Business

Customer Success: The Definitive Guide in 2020

Published

4 years ago

06/29/2020

Jason Zhang

One of the most widely known concept, yet comparatively unknown and inexperienced to most marketers and organizations. According to a Digital Adoption Report, it is estimated that “More than 60% of organizations realized customer success as a formalized field in the last two years, until then relying on third-party consultants and experts to define their business strategies”.

Customer Success or often referred to as “Customer Buy Success” is a proactive art of creating a seamless experience for customers to achieve their potential desired outcome or reactive support through business interactions by making the entire customer journey objective and resolution-led.

Bain & Company defines – “Customer Success initiatives when collaborated with key management principles can lead to an increase in profits of a company by 95%”.

Difference Between Customer Success And Customer Service

To understand the difference between these two terminologies, we’ve to understand what customer success used to mean earlier and how it got transformed into the next version 2.0.

Version 1.0

Earlier customer success focused on mitigating the management related risks and improving the customer’s overall journey.

Version 2.0

However, the updated version of customer success recognizes customer experience and success as and beyond a growth engine where customer needs and value may vary according to businesses. Thus, adopting a more comprehensive, cross-functional approach that is customer-focused and aligned to improve the customer’s overall journey and retaining the customer simultaneously.

Mission & Objective – The vital difference between the two terms based on mission and objective are:

Customer success is concentrated on investing within the long-term, building the lifetime value of consumers through consistent support and investing in their business as if it were their own.

On the opposite hand, customer service focuses on winning the one-time transaction. Helping a customer in need who has issues with their account, the software, or any function that involves your business.

“Your customer makes their own success. By accepting that, you put the customer first.”
— Brian Gladstein

Approach – Customer success is concentrated more on empowering customers to succeed together with your product or service within the future, instead of solving issues within the short term.

Meanwhile, Customer service is your second acquisition test behind actually acquiring that customer within the first place, making it an important role within the success of any given customer or company.

Focus Areas & Metrics – In essence, customer success teams are focused on helping customers achieve greater value and are genuinely seeking to enhance their business. Success teams specialise in preventing conflict from happening, giving customers the facility to enhance their business, and developing systems that help customers to seek out continual success.

Whereas, Customer Service or Support roles generally fall into conflict resolution, responding to tickets, answering phone calls from struggling customers, and responding to all or any customer concerns.

Customer Service can be regarded as the baby steps to help in the overall customer success journey. Without customer service, customer success is null and void. If you’re a new customer buying a product from a company, you’ll likely need or expect the after-sales support or services in one way or another.

Why Customer Success Is Important?

The first interaction with customer support or service is going to be critical in determining their propensity to continue doing business with you.

In a study published in 2010, it was calculated that – “82% of consumers would bail on a corporation after one negative experience with customer service.”

While “51% of consumers will never return to a corporation after having a bad experience in customer service.”

Not only will one bad experience cause people to leap ship and test other brands, products, and services, but it often also seals your fate: losing the customer permanently.

“Until you know what it takes to achieve success from your customers’ perspective you will just waste valuable time.”
— Jason Whitehead

Customer Success is crucial to any business as bad customer service will have a reach twice as huge as a good experience, but it will take 6 times your good and positive experiences to make up for that bad one.

Customer Success is not only about the communication strategies but also the business processes you induce to keep proving your business value to your customers.

As it is often said, it can either “make your business or break your business.”

How Do You Succeed in Customer Success?

There are various ways or elements that businesses opt to succeed in Customer Success ranging from developing a solution-based platforms to team building models to improve the customer’s overall journey and experience.

Here are some of the points that you can implement to succeed in Customer Success:

1. Solution Focused Approach – In order to manage all your communications and interactions with your customers and business clients, you’ll need to build and implement a solution-focused customer success approach for your team to communicate all business interactions with existing or potential clients. These solutions can be anything ranging from software or tools required to connect to your customers in real-time and ensuring fast response, resolution, and success is derived to keep your customers happy.

2. Team-Building Approach – To manage all your business interactions, you’ll also require a team or group of people having knowledge with the customer success field to assist the existing customer base and potential new customers. The number of employees you hire will largely depend upon the size of the organization you have and how many customers you serve daily. Team building approach will not only drive your business to profits but also ensure customer experience, success, and service all at one time.

