Retention & Expansion: The Role of Customer Success

When it comes to metrics, Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is taking center stage. Companies are looking to maximize NRR by focusing on efficient product usage, cost-saving strategies, and proving ROI.

Curious about how the best CS leaders think about the role of customer success in retaining and expanding revenue? Our CEO, Jen, sat down with Stephen McBride (Sr. Manager, Customer Success at Hubspot) to cover how he thinks about the priorities for CSMs & support, incentives, AI trends and the importance of ROI clarity.

About Our Guest:

Stephen McBride is the true definition of an operational generalist. He started his career as a consultant in the Salesforce space and moved on to work in product at early HubSpot, Sales & CS Ops at Grovo, run our Salesforce practice at Go Nimbly, and do a second stint at HubSpot as a senior manager of a large CS team.

Stephen is truly a star, and we’re pumped to share his knowledge.

Key Takeaways

Highlight the Value of the Product

  • Showing ROI in your solution is more important than ever. A tight ROI calculation ensures customers understand and can communicate the value of their investment, making them more likely to stay and expand. CSMs need to excel at helping customers calculate that ROI.
  • Customer Success teams are evolving into advocates and shepherds, guiding customers to make the most of the product.
  • The focus of a CSM is to increase adoption and usage to ensure customers not only stay but thrive, becoming loyal advocates.

Leveraging AI in Customer Success

  • AI is playing a supportive role, not a replacement for CSMs.
  • AI assists in distilling lengthy email chains, providing summaries, and drafting responses, ultimately saving time and increasing efficiency.
  • AI can help pinpoint critical customer touchpoints and interactions, providing valuable insights for CSMs.
  • AI can significantly reduce the time CSMs spend researching and digging through data, allowing them to focus more on customer-facing activities.

Prioritize Personalization

  • While AI can provide draft responses, personalized and tailored communication is still the gold standard in Customer Success.
  • Personalization and ROI calculation will remain at the heart of successful customer relationships.
  • Customer Success is about guiding customers, helping them help themselves, and ensuring their journey is smooth and valuable.