Why don’t they listen to me!?!
The short answer is “Data Driven Customer success”
I get asked this by SaaS Customer Success / Customer Retention leaders more times than I can count. It’s asked or sometimes implied almost as a source of validation – as if to say “The CEO just doesn’t get it.”
The CEO gets it, the story part at least, there just isn’t any proof. They don’t trust the data coming from the Customer Success team but are too polite to say it that way.
A few days ago I broke down “The Scale Spiral” and what to do when you’re in it as a Customer retention leader. But what if you feel the trust needs to be strengthened with your CEO? What can you do to fix it?
The short answer is “Data-driven Customer Success”. But of course, it’s more complicated than that.
Understand the way CEOs think about data-driven customer success
To start, it’s helpful to understand the way CEOs think and process information:
- CEOs tend to understand the details of customer acquisition through Sales and Marketing but don’t understand the details of customer retention. The reason is attribution. It’s a known formula that shows the connection to inputs (budget) and outputs (results)
- Everyone believes retention is important, but CEOs need to see the retention formula in a proven, and predictable way in order to start building (or rebuilding) that trust.
- Learn to speak the same language: Voice of the Customer programs can’t be limited to anecdotal stories. They need credible data backing them up to paint the full picture. This can only come from structured data.
Think about it this way: when you travel around the world, repeating the same words but slower and at a higher volume, does it help your international friends understand you any better? No.
Gaining trust with your Executive team feels the same way. It’s time to break the pattern and learn the language yourself. Data-driven customer success through structured data.