3. Formulating Strategies – One of the crucial most factors in deriving customer success is how as a business you formulate or bring about the strategies to build a larger customer base and simultaneously ensuring ROI and profits. The strategies will solely depend upon the services/products you sell and provide and what is it customers desire from your business or offering.

One such strategy plan as an example is shown below:

Identification of customer’s end goals and objectives
Establishing a team-building approach
Implement a solution-focused approach to interact and communicate with customers

Identify your short-term and long-term goals with a set of expectations
Estimate your strategy and share with your larger team to get everyone on the same page
Analyze the output responses/results you get from implementing the above strategies
Edit/Modify based on above results to further grow your business

4. Customer-focused approach – A customer-focused approach or strategy will not only help your business and team to effectively manage but will also help you in assisting your customers, ensuring the already-set expectations are met and aligned as per your customer. It also focuses on dynamically building your business as per customer needs that are ever-changing in nature to let you evolve your business and not dissolve.

“Smart companies have realized that customer loyalty is the most powerful sales and marketing tool that they have.”
— Bill Price

5. Educating and Spreading Awareness with your Customers – By recognizing and anticipating your customer needs prior to what they expect and ask will help in ensuring the sustainability of your business. With the help of a solution-focused approach, you’ll not only provide better resolution but will also retain your customers. By creating a knowledge platform for your customer, success will be assured.

6. Improving Customer Journey – As a business, you can onboard your customers with various guiding steps or knowledge to ensure a seamless journey throughout. It is a great way to delight and make your customers happy by providing various pieces of trainings, tools, resources, and knowledge platform they require to start with.

7. Better Communication within departments and team – You can ensure smooth and noise-free communication within your departments and team to help and route your customers to the appropriate position. Proactive and Reactive support based solutions like enabling chat-bots or secure messaging to customers to help with their queries.

8. Promoting Customer Loyalty – A business can ensure loyalty by providing customers with delightful and positive experiences so that customers feel satisfied and come back to buy your product or service. An effective royalty or loyalty program giving customers discounts/benefits can help your customers to sustain and retain your business.

How to Measure Customer Success?

A well-run customer success program involves many parts of a corporation’s overall success journey. As such, there’s a spread of knowledge that will help organizations measure the worth of their customer success initiatives.

The initial lines are needed to be focused on the measurement value gained by the customer. A customer that knows what proportion they’re taking advantage of their usage from your product or service is extremely unlikely to keep customers moving up the worth path.

Here are some of the tools or techniques you can use to measure customer success:

1. Customer Success through KPIs (Key Performing Indicators) – There are a variety of the ways through which you can measure and assess the success or failure of a customer success program, i.e. – through Key Performing Indicators (KPIs). Whichever KPI your business uses, it’s important to stay in mind the importance of measuring value delivered to both customers and the organization.

2. Customer Success through Churns – Churn in simple terms means, if you’re willing to spend ‘X’ amount of value in deriving your product cost, then you’ll definitely require ‘Y’ value to spend on retaining your customer.

Customers come, customers go—it’s an unfortunate state for any business but a reality and necessary part of any business. As a performance metric, though, customer churn is often highly useful in understanding the explanations why customers churn, it will help your business to measure on why customers retain from the service you provide to them.

“Customer success is about more than delivering service or support.”
— Bill Price

3. Customer Success through Net Promoter Score (NPS) – For any organization, the extent to which its customers would recommend their product or services is a crucial metric, which gets measured with the help of Net Promoter Score.

NPS measures this sentiment or part of customer’s feedback and provides an aggregate score for companies to keep an eye on which further analyses which part of your customer will provide a negative, positive, or neutral feedback. This often helps you in projecting potential new customers and customers who are no longer part of your services or products.

4. Customer Success through Customer Effort Score (CES) – CES or Customer Effort Score is a method used by organizations to measure a customer’s perceived level of ease at various points throughout the customer journey to understand the level of loyalty your customer offers to your brand or offering.

Gartner, a research organisation states – “CES is 25% more predictive of customer loyalty than other subsequent metrics.”

CES also helps in building a new customer base, retaining existing clients, and overall sustaining your business.

