Introduction to Customer Success: Implementation and Customer Onboarding

Four out of five times, when I tell people I’m an Implementation and Customer Onboarding Manager, they do not understand unless I explain. That’s okay, though. Until a couple of years ago, I didn’t know what it meant either, and when I did, it was merely by a stroke of luck.

Customer Success? Implementation and Customer Onboarding?

Allow me to give you a quick introduction to Customer Success, Implementation, and Customer Onboarding and show you how they all work together.

Customer Success is the effort to help your clients achieve their business goals using your product or service. It’s what you do to help your clients realize maximum value from your product.

The goal(s)?

First, to make the client successful. Second, to increase customer retention. Third, to prevent churn. Fourth, to increase customer loyalty. Last and most importantly, keep the revenue coming in, steadily and consistently.

Is Customer Success the same as Customer Support?

Not exactly.

Customer success is NOT Customer Support.

Customer Success takes a more proactive approach to interacting with customers, while Customer Support is more reactive. For example, when a client has just started using a new product/feature, Customer Success anticipates the client will need help in certain areas and plans for support in advance. On the other hand, Customer Support will only activate AFTER the client has a problem and reaches out for help.

Another key differentiator between Customer Success and Customer Support is what determines success in each role. Customer Success is dependent on building strong, long-term relationships with clients while Customer Support is dependent on how fast you can resolve the immediate issue. For example, if a patient has a headache, Customer Support’s job is to give a Panadol and take the pain away immediately. But for Customer Success, the solution will be dependent on answering these questions:

1. What do you know about the patient?
2. What’s their medical history?
3. Is this the first time they’re experiencing a headache or how many times has it happened before?
4. How is this headache affecting their life? Is it inhibiting their ability to live normally?
5. Have you treated other patients in the past with a similar headache? What did you do? What worked and what didn’t work?
6. Has the patient attempted to treat the headache before they came to you?
7. How will not treating this headache affect their life in the short-term or the long-term?
8. Is Panadol the only answer? What happens if they have a headache tomorrow?
9. What can be done to prevent a headache from happening in the first place?
10. What processes or systems can you put in place to ensure the patient doesn’t experience more headaches, and if they still do, what can you do to help them manage it more effectively without reducing their quality of life?

What are the roles in Customer Success?

Customer Success is often not a one-man job. It is rather an umbrella and is sustained by several roles including (the responsibilities of some roles may overlap or be similar because different companies call the CS roles different names):

• Presales Support
• Implementation and Customer Onboarding Managers
• Product Technical Trainers/ Training and Development Specialists
• Account Managers
• Growth Managers
• Customer Success Managers
• Customer Experience Manager
• Client Engagement Manager
• Customer Insights Analyst
• Partner Success Manager
• Service Delivery Manager
• Technical Support Manager
• Product Support Specialist
• Customer Retention Specialist
• Customer Operations Manager

The most common role in this field is the Customer Success Manager. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll manage the entire customer success pipeline, as responsibilities can vary depending on the company’s specific needs and priorities.

Customer Success has only been rising in the last decade, and you’ll mostly see it in companies or startups with B2B or SaaS products and services. These are your Fintech’s, Insurtech’s, ERP brands, Healthcare, Technology/Telecom, etc.

Where and how does Implementation and Customer Onboarding fit into Customer Success?

In the Customer Success pipeline, Implementation and Customer Onboarding are the first and most critical stages of your customer’s journey not just with your B2B/SaaS product, but also with you as a company/startup. Ultimately, the client should have tangible proof of how your product can take them to the next level, and they should know HOW EXACTLY to do that by the end of the onboarding process.

Can I tell you a secret?

This is the most technical customer-facing role there is. Wait and see.

Let’s start from the beginning:

1. The Product and Engineering teams develop and build the product.
2. The Sales/Business Development teams look for and sign on new clients.
3. The Implementation and Customer Onboarding team steps in to onboard the new clients onto your platform and company.

Sounds simple enough, right?

Let’s use an example.

Are you a member of a SACCO or a Bank?

I want you to imagine the SACCO/Bank (with an average of 10,000 members and has existed for a couple of years) have announced they’re moving from their current system to a completely new Core Banking System.

Selecting and signing a contract with a new system’s vendor is one thing. Getting the SACCO/Bank to the point where they can use the new Core Banking System to run their business is another. This is where Implementation and Customer Onboarding Specialists come in.

