 Good morning. It's so good to be here with all of you sharing my passion for customer success. And although I am not the customer success manager anymore, I am working in the marketing department. My roots and my passion definitely are part of the customer success and the customer success journey that happens within your business. Whether you are selling plugins like I've been involved with for years or you are an agency selling services to your customers, customer success, your customers success leads to your success. So let's talk about that a little bit today. First of all, hi, I'm Michelle Pritchett. I'm here because I love WordPress. I love the WordPress community. I love helping others grow their businesses, whether that's profit or nonprofit. I am currently the director of community engagement at Stellar WP where we have a whole host of plugins that we sell and a theme as well. So if you're interested in learning more, I've got details on how you can connect with me on the last slide and I am happy to talk about all things customer success with you. So let's get started. Let's talk a little bit about that. So let's first talk about what customer success isn't. So customer success isn't support exactly cause maybe a little bit, but not exactly customer support. And it's not sales really, but it kind of is sales too. So we're gonna talk a little bit about that and it's not marketing, but yeah, I mean it kind of is marketing too, right? So customer success actually hits on a lot of those different areas without actually diving deep into those areas. So for example, when I was working customer success for GiveWP, we didn't handle all of those support tickets, but we handled some support tickets. So we handled things that were about helping people be successful with the software, but not necessarily solving problems that they had with the software. So that's kind of what I mean about it. It kind of is, but it isn't really. So then what is customer success? Well, it is support adjacent. We in customer success help our customers find what they need. So for example, a customer may be having issues with their license or API keys, things like that. Well, that isn't necessarily a support ticket because support is usually like, hey, it crashed my site or it won't work alongside my other plugins. So for customer success, take those, what we used to call low hanging fruit type questions away from support to help customers quickly connect with their subscriptions, re-sign up, learn about how to use the software as opposed to helping solve issues that they have come up with. So support adjacent, if you have a customer success team, they should be working closely with your support team because they should be informing customer support about some of the issues that they're seeing regularly with customers and some of the questions that they're getting. So they are working with them, but they are not replacing customer support. They actually work very, very closely together, but they're really handling different questions that the customers are coming up with. It's also sales adjacent. So when I was working in customer success, I would actually do Zoom calls with potential customers and new customers to show them how the software works to answer their questions before they would make that purchase and to make sure that we were a good fit for their needs. If they had needs that our software didn't accomplish, then that was really good for them to find out before they spent money and before we had to do a refund. Because we didn't want to frustrate them. We didn't want to frustrate us. We didn't want the excitement of a sale only to lose that sale to discover that we weren't a good fit. And one, are you not a good fit? Well, my favorite ones were when somebody would say, hey, we're using Wix. Can we use GiveWP on Wix site or on a Squarespace site? It's like, well, actually it's WordPress software. So you won't be able to use it on other CRMs. So that would not be a good fit if you are not even using software that you can use our software with. So there's a little example of why some of those pre-sales calls through customer success were super important. Were people disappointed? Yes, but we can't fix that. But they were also grateful that they didn't spend money, try to make something work that wasn't going to work and then have to start all over again, which would then, of course, delay their success at the final end. So it is sales adjacent. And yes, most people are a good fit for you, but helping them understand that at the beginning is super important. And seeing faces really does, talking to people really does help make those sales. So being able to know that there's people, not just code at the other end of a purchase, sometimes is a really important thing. And