Conclusion

While “Customer Success” as a term and a movement might be relatively new, however, most of what’s covered in this definitive guide of 2020 certainly isn’t new. What’s new in this point around is that it has each of those things we as a customer do, the tactics businesses create to build a new customer base, and roll up under the umbrella of Customer Success.

Not just the organization of the Customer Success initiative, but the overarching Customer Success concept within a corporation is all about having the whole organization aligned around this idea of customer experience, success and service.

I believe through this guide, you’ll create initiatives or invest in technology to form each of these items thereon, and if you are doing so you’ll be happier than if you didn’t, but without a top-down list from the organizational alignment or rallying around Customer Success will fail to require hold during a real and meaningful way.

Finance

How Term Insurance Can Protect Your Child’s Future

Published

3 months ago

07/10/2024

Jason Zhang

How Term Insurance Can Protect Your Child's Future

Your children are dependent on you to meet their basic needs and also their goals and dreams in the future. In case something unfortunate happens to you (because life is unpredictable), you can not only be crippled emotionally but financially as well. Without any proper financial support, they may have to give up their current standard of living and also their aspirations for the future.

This is where you can build a safety net for their future with a suitable term insurance plan. These policies are pure life insurance schemes which offer guaranteed payouts to nominees in case of the demise of the policyholder within the plan tenure. Whenever you purchase a term plan, you can easily safeguard your child’s financial future. Here’s looking at some key aspects worth considering in this regard.

Protecting Your Child with Term Insurance

Term insurancecan easily safeguard the financial future of your children in case something unfortunate happens to you within the policy period. Here is a closer look at how these policies can be useful in this case.

Financial safety- Term plans offer guaranteed financial support to your children in any such scenario, as mentioned above. They will help your children to use the lump sum payout to settle debts, meet living costs, and also pay for higher education or business costs.

Cost-effective premiums- The earlier you purchase term life insurance, the more reasonable your premiums for a relatively higher amount of coverage. At the same time, opting for a higher sum assured may also help you get discounts on the premiums in some cases. Affordable premiums make it easier for you to safeguard your child with comprehensive life coverage.
Flexible policy options- Term insurance policies are also flexible in terms of their coverage and also the policy tenure. The latter can be customized to sync with the education years of your child. You can also customize the premium payment frequency, i.e. semi-annual, annual, monthly, and quarterly. Another option is to choose the mode of receiving the death benefits, i.e. as a lump sum amount, lump sum and monthly income, or just monthly income, as per the needs of your child.

Tax deductions- Term plans come with attractive tax deductions up to Rs. 1.5 lakh on your premium payments under Section 80C. The payout received by the nominees is also tax-free under Section 10 (10D). Choosing any health-related rider will also help you get additional deductions under Section 80D.

Put Your Mind at Ease Regarding Your Child’s Future with Term Insurance

Term insurance is thus a boon for any parent. You will not have to worry about the financial future of your child in case you purchase the same early on when you are getting married or thinking of starting a family. The earlier you start, the lower your premium amount for comparatively higher coverage.

Simultaneously, you should ensure that you opt for a substantial coverage amount that is enough to cover your liabilities and pay for living costs, higher education, and other needs of your child. Factor in inflation while calculating this amount without going for basic thumb rules or generic calculation formulas.

Law

10 Reasons to Hire a Family Lawyer

Published

4 months ago

06/20/2024

Jason Zhang

Dealing with family-related legal issues can be challenging and stressful. Knowing when to seek the help of a family lawyer can make a big difference in the outcome of your situation. Here are some key signs that it might be time to consider hiring a family lawyer.

1. Going Through a Divorce or Separation

Having a family lawyer by your side can be invaluable if you’re thinking about or going through a divorce or legal separation. Even if things are amicable between you and your spouse, a lawyer can protect your rights, guide you through the process, and help negotiate fair settlements.

2. Disputes Over Child Custody and Visitation

Child custody and visitation issues can be emotionally charged and complicated. If you and your spouse can’t agree on a custody arrangement, a family lawyer can represent your interests and help create a parenting plan that focuses on your children’s well-being. They can also help modify existing custody agreements if circumstances change.

3. Issues with Child Support

Calculating and enforcing child support can be tricky. A Family Lawyer from Castro Law Offices can help ensure child support is determined fairly according to state guidelines and that all necessary paperwork is filed correctly. If you’re having trouble receiving or paying child support, a lawyer can help enforce or modify the support order.

