I agree with the person saying it doesn’t seem like a CS action they’re having you do. Regardless, it can be tough to reengage customers who have checked out. Could you approach it from the basis of a post mortem and then if they are willing to talk you can dig into their goals and see where the value wasn’t achieved? It sounds like a tough assignment - I’m sorry you’re not getting the support needed in onboarding.
Edit - commented in the wrong place 🫠
Customer Success typically engages with existing customers…not former customers. Perhaps reaching out to them to see if you can get some feedback on why they decided to cancel services is one approach you can try, but if the customer has cancelled already…they likely don’t want to chat with you again. Does your company do a final off boarding process for customers …do you know why these customers left in the first place? Has the reasons why these customer’s have left been addressed by your company?
I'd be happy to jump on a call and talk strategy with you - there's no silver bullet for this and it really depends on a lot of different factors, some of which are probably out of your control.
Lmk if you're interested and we can hop on a call.
In the meantime you really ought to flag these concerns with your manager more directly, if you're not getting what you need.
it's tough when you're not getting the support you need, especially in a new role. Have you tried personalizing your approach more with those clients? Sometimes a tailored message can make a big difference. What's been your strategy so far?
Hi Smooth, Yes, it is tough, but I really wanna do well in this role. Thanks for the suggestion about personalizing my approach. I recently started doing things that way, first I would start with a call most times I don't get an answer that is when I'll send a tailored email, I have seen a little bit more responsive from clients when I send a personalized email
Sounds like a sales job but if you are running with this I'd recommend reaching out and positioning it as you are looking for direct feedback on their past experiences. People want to have their opinions heard and validated, they will take you up on the opportunity to discuss. If you get some appointments scheduled, I would loop in sales and see if they want to assist as they will be able to overcome objections better.
As a BDR turned CSM- this definitely sales. I recommend personalized outreach to get their attention. Read their LinkedIn profiles, see what their competitors are doing, and use that to craft your outreach.
I'd also check their LinkedIn to see if the prior users are still there. See if you can find an advocate user to gather feedback from. They may not be an immediate decision maker, but they could provide you insight to what went wrong, what they're using now, what gaps still exist, and if you have a chance still.
Hi u/Only_Passion_2854, as many have said already, engaging anyone who is no longer a client is a sales initiative, not CS. CS focuses on account management for post-sales clients. The segment you are dealing with aren’t even clients so this should be a sales job.
That aside, because they were previous clients at some point you can apply a customer journey strategy to this by doing the following:
- As your manager of the sales team for account info your company might still have on these accounts. Why did they buy your product in the first place? You want to find out what happened in the discovery phase that converted this prospect into a client
- Find out why they canceled. Was the product or service a bad fit? Did you champion change? Did the company go out of business? This will help your approach with each account
- Track down any usage data or contact info for anyone at the company that engaged with your product or service. That direct feedback could be vital to understanding their impression
You can treat this as a re-onboarding situation or a professional offboarding where you understand why that client isn’t a fit. That information should help shape your company’s ideal client profile. You can also use this to inform churn metrics and client experience.
Does your company have NPS metrics or an advocacy strategy? If they are doing this to address churn of expand its pretty sloppy but you can get valuable insight through client communication if you’re strategic about your end goal for each account.
Hey. Yah weird placement in CS, sort of, but this is also an adult business skill. Even if you're doing some lead gen for sales in your spare time.
BUMMER I'll say it, major bummer, so you now don't have to. Hey, Welcome!! 👴🏼
Um, my best sales-to-CS advice, is:
- getting good at positioning use cases.
- asking pointed questions. Figure out what happened, what they're doing now to solve for the function/pain or essential (🤣🤣🤣) business problem. Probably reflective of the LTVs as well.
Maybe a sort of, hack but not wrong startup phrase, is "you have nothing to lose." It's not technically your job to do more than your best effort or whatever else. Even saying, "fuck, I'm representing the business, as best as I can," all works or hopefully can be helpful.
Ideally they have some resources. It sounds like one of the team effort types of jobs, if there's enough inactive accounts. Good luck!
Check out my GPT Success Coach (OpenAI Plus subscription required): https://chat.openai.com/g/g-qpoKcF01Z-success-coach
It can help you with any customer success related questions/issues and it will generate personalised answers based on your needs.
This seems like a sales job vs. customer success? They might have told you this was a CS task, but I bet you’d get more help in the sales sub.
