At the tail end of 2019, our friends at TSIA (Technology Services Industry Association) ran a poll among its members entitled the Customer Success and Education Services Handshake Quick Poll to explore the relationship between CS and ES. To share the results of the survey and discuss the growing relationship between the two disciplines, TSIA’s Maria Manning-Chapman, VP, Education Services Research and Phil Nanus, VP, Customer Success Research, recently hosted a joint webinar.
According to Manning-Chapman and Nanus, there are three key opportunities for collaboration, or “handshakes,” between ES and CS: customer success plans, health scores, and monetization of customer success.
Defining Customer Success plans, Nanus explains that they are “maps on how you’re going to achieve what you promised your customers.” Although we know that training is a great way to drive customer engagement, the results of TSIA’s quick poll showed that less than 50 percent of respondents indicated that customer training is an integral part of their company’s success plans.
That said, when it comes to the most common interactions between Education Services and Customer Success, training as a component of customer onboarding calls stood out as the top point of collaboration. This interaction was followed by the inclusion of training in customer success packages – intended to get new users up and running with your product as quickly as possible. An additional poll presented during the webinar found that nearly 85 percent of respondents discuss training during onboarding.
Despite these wins, TSIA found that there is still a significant disconnect when it comes to including training as part of customers’ health scores (less than 20 percent say training is currently included).
When it comes to TSIA’s recommendations, Manning-Chapman emphasized the importance of sharing data across ES and CS and maintain regular communication channels to ensure that both teams are on the same page when it comes to enabling customers’ success.
If you’re interested in learning more, we encourage you to view the webinar on-demand and download the accompanying research report.
