4 min read
29 Jul
How does the CS culture help organizations innovate and succeed?

In this interview, Matt Goodman, VP CS at HELIX, talks about why CS should be an integral part of the business process, strategy, and guiding principles. Without CS, business growth, alignment, collaboration, and success are unlikely to achieve.


Business success tied to the culture it embodies

Every business function (support, engineering, sales, marketing) has a clear and articulated mission/goal to achieve that is rooted in the company culture and vision. Matt believes that people working in organizations can favor their vested interests that may not align with the overall business goals and objectives. 

Without a culture of transparency, trust, commitment, and dedication, the business purpose can not speak for itself. Business culture serves as a reminder that allows the organization to live its mission every day.

The most common mistake about company culture, Matt points out, is to define it, only soon to forget it. An organization must live their values every day. It must become a part of their DNA. 

Given the current business landscape, an organization's culture must serve as a compass一a guide beyond the traditional aspect of a 9 am to 5 pm working mindset. Instead, everyone must be involved in creating a vision (customer-centricity). This creates buy-in and helps ensure that the culture reflects the values of the company and its people.  

Keeping the mission at heart

One of the biggest challenges for legacy (or on-premise) solutions is to get the customer pulse and how to measure their success in real-time. With the SaaS business model, organizations can monitor customer usage, track their achievement and success milestones, and identify which segments of customers require specific support within their customer's journey. 

CS becomes a critical function to any growing SaaS organization (including the vendors that still offer/provide on-premise solutions). Not only does it prove beneficial or valuable, but CS quickly proves to be a necessary business component to achieve positive business results, rather than goodwill.

Building a highly valued company with a robust culture is more important now than ever. Not that company culture did not matter before, with CS, it enables win-win situations between your company and your customer's company. It makes people do the right things at the right time by improving business processes and helping customers adapt to the new business model.

Customers success = Product success

Having a great product and a great product-market fit will surely help. To enable its value to its maximum potential, support, CS, PS, engineering should be added to the top. This is something customers do not evaluate. There is no way to assess it (when they buy the product or solution); however, once the customers are in the organization, everyone must support customers.

When you help a customer achieve their goal, Matt points out that you are also helping the product achieve its fullest potential in the process. It will help with retention, renewal, expansion, and growth opportunities.

Remember, CS influences not just the product roadmap but its future value. Think of it in this analogy. CS gets you a foot in the door (product fit) while the product itself moves the wheel (continued success). 

Shared culture: the celebrated pillar of organizational success

Every organization has a culture, but it begs whether it helps achieve business goals or prevents it? Second, how can CS organizations deliver success for their customers and their (own) organization? 

Through a shared culture and brand commitments, and the difference they make in their customer lives and their own business, Matt believes, makes the company culture an influential institution.

Although other organizations have a different perspective on CS, if they realize its impact on the overall business goal, they can recognize and appreciate how important CS to business success. CS is about committing to service excellence and creating brand integrity and loyalty for the long haul.

Summary

✓ Without CS, business growth, alignment, collaboration, and success are unlikely to achieve.
✓ CS influences not just the product roadmap but its future value.
✓ CS becomes a critical function to any growing SaaS organization (including the vendors that still offer/provide on-premise solutions).
✓ Without a culture of transparency, trust, commitment, and dedication, the business purpose can not speak for itself.
✓ Everyone must be involved in creating a vision (customer-centricity). This creates buy-in and helps ensure that the culture reflects the values of the company and its people.
✓ Every organization has a culture, but it begs whether it helps achieve business goals or prevents it? Through a shared culture and brand commitments, and the difference they make in their customer lives and their own business makes the company culture an influential institution.
✓ CS is about committing to service excellence and creating brand integrity and loyalty for the long haul.


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