Making an Impact During these Unprecedented Times -- In an interview with Jason Hoe, Director of Customer Success at Revionics
Businesses need to be very clear about the value they want to deliver and provide. Without this clear understanding, they cannot create or build any positive experience that will benefit a customer.
In this interview, Jason Hoe, Director of Customer Success at Revionics, talks about how a business designs value that profoundly impacts customer success (CS) and its desired outcomes.
How did you get started in CS?
From the earliest ones until now, I have always managed and supported customers on their journey to achieve their desired success or business outcomes however they define it.
My first professional foray was working as a management consultant with Accenture Australia on large systems integration and transformation projects. Since then, I have worked with several companies where I held various roles in customer success, project management, and business change.
With the rise or emergence of CS in Australia, I have aligned my passion to driving a significant impact at scale on customers through the use of CS technology, leveraging data, and automation. Doing so creates memorable customer experiences and positive outcomes.
While there is an obvious advantage to why CS needs to be part of the organizational structure, I realized and learned that achieving customer success is not just the role of the CS team. Instead, it is a shared responsibility of everyone — marketing, sales, product marketing, support, professional services — for they all touch or own the customer journey and contribute to their overall success.
Understanding how customers benefit from purchased solutions enables the business to work with customers proactively, help them solve a particular business pain point, and measurably deliver the business value.
When designing for a business outcome, where do you begin?
It starts with finding solutions to customer problems. In other words, you help your customers realize that your product or service will help solve their biggest problem. When you start to think and put your efforts into achieving customer outcomes and business goals, it is important to visualize how other teams can contribute and stay focused on achieving it.
Although some teams may think they do not directly interact with customers, for example, Accounts Payable. But, when they send out emails or reminders about outstanding bills to pay, they also have become part of or affect the customer journey.
Mapping all the touchpoints and how all other teams are involved in achieving or delivering success is critically important. When everyone knows how their collective effort or work directly affects customer success, they will make more positive contributions.
Even if the business outcomes are not first understood, just knowing how they are well-aligned with the overall business strategy and what they want to achieve is necessary for designing this successful outcome. They not only accomplish tasks or solve a business pain point but have played a significant role in achieving a customer's desired outcome.
How do you connect customer feedback to CS?
Everyone in the organization should have a clearer and better understanding of customer concerns, pain points, challenges, and why they want to achieve specific desired outcomes.
We can fully align with customers desired outcomes if we help them earn the right to grow. How? Connect their feedback to what they want to achieve. Customer feedback provides scope and targets a specific set of business outcomes or results they want to achieve or accomplish.
If we leverage customer feedback by supporting or promoting their desired success, we can structure and strengthen the solution's value to contribute to their overall success.
All of this information — feedback, voice of the customer (VOC), surveys, reviews — that the CS team captures has translated into the business. That means they understand where the business pain was created or needed to resolve, when it happens, within the customer journey.
Any final thoughts or ideas you would like to share?
I found that those attracted to the CS role are motivated by people. That means they love helping solve people's problems. They want to build lasting relationships. They want to talk to people.
Bringing everyone together to create an outcome-driven culture that supports customer values and philosophy brings trust and transparency to the relationship.
Having mutual trust and transparency provides direction, clarifies success, and defines priorities. It allows businesses to understand and know the outcomes that customers have achieved — which they consider high value — and how they can consistently help achieve them.