4. Spousal Support (Alimony)

Figuring out spousal support involves looking at various factors like income, the length of the marriage, and each party’s financial needs. A family lawyer can help you understand your rights and obligations regarding spousal support and work out a fair agreement.

5. Dividing Property

Dividing assets and debts during a divorce can get complicated, especially if you own significant assets like a home, business, or retirement account. A family lawyer can help identify, value, and divide property fairly, making sure you get your fair share.

6. Domestic Violence or Abuse

If you or your children are experiencing domestic violence or abuse, it’s crucial to get legal help immediately. A family lawyer can help you obtain protective orders, navigate the legal system, and ensure your safety. They can also help with any related family law issues, like custody and support.

7. Adoption

The adoption process involves many legal steps and requirements. Whether you’re pursuing a stepparent adoption, international adoption, or agency adoption, a family lawyer can guide you through the process, ensuring all legal criteria are met and the adoption is legally sound.

8. Establishing or Disputing Paternity

Establishing paternity is essential for determining a father’s rights and responsibilities. If you need to establish or dispute paternity, a family lawyer can help you understand the process and represent your interests in court.

9. Legal Documentation and Agreements

Family law has many legal documents and agreements, like prenuptial agreements, postnuptial agreements, and guardianship papers. A family lawyer can draft, review, and ensure the legality of these documents, protecting your interests.

10. Complex or High-Conflict Situations

Some family law issues are particularly complex or involve high levels of conflict. In these cases, having a family lawyer can be invaluable. They can provide objective advice, mediate disputes, and represent you in court if necessary.

Early Intervention Benefits

Getting legal advice early can prevent misunderstandings and costly mistakes. A family lawyer can provide clarity and help you make informed decisions from the beginning. Early intervention often leads to more amicable resolutions, saving time, money, and emotional strain.

Conclusion

Family law matters can significantly impact your life and the lives of your loved ones. Knowing when to hire a family lawyer is crucial to ensuring your rights are protected and navigating the legal system effectively. If you find yourself facing any of the situations mentioned above, it might be time to consult with a family lawyer to explore your options and secure the best possible outcome for your case.

Work

What Benefits Are Provided Under Workers’ Compensation?

Published

4 months ago

06/04/2024

Jason Zhang

what-benefits-are-provided-under-workers-compensation

Workers’ compensation provides a range of essential benefits that protect you if you’re injured on the job. It covers all necessary medical expenses, including surgeries, therapy, and prescriptions.

You’ll receive wage replacement for lost income, whether temporarily or permanently. There’s financial support for both partial and total disabilities. Rehabilitation services help you regain physical capabilities and cope emotionally.

If a tragic workplace death occurs, your family receives death benefits, including funeral expenses and income replacement. You’ll also get legal representation, vocational training, and career change services. Stay informed about these benefits to guarantee a smooth recovery and job shift. For more detailed information and assistance, consult Gibbons and Crichton.

Medical Expenses

When you’re injured on the job, workers’ compensation covers all necessary medical expenses to guarantee you get the care you need. This means you won’t have to worry about the significant burden that comes with medical consultations. Whether you need to see a specialist or require frequent check-ups, workers’ compensation makes sure that these appointments are fully covered.

Prescription coverage is another vital aspect of workers’ compensation. If your treatment plan includes medication, you can rest easy knowing that the costs of these prescriptions will be taken care of. This removes the stress of out-of-pocket expenses for necessary drugs, allowing you to focus solely on your recovery.

Moreover, workers’ compensation extends to other essential medical services, such as surgeries, physical therapy, and even diagnostic tests like X-rays or MRIs. These all-encompassing benefits are designed to address every aspect of your injury, ensuring that nothing is overlooked.

Wage Replacement

When you’re injured at work, wage replacement benefits guarantee you don’t lose financial stability.

Temporary Disability Payments cover a portion of your lost wages while you’re recovering, while Permanent Disability Payments support you if you can’t return to your previous job.

Understanding these benefits can provide peace of mind during a challenging time.

Temporary Disability Payments

Temporary disability payments, designed to replace lost wages, provide essential financial support to workers recovering from injuries sustained on the job. If you’re injured and unable to work temporarily, these payments guarantee you can still cover your bills and daily expenses.

