The Customer and Sales Journey map using Miro.

I had just been through a phase of achieving all my customer Success KPIs & MBOs but for some reason, I was not feeling successful. I had spent the previous 12 months in a hyper-growth company working out how to be a successful CSM. While the results spoke for themselves I began to realise that in the last 12 months things had changed.

• The client's expectations had changed., they were more mature

• My colleagues and management expectations had changed.

• I did not believe I was hitting the mark with my clients.

After an especially difficult few weeks, I decided to step back and work on what I could do to help myself. I took a methodical approach and tried to answer some really simple questions.

• What is the role of Customer Success in this organisation?

• What tasks and activities do I need to do for the client and my organisation to be successful?

• How would I make this new approach repeatable and therefore scalable?

In order to help myself, I devised a customer success journey map to help me build out the customer journey into the following groups:

• Client,

• Sales reps,

• Customer Success Managers,

• Technical Account Managers,

• Professional Services,

• Renewals and

• Marketing.

Aligning all of these groups across a journey that includes these well-known phases:

• Land,

• Adoption,

• Retention,

• Expand and

• Advocacy.

To help me brainstorm the ideas and to get feedback from my wider team I devised this template in Miro. I have added the Miro file in the asset section of this website while I wait for the Miro team to approve the template to be distributed on the Miroverse.

Here is the video walk through. A list of the Action steps is also provided after the video.

Here is the Action plan to help you use the board.

Action List:

1. Define the key phases:

The key phases for customer success in some organisations is Land, Adoption, Retention, Expand and Advocacy. You can configure your key phases as needed.

2. Define your sub-phases.

This is where we go to the next level of detail. Split the Key phases into sub-phases. If we take the example of "Land", this relates to Landing a customer or selling to a customer. The four sub-phases could be "Awareness", "Discovery", "Technical Solutioning" and "Commercial and Contracts". Most organisations will have their own way of defining these sub-phases.

3. Define the teams involved in the key phases and sub-phases:

Different types of resources performing different functions are needed to execute on the sub-phases, in this area of the board we define who those team members are. e.g. Sales reps, customer success managers, professional services etc. This helps us to start thinking about the roles and responsibilities of those team members for each phase and sub-phase.

Note: Before drilling into the detail of the tasks performed by these functions it's a good idea to add a customer lens to the phases.

4. Define the Customer Experience:

For each phase defined think about the customer experience with a focus on what is a "good" experience, an expected or "baseline" experience, and a poor or "below the line" experience.

5. Define the customer's KPIs for each phase:

For each phase of the process, define the customer's KPIs. This doesn't have to mean a hard financial measure like TCO or ROI. Think more in terms of perception, expectation, how the best-in-class vendor would do it. examples such as: when we have a meeting I expect the actions to be summarised and emailed within 24 hours, or I expect actions to be completed within 5 working days.

6. Define the customer's actions:

For each key phase and sub-phase, the customer has to do something. When we think of onboarding which would be a sub-phase within the Adoption phase the client might have to organise software to be installed or arrange for users to access the product or service. Understanding who owns what at each stage helps us to increase our clarity about the steps, we take for the customer and our organisation to be successful.

7. Add the detailed tasks performed by the different teams

Now we can circle back down the board to drill into the detailed tasks that are performed for each sub-phase. I suggest you brainstorm the tasks that are done first before moving on to the tasks that we should do but don't.

8. Define the programs/playbooks which are a collection of themed tasks:

A playbook is just a bunch of tasks and processes that allow you to get something done to the satisfaction of the customer. You know the detailed tasks you perform today by sub-phase. You may also have noted a number of tasks that you should don't. In this action, group the tasks and activities into logical playbooks that can be documented further to help your teams execute. In these playbooks make sure that you note the customer's actions within these playbooks. At a point in the future when you present your customer journey to your customers, this will be a good way to create buy-in, into your Customer Success Program.

9. Reflect. You should not have your Customer Journey aligned to Key Phases.

Let things settle. Think about the work you have done on this board. Revisit the board over a couple of weeks and then schedule a focused session to go through the process again with a "review" mindset to add detail and clarity.

At the end of this process, you will have a far clearer understanding of your customer success program. How that Customer Success Program adds value to the organisation as a whole and the hand-offs between the different teams involved. You will also have added a customer lens to your revenue-generating processes so don't be surprised if this shifts how you do "Customer Success Management" as an organisation.

I am happy to talk you through it and receive any feedback you might have.