Your customer success strategy is your fulcrum for business growth, expansion and sustainability.
How will you decide to boil the ocean of IoT and big data that is crashing into the future of your MSP and CSP organization?
[To clarify: IoT refers to the Internet of Things. MSPs are managed service providers. CSPs are Cloud Service providers.]
Customer success strategy starts with your realization that in order to propel your business forward you will need more than a portfolio of products and services. Your strategy impacts the types of employees you hire, the people you partner with and how well everyone works with each other.
Customer success strategy redefines relationships.
Sales and business development strategies do not end once the sale is consummated and the contract comes in-house for execution. IoT makes the interface between equipment and software both contiguous and continuous.
Customer success strategy leverages your understanding of customer lifecycles. IoT and big data ecosystems create a huge upside for those companies that understand how to integrate predictive data analytics into embedded and nimble customer success teams to support their customers.
Tomorrow’s customer success strategy connects your company’s DNA to your customers’ DNA.
There is nothing transactional about this model. It is a transformational partnership. Does that statement make you, as a leader of your MSP and CSP organization, the least bit uncomfortable? It should.
The case for change in creating the trajectory for your customer success strategy lies in the adaptability of your organizational culture.
In an InfoWorld article entitled “Why your big data strategy is a bust” , Matt Asay posits: “The core issue is that it’s easier to say “big data” than it is to embrace big data. The former fits neatly into a PowerPoint presentation. The latter requires cultural change.”
Is your culture merely talking the customer success talk?
Does the notion of big data remain a buzzword, a label for an ocean that your teams have no idea how to boil? Big data can’t confer a competitive advantage to your company until and unless you understand how to make its value translational for your customers.
MSP and CSP organizations will need to do more in the future than simply selling, integrating and supporting what’s been sold via your legacy business model. Customer success isn’t the responsibility of your post-sale remote call center.
Does your own MSP and CSP group have the cross-functional personnel bandwidth to execute a customer success strategy for the IoT-meets-Big-Data manufacturing paradigm?
That capability is your future differentiator. You are not alone if you realize that your current business model requires transitioning from what got you to where you are today towards a fully integrated customer success model.
That transition is accomplished through leadership.
An emphasis on customer success focuses you on taking the lead in creating, implementing and sustaining that strategy through continuous improvement in execution. Your choice.
This post was brought to you by IBM for MSPs and opinions are my own.
Babette Ten Haken started out her career as a scientist. Early on, she was asked to bring clarity to the chaos of stalemated conversations between engineers, sales, IT, quality, legal and marketing folks. She focuses on building collaborative, innovative and profitable teams who are focused on excellence in the hand-off of strategy for execution. Her Playbook on leadership and business strategies, including tools, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com. Contact her here.
Image author: JJAVA Image source: Fotolia
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