The first step is understanding the eligibility criteria. Generally, you must have suffered a work-related injury or illness that temporarily prevents you from performing your job duties. Additionally, a medical professional must validate your condition and inability to work.

Once you’re deemed eligible, the payment duration becomes critical. Typically, temporary disability payments start after a waiting period, which varies by jurisdiction but is often around three to seven days. These payments usually continue until you either return to work or reach a point of maximum medical improvement, as determined by your healthcare provider.

The amount you receive is generally a percentage of your average weekly wage, often around two-thirds. However, there are usually caps on the maximum weekly amount you can receive.

Permanent Disability Payments

Permanent disability payments provide essential long-term financial support for workers who suffer injuries or illnesses that result in lasting impairments, guaranteeing they can maintain a stable income even if they can’t return to their previous job.

If you find yourself in this situation, understanding the qualifying criteria is vital. Typically, you must undergo a medical evaluation to determine the extent of your disability. Your condition needs to be classified as a permanent impairment, meaning it’s expected to last indefinitely or for a prolonged period.

Once you meet the qualifying criteria, the next step is the compensation calculation. This process considers several factors, including your average weekly wage before the injury and the degree of your impairment. Generally, the higher your pre-injury earnings and the more severe your disability, the greater your compensation will be. These payments aim to replace a portion of your lost wages, allowing you to focus on recovery without financial distress.

Navigating the complexities of permanent disability payments can be challenging, but knowing how the system works helps ensure you receive the benefits you’re entitled to. This long-term support is vital for maintaining your financial stability during a difficult time.

Disability Benefits

Disability benefits under workers’ compensation provide essential financial support to employees who are unable to work due to a job-related injury or illness. These benefits are vital because they help cover lost wages and medical expenses during your recovery period. Workers’ compensation differentiates between various disability types to make sure you receive the appropriate level of support.

If you suffer from a partial disability, you might still be able to work in a limited capacity. In such cases, workers’ compensation will cover a portion of your lost wages, thereby easing the financial burden while you continue to earn some income. The calculation for these benefits often considers your previous earnings and the extent to which your disability impacts your ability to work.

Temporary total disability benefits come into play when you’re completely unable to work for a limited time. These benefits generally cover a significant percentage of your average weekly wage until you can return to work.

On the other hand, permanent disability benefits apply if your condition isn’t expected to improve, providing long-term financial support.

Understanding these distinctions ensures you can effectively navigate the workers’ compensation system, securing the benefits you deserve while you focus on recovering.

Rehabilitation Services

Rehabilitation services under workers’ compensation are essential for helping injured employees regain their physical capabilities and return to work efficiently. When you’re hurt on the job, it’s vital to have access to thorough rehabilitation services.

These services often include physical therapy, which plays a pivotal role in your recovery process. Physical therapy helps you rebuild strength, improve mobility, and alleviate pain through carefully designed exercises and treatments.

Another integral part of rehabilitation is counseling sessions. These sessions provide you with emotional and psychological support, which is just as significant as physical recovery. Dealing with an injury can be stressful and overwhelming, and counseling can help you manage this stress, cope with pain, and develop a positive mindset towards your recovery.

Death Benefits

While rehabilitation services focus on recovery, workers’ compensation also provides death benefits to support the families of employees who tragically lose their lives due to job-related incidents. If you find yourself in such a devastating situation, understanding these benefits can offer some financial relief and peace of mind during an incredibly difficult time.

Firstly, workers’ compensation typically covers funeral expenses, ensuring that the cost of laying your loved one to rest doesn’t add to your financial burden. These expenses can include the costs of the funeral service, burial, or cremation. Most policies set a maximum limit for these expenses, so it’s essential to know the specifics covered under your employer’s plan.

In addition to funeral expenses, workers’ compensation provides survivor benefits. These benefits are designed to replace a portion of the deceased worker’s income, helping you cover ongoing living expenses.

The amount and duration of survivor benefits can vary, often depending on the worker’s earnings and the number of dependents. Usually, these benefits are distributed to the spouse, minor children, or other dependents.

