make right now, that have the potential to change your Customer Success organisation for the better.
1- Generative AI 🤖
There is a reason why everyone is excited about this new tech. It's game-changing.
Many will be looking to dip their toes lightly into ChatGTP by giving CSMs access to it as a "helper" to improve efficiency. That's good, but generative AI can be much more.
It has the potential to transform how customers interact with our products.
Imagine a world where customers no longer need to "navigate" your product.
All they need to do is craft the correct prompts, and the conversational intelligence will go and take the actions necessary (I am borrowing the image below from HubSpot's CTO, Dharmesh Shah).
What would that mean for Customer Success?
It could completely erase the mundane parts of the CSM role. No more low-level consulting or "how to" questions. It would reduce drastically the number of people you'd need in your team while improving the customer experience by 100x.
Right now is the best time to partner with your product team and invest in building your own chat app.
Looking for inspiration? At HubSpot, we've got a head start and we are building in public. Check out ChatSpot.ai
2- Jobs To Be Done Segmentation 🤖
Forget building Customer Success teams based on servicing customers of a certain size, industry and MRR. Build highly specialised teams, focused on use cases and jobs to be done for your ideal customer.
Only then decide who you will serve with a digital-first or a human-first approach.
This is hard to imagine because you are breaking the "relationship" model we have today. But what you'll get instead is "best in class" tailored consulting, that can deliver value, quickly.
You no longer build loyalty to individuals. You build loyalty to your expertise.
Over time you become so good at delivering value in those use cases, that you naturally evolve to be the thought leader in those use cases.
These are 2 bold bets, and they might not be right for everyone.
The goal here is to inspire you to think bigger and bolder.
To zig when others zag.
See you next week!