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Watching the business operations of this restaurant, parties and win them over.
perhaps the customer service specialist discovers that
this restaurant's kitchen is not optimized to handle the Upselling and cross-selling are very much about
increased orders. They could offer a kitchen display system recognizing growth opportunities and capitalizing
as a way of streamlining the orders. If the restaurant on them. For instance, if a grocery store is using web
management starts to show concern about long queues ordering, they can be upgraded to a mobile ordering app.
during lunchtime, the customer success officer could If the grocery store would like to include delivery or SMS
suggest installing kiosks. notifications, these can be added on as plug-ins to the app.
In this way, the customer success team can facilitate the The intimate rapport that customer success agents have
sale of more and more of the company's products. Because with their customers gives them insight into the many
the customer success agents work closely with merchants, problems these customers face. They can then help their
they are able to quickly identify their customer's pain customers find the right solutions. More importantly, their
points and help them find solutions that will ultimately awareness of how a customer's establishment is performing
reap monetary rewards for their own companies. and the availability of financial resources means they can
choose the right time to propose the upsell and cross-sell
The profitability framework options.
It is abundantly clear that the customer success team
is well-positioned to drive revenue generation for its When a customer is satisfied with the product or service
company. To fulfill its income earning potential, the team they have purchased they are highly likely to recommend
should focus on five key areas: the company to others. Referrals are low-cost and smooth
sales opportunities. Business people trust testimonials
1. Renewals and are already partial towards the company they are
approaching. Thus, the sales team does not need to expend
2. Reselling as much effort in making a pitch. Since it is the potential
customer that approaches the company, there is no need
3. Upselling for the sales team to do any chasing.
4. Cross-selling The five key areas of renewal, reselling, upselling, cross-
5. Referrals selling and referrals all facilitate exponential revenue
growth for a company. Through each of these, the customer
Too many service providers take renewals for granted, success team encourages customers to increase their
assuming that they will occur automatically. However, current spending. Therefore, the efforts of the customer
experienced customer success specialists are acutely success team in these areas multiply the existing income
aware of how tenuous the situation is. They understand being brought in by the customer.
how easy it is for a customer to switch. Success for all
Because retention is one of their main goals, the customer By striving to ensure the success of their customers, the
success team should work hard to ensure renewals. customer success team automatically propels the success
Maintaining regular contact with the customer helps keep of their own company. At a very basic level, retaining the
the company top of mind. This kind of connection also patronage of a customer secures a consistent income. Above
reassures the client that the vendor or service provider and beyond that, each time an officer of the team sells a
is always around to support them, harnessing vital new upgrade or product to their customer, they open up
confidence that goes a long way in securing a renewal. a new revenue channel. In other words, simply executing
its duties makes the customer success department another
Reselling is mainly relevant when there are changes revenue center in an organization.
within a customer's organization. When a management
team changes, for instance, they may be inclined to sever
current connections and bring in their own vendors and Duleepa Karunaratne brings more than 13 years of experience in proj-
providers. The customer success team needs to step in and ect management, SAAS product management and customer success.
resell their products and services to the new management Currently, as Applova's product manager, he plays the leadership role in
team, convincing the new leadership of the value of the company’s product strategic partnerships and customer success. For
sticking with them. more information on Applova, visit https://applova.io. Contact Duleepa
via email at duleepa@applova.io or on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/
The same applies when the client's company re-strategizes in/duleepa-karunaratne-77554834.
or rebrands. Sometimes reselling may also be necessary to
get all the relevant stakeholders on board. Perhaps for some
reason there is internal resistance to certain products. The
customer success officials could pitch these to the relevant
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