Legal Assistance

Understanding the complexities of workers’ compensation claims, legal assistance can be invaluable in guaranteeing you receive the full benefits you’re entitled to. Maneuvering the legal landscape of a workers’ compensation claim on your own can be challenging, especially when you’re dealing with an injury.

Legal counseling provides you with an expert who understands the intricacies of workers’ compensation laws and can help you build a strong case.

Hiring an attorney specializing in workers’ compensation ensures that you’re not shortchanged. These professionals can negotiate on your behalf, guaranteeing that the insurance company provides the benefits you deserve.

While attorney fees might seem like an additional burden, most workers’ compensation lawyers work on a contingency basis. This means they get paid only if you win your case, making legal representation accessible without upfront costs.

Moreover, an experienced attorney can identify potential pitfalls in your claim and advise you on the best course of action, increasing your chances of a favorable outcome. They can help with paperwork, gather medical records, and represent you in hearings, making the process smoother and less stressful.

Vocational Training

Vocational training under workers’ compensation equips you with new skills through specialized programs, making you more versatile in the job market.

You’ll also get career change support to smoothly shift into roles better suited to your current capabilities.

These initiatives not only enhance your employability but also guarantee you’re not left behind after an injury.

Skill Development Programs

Skill development programs, often included in workers’ compensation packages, empower injured employees to regain their footing in the workforce through targeted vocational training. When you’re injured and unable to return to your previous job, these programs offer a critical lifeline.

Employee training helps you acquire new skills or enhance existing ones, ensuring you’re well-prepared for alternative roles within the industry or even a new field altogether. Certification programs play a key role in this process. They provide you with the credentials needed to validate your new skills, making you more competitive in the job market.

For instance, if you were a construction worker who can no longer perform physically demanding tasks, a certification program in project management or safety compliance could open doors to supervisory roles. These programs are structured to meet the unique needs of injured workers, focusing on practical, job-specific skills that can be immediately applied.

They not only boost your confidence but also increase your employability, helping you shift back to work more smoothly. Employers value these certifications, recognizing the commitment and expertise they represent, which can significantly enhance your career prospects.

Career Transition Support

In addition to skill development programs, workers’ compensation often includes career change support through vocational training, designed to help you navigate new employment opportunities after an injury.

This support is essential if your injury prevents you from returning to your previous job. Vocational training programs offer you the chance to learn new skills tailored to different industries, ensuring you can re-enter the workforce with confidence.

Job counseling is a key component of this support, providing you with professional guidance to identify suitable job roles based on your interests, skills, and limitations. You’ll work with a counselor who understands the job market and can help match you with opportunities that fit your new capabilities.

Career coaching goes a step further, offering personalized advice to help you polish your resume, improve your interview skills, and develop a job search strategy. These services are designed to empower you during your career transformation, making the process smoother and more manageable.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I File a Workers’ Compensation Claim?

To file a workers’ compensation claim, report the injury within the required timeline and complete the necessary claim forms. Prompt reporting and accurate documentation guarantee you receive the benefits you’re entitled to without complications.

Can I Choose My Own Doctor for Treatment?

Yes, you can often choose your own doctor for treatment, but doctor selection might be limited by your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance. Understanding your treatment options guarantees you receive the best care for your injury.

What Should I Do if My Claim Is Denied?

If your claim is denied, don’t worry. Start the appeal process immediately. It’s essential to seek legal representation to guide you. An experienced attorney increases your chances of successfully overturning the denial.

Are All Employees Eligible for Workers’ Compensation?

Not all employees are eligible for workers’ compensation. Eligibility criteria vary by state, and some employee exclusions apply, like independent contractors or certain agricultural workers. Check your state’s specific regulations to determine your eligibility.

How Long Does It Take to Receive Benefits?

You’re probably wondering how long it takes to receive benefits. The processing time can vary, but typically, you should expect benefits within a few weeks. However, be aware that administrative issues might cause benefit delays occasionally.

Conclusion

With workers’ compensation, you’re covered in many critical ways. It pays your medical expenses and replaces lost wages, ensuring financial stability.

If you’re disabled, you get disability benefits, and rehabilitation services help you recover. In the unfortunate event of death, your family receives support.

Legal assistance and vocational training further guarantee you’re not alone in dealing with the complexities. Trust that workers’ comp is there to protect your well-being and livelihood.