3 Key Findings from the 2018 Customer Success Industry Report

We recently hosted a webinar with Jamey Jeff, Managing Director at Coastal Cloud. In the webinar, we asked Jamey about early findings from the Coastal Cloud Customer Success Industry Report.Now that the report is live, we’re excited to share a few key insights with you.1. Journey Stage SophisticationWe were surprised to learn that 95% of participants rated their onboarding programs as Manually Standardized or better, whereas only 68% said the same of their Adoption programs. In the report, Jamey notes that this may be because companies do not have a clear view of what it takes for a customer to successfully adopt their product.Keep this in mind when building your customer training program. Before you dive into training on specific features, think about how customers interact with your product today. Are you truly delivering value? If not, what else might users need to learn?2. Customer HealthOn a similar note, one best practice cited in the report is that “how” your product is used matters more than “how much.” We couldn’t agree more. At Skilljar, we often talk about the impact customer training has on product adoption and churn. But in order to drive these business outcomes, your customers need to first understand how to use your product effectively. Think about it this way: if someone spends a lot of time in your product, it could be a good thing; or it could be because they’re confused, and don’t have the tools they need to be successful.If you haven’t already done so, talk to your Product team, as well as your customers, to find out where there may be information gaps. Then try to address those gaps with on-demand training. 3. Data OperationsAfter speaking with nearly four dozen Customer Success (CS) leaders, Jamey found that most of them struggle with getting actionable insights, maintaining data integrity, and having sufficient reporting. One participant even said, “I don’t have effective ways to report. I’m asked for important data, but have no effective way to collect it.”In the report, Jamey talks about the value of CS operations. I would add that it’s also important to ensure you have the right systems in place. For instance, if you have a Customer Training Platform (CTP) that integrates with your CRM, internal stakeholders can view training data alongside other key business metrics.Want to learn more? Download the full report here. Skilljar can help you improve customer onboarding, adoption, and data operations. Request a demo to find out how.