It’s practically impossible for a new client to utilize a new B2B or SaaS product immediately after they’ve signed a contract unless they’re just starting their business (and unlike B2C products). Instead, it might be months before the client’s administrators can even log into their accounts, let alone the client’s employees or members have access.

Why?

In the case of your SACCO/Bank, they already serve 10,000 members and have been in business for five years. To successfully implement the new Core Banking System, and onboard them onto the platform, this is what would need to happen first:

1. System configuration and customization

They’re a unique client with different technical needs and wants. Depending on their specifications, you will configure modules such as member management, deposit and loan management, accounting, asset portfolio management, comprehensive reports, etc.

2. Product Configuration

Think back to how many products/facilities your SACCO or Bank offers.

In deposit products alone, you have withdrawable to non-withdrawable saving accounts, fixed-term deposits to check-in deposits, and from individual to joint to corporate deposit accounts.

In loan facilities, there are often tens of loan products from personal, business, education, car, mortgage, instant, holiday, debt consolidation, and payday loans.

The work is not only in the number of products to configure, but also each product runs under its own set of parameters and rules such as interest rates, duration, penalties, defaults, grace periods, withdrawal charges, applicable fees, etc.

3. Data Migration (Data extraction, cleaning, onboarding, and reconciliation)

This is often the crux of implementation.

If up to this point you’ve not cried or wanted to give up (literally), this is where you do it.

The SACCO/Bank has 10,000 members and has been in business for five years. Each member has at least three accounts. Each account has its own unique balance and transaction history. Some of the members have already left the SACCO/Bank. Some are dormant. Some are in loan arrears. Some do not have complete KYC information. Some closed their accounts and then came back.

Will you migrate data from five years back or with a recent cut-off date? What happens to the historical data? What would happen if you migrated incorrect balances?

4. Continuous Testing and User Acceptance Tests

Testing is a continuous process from the beginning.

When you configure a system module or a product, you test if it gives the expected results against the client’s set parameters. If the tests fail, you reconfigure until they pass.

There are also User Acceptance Tests where you and the client verify and validate the correctness and accuracy of the system functionality and the data migration. If the data doesn’t correspond to the accounting records, i.e. Trial Balance, as of a certain date, you’ll have entered your worst nightmare. If you simulate a defaulted loan facility and the loan schedule deviates from what should happen depending on set parameters, something is wrong.

Rinse and repeat until it all ticks.

5. Product and User Trainings

Technical Training for the Client can happen before or after Go-Live. It all depends on the situation and preference.

In this stage, you’ve already set up the system and migrated the client’s data, but the client cannot use it since they’re new.

With B2B and SaaS products, it’s not enough to hand out a user guide or a video tutorial. You’ll have to plan and execute comprehensive one-on-one trainings for the different sets of client’s stakeholders. From the staff to Executive Management.

The biggest risk of lack of or inadequate training is if the client fails to utilize your product to perform their business operations, you lose their trust and increase their likelihood of reverting to using their previous system. They’ll do anything but use your product. When this happens, whatever you do, you’re fighting a losing battle.

6. Go-Live

Congratulations!

The Client’s new Core Banking System is up and ready, and the Client is well-equipped to maximize its value to grow their business. You’ve finally made it.

It’s only been three months but who is keeping count? Normally it takes anywhere between two to six months to achieve Go-Live, and this will depend on factors such as the complexity of the product, the size of the client, the size of the implementation and onboarding team, the level of collaboration with the client, etc.

7. Handholding and Customer Support

After going live, you’ll continue to be the primary contact for the newly onboarded client. Whatever issues, questions, and concerns they’ll have for the next two months, you’re the person they’ll call. You’re their troubleshooting guru, trusted advisor, and therapist until they’re ready for account handover.

8. Customer Handover to Account Management

It’s six months since you began the journey with the SACCO/Bank.

The implementation and onboarding experience has been largely successful. The customer feels they made the right decision to partner with your product and company.

At this point, they’ve even enjoyed the first signs of growth your product promised them, and they know how to resolve any issues they might have. The frequent calls have disappeared and their engagement with the system is quite healthy. If anything, they’ve already begun shutting down their previous system.

Your work is done. Next comes the Account Manager.