Like many business people, I start my day reading publications, news media as well as listening to my Alexa Flashbriefing. One of my guilty pleasures is reading ScientificAmerican.com (I know – C-R-A-Z-Y!) Part of what I like is that many studies are peer reviewed, so there is at least some basis to believe them. But I rarely draw business conclusions from deep space. Think of my customer “Yeeaaa, great Dan, the universe is expanding; my business isn’t…”
There are obvious advantages of having advanced warning of a one-time event you want to watch.
This latest story was different and it led me to think how Customer Success might actually be more difficult than rocket science. In the article I read, Scientists discovered that (and I’m paraphrasing here) before the visible light of a supernova reaches earth, neutrinos (nearly massless, subatomic particles that travel really really fast) can alert us where to look. (See article here) There are obvious advantages of having advanced warning of a one-time event you want to watch.
When I assess business’ Customer Success functions using the Predictive Customer Behavior Index™ (peer reviewed by dozens of Customer Success leaders), one of the components I measure is the ability to identify the events that precede churn. Sometimes, it’s even the events that precede the events. For example: if your customer stops logging into your product one day and later tells you they went to a competitor, the log-in information is a lot like the supernova example – the event has already happened, it’s just not visible yet (to you).
Human behavior is predictable, as long as you know where to look.
In order to get to that second or third level of customer awareness, a much closer examination of behavior is required. The interesting thing I’ve discovered over the last 12 years of working in Customer Success and SaaS: human behavior is predictable, as long as you know where to look. This is grossly oversimplified of course, similar to my summary of the article above. Any idea how hard it is to detect subatomic, near massless particles, moving close to the speed of light, that literally pass through the earth and come out the other side without hitting anything?
Me neither, but I DO know how to set up multiple listening posts to detect customer actions that predict future behavior, including when they will churn. Of course, predicting the churn is only part of the battle, the purpose of identifying it early, is so you can take action to prevent it! This doesn’t happen by accident.
The first step in solving any problem is recognizing you have one
The first step in solving any problem is recognizing you have one. The Predictive Customer Behavior Index™ does that extremely well for Customer Success organizations. The assessment is based on over 120 standards and nearly 200 questions calibrated across multiple CS programs. The standards are indexed for the size and growth trajectory of your company. From the assessment comes a comprehensive list of improvements and quick wins that are prioritized based on the expected ROI (often with a 4X return).
If you want to learn how your Customer Success function compares to best-in-class standards, or maybe just how to organize your impossibly complex set of responsibilities and prioritize them down to what is most important, I encourage you to check us out. We can help you predict, then prevent churn, plus a whole lot more.
