Customer Success (CS) has always been about more than just keeping customers happy; it’s about ensuring they achieve their desired outcomes. But let’s be honest—traditional methods of gauging customer health and engagement often feel like trying to predict the weather with a sundial. Were those methods ever really accurate or effective? Chances are, as a CS leader, you’ve seen a green health account churn seemingly out of the blue.
Today, we’re at a turning point in Customer Success. This isn’t just a fancy rebranding of the same old thing; it’s a revolution led by AI-empowered humans. And, at the heart of it all, is real-time intelligence and insights.
Why AI, you ask? Because it’s the difference between reacting to a storm after it’s hit or being the meteorologist who warns you to grab your umbrella before you step out the door. Let’s dive into the future of CS, empowered by real-time AI-enabled customer health insights.
Real-Time AI Intelligence: A New Frontier
In the world of Customer Success, artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t a buzzword. It’s the fuel that powers your team. Traditional CS models rely heavily on Customer Success Manager (CSM) manual assessments, periodic check-ins, and Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys—with dismal response rates—to gauge the health of an account. But this approach is like trying to drive while only looking in the rearview mirror. By the time you realize there’s a problem, it’s too late.
Enter real-time intelligence signals, or, as we like to call them, vitals. Real-time insights are the difference between being reactive and proactive. They’re like an always-on heart monitor for your customer accounts, continuously providing you with the vital signs you need to keep things running smoothly. These are the immediate, actionable insights that keep your finger on the pulse of your customer’s experience, such as:
- An overview of which customers haven’t had outreach in X days
- Slack notifications when a customer email contains an extremely negative message or escalation
- Reporting on relationship strength and which accounts currently aren’t multi-threaded
- Dynamic health scores updated daily based on ongoing customer communications
Whether it’s detecting slow disengagement, flagging support storms, or noticing subtle shifts in customer sentiment, real-time intelligence allows you to spot potential issues before they snowball into a full-blown crisis. AI allows us to turn blind spots into spotlights.
Think of it this way: Would you prefer to know your customer is at risk of churning now, or wait until they provide churn notice, when, at that point, it’s often too late to recover? Real-time insights give you the power to intervene at the moment it matters most, ensuring that minor issues don’t escalate into major headaches.
Productivity and Efficiency: The Secret Weapons of Customer Success
One of the biggest pain points for any CSM is the administrative burden of tracking conversations, logging notes, and constantly updating spreadsheets. It’s like trying to keep a house of cards standing in the middle of a windstorm. With real-time insights, much of this busy work becomes a thing of the past.
Instead of spending hours compiling data and creating reports, CSMs can quickly identify which accounts are being over-serviced (and potentially eating into gross margins) and which ones need more attention. This shift not only boosts productivity but also allows CSMs to focus on what they do best: building relationships and driving customer success.
Learn more in our report, The State of AI in Customer Success, 2024
Long-Term Visibility and Governance: The Strategic Advantage
Real-time insights aren’t just for quick fixes—they’re also crucial for long-term visibility and governance. For leaders and managers, having a clear, real-time view of the customer landscape allows for more strategic decision-making. Are there trends emerging across accounts? Are there systemic issues that need to be addressed? With real-time data at your fingertips, you’re not just reacting to the present; you’re planning for the future.
As a CS leader, this level of visibility allows you to drive faster action, ensuring that your team isn’t just putting out fires but is also preventing them from starting in the first place.
How It All Fits Together
Real-time insights drive action at every level of the organization. For individual contributors like CSMs and Account Managers (AMs), real-time insights provide the information needed to capture all conversations with accounts, flagging issues before they become critical. For leaders and managers, real-time insights offer visibility that empowers strategic business decisions, ensuring that your entire organization is aligned and moving in the right direction.
Ready to Elevate Your CS Operation?
The world of Customer Success is evolving, and with it, the tools and strategies we use to keep our customers happy and successful are evolving, too. Real-time insights aren’t just a nice-to-have; they’re essential for thriving in this new era. So, why wait to react when you can be proactive?
Sign up for a demo of Staircase AI today to see the difference that real-time intelligence can make.