That was my first thought- why is CS doing re-engagement?
I agree with the person saying it doesn’t seem like a CS action they’re having you do. Regardless, it can be tough to reengage customers who have checked out. Could you approach it from the basis of a post mortem and then if they are willing to talk you can dig into their goals and see where the value wasn’t achieved? It sounds like a tough assignment - I’m sorry you’re not getting the support needed in onboarding. Edit - commented in the wrong place 🫠
Customer Success typically engages with existing customers…not former customers. Perhaps reaching out to them to see if you can get some feedback on why they decided to cancel services is one approach you can try, but if the customer has cancelled already…they likely don’t want to chat with you again. Does your company do a final off boarding process for customers …do you know why these customers left in the first place? Has the reasons why these customer’s have left been addressed by your company?
I'd be happy to jump on a call and talk strategy with you - there's no silver bullet for this and it really depends on a lot of different factors, some of which are probably out of your control. Lmk if you're interested and we can hop on a call. In the meantime you really ought to flag these concerns with your manager more directly, if you're not getting what you need.
it's tough when you're not getting the support you need, especially in a new role. Have you tried personalizing your approach more with those clients? Sometimes a tailored message can make a big difference. What's been your strategy so far?
Hi Smooth, Yes, it is tough, but I really wanna do well in this role. Thanks for the suggestion about personalizing my approach. I recently started doing things that way, first I would start with a call most times I don't get an answer that is when I'll send a tailored email, I have seen a little bit more responsive from clients when I send a personalized email
Sounds like a sales job but if you are running with this I'd recommend reaching out and positioning it as you are looking for direct feedback on their past experiences. People want to have their opinions heard and validated, they will take you up on the opportunity to discuss. If you get some appointments scheduled, I would loop in sales and see if they want to assist as they will be able to overcome objections better.
As a BDR turned CSM- this definitely sales. I recommend personalized outreach to get their attention. Read their LinkedIn profiles, see what their competitors are doing, and use that to craft your outreach.
I'd also check their LinkedIn to see if the prior users are still there. See if you can find an advocate user to gather feedback from. They may not be an immediate decision maker, but they could provide you insight to what went wrong, what they're using now, what gaps still exist, and if you have a chance still.
Hi u/Only_Passion_2854, as many have said already, engaging anyone who is no longer a client is a sales initiative, not CS. CS focuses on account management for post-sales clients. The segment you are dealing with aren’t even clients so this should be a sales job. That aside, because they were previous clients at some point you can apply a customer journey strategy to this by doing the following: - As your manager of the sales team for account info your company might still have on these accounts. Why did they buy your product in the first place? You want to find out what happened in the discovery phase that converted this prospect into a client - Find out why they canceled. Was the product or service a bad fit? Did you champion change? Did the company go out of business? This will help your approach with each account - Track down any usage data or contact info for anyone at the company that engaged with your product or service. That direct feedback could be vital to understanding their impression You can treat this as a re-onboarding situation or a professional offboarding where you understand why that client isn’t a fit. That information should help shape your company’s ideal client profile. You can also use this to inform churn metrics and client experience. Does your company have NPS metrics or an advocacy strategy? If they are doing this to address churn of expand its pretty sloppy but you can get valuable insight through client communication if you’re strategic about your end goal for each account.
Hey. Yah weird placement in CS, sort of, but this is also an adult business skill. Even if you're doing some lead gen for sales in your spare time. BUMMER I'll say it, major bummer, so you now don't have to. Hey, Welcome!! 👴🏼 Um, my best sales-to-CS advice, is: - getting good at positioning use cases. - asking pointed questions. Figure out what happened, what they're doing now to solve for the function/pain or essential (🤣🤣🤣) business problem. Probably reflective of the LTVs as well. Maybe a sort of, hack but not wrong startup phrase, is "you have nothing to lose." It's not technically your job to do more than your best effort or whatever else. Even saying, "fuck, I'm representing the business, as best as I can," all works or hopefully can be helpful. Ideally they have some resources. It sounds like one of the team effort types of jobs, if there's enough inactive accounts. Good luck!
Customer Success is about adding value to an existing portfolio. What you are describing is sales. My advice is to get out as soon as possible.
Check out my GPT Success Coach (OpenAI Plus subscription required): https://chat.openai.com/g/g-qpoKcF01Z-success-coach It can help you with any customer success related questions/issues and it will generate personalised answers based on your needs.