Customer success is a term that represents a steady focus on the goals of the client and ensuring their success. It is vital that all teams across your business work together strategically to guarantee that new customers experience the value and results they were promised. This dedication to achieving customer goals – not just organizational goals – should become a part of company culture. Incorporating these objectives into corporate DNA requires tacit and tribal knowledge to be accessible when needed. This article will discuss effective knowledge transfer as it pertains to the customer journey through your organization.
Knowledge Transfer to Benefit Customer Success
Your business must have clear goals and identified timelines to help clients reach their objectives. Developing intuitive customer handoff and knowledge transfer processes between divisions is essential. Teams involved in knowledge transfer may include sales, product development, customer service, and marketing.
The knowledge transfer process will help your employees create, document, organize and distribute essential customer data and information.
Establishing an Effective Knowledge Transfer Mechanism
- Understand Events and Timelines: The sales and customer success teams must identify each client’s compelling event timeline. Communicating specific and detailed knowledge regarding the timeline will facilitate the development of appropriate expectations.
- Document How the Client Defines Success: Specific client expectations were communicated during the sales process, whether explicitly or implicitly. Customer success and account management teams must understand any commitments or promises made, what products or services were sold, and what timelines were established. A common issue in the past was a disconnect between sales promises and fulfillment reality, but effective knowledge transfer minimizes the risk of these issues.
- Determine Stakeholder Roles: Sales reps typically coordinate with various individuals across the organization to secure contract approval and close the deal. When the customer success manager assumes responsibility for the account, all information regarding stakeholders, influencers, and decision-makers, as well as each one’s role. The customer success manager must utilize provided knowledge and build on these relationships to further develop the partnership.
- Communicate Potential Stumbling Blocks: Just because your organization was ultimately awarded the contract does not mean everyone was happy about it. In the client’s organization, some may have favored a competitor or had an issue with your product and voted against it. Customer success and account managers must be aware of any negative relationships, red flags, or problems that took place over the sales process – such as inaccurate information or missed deadlines – so they can approach the new client with the right assumptions and strategies.
- Understand Why They Purchased from You: Finally, it is vital to understand why the customer chose your solution over all others. What were the hot buttons, key issues, and pain points? This information will help achieve customer goals and plan for future add-ons and feature upgrades that will make their jobs easier.
Strategic Knowledge Transfer Builds Trust and Success
Trust is established when transparency and success are on everyone’s mind. Trust requires building an open relationship between the client and your organization – and between teams within your business.
Knowledge transfer is integral to building that transparency and trust. But in today’s workplace, sharing knowledge amongst team members happens less around water coolers and conference tables – and more through online access to comprehensive information portals. Creating a culture of accountability of documentation and providing a mechanism to share that information easily will rapidly drive an organization to more revenue, market share, and success.
If you are a sales executive looking to leverage the vast tribal knowledge of your sales and service teams, call today to learn how the KLONE Organizer can help you achieve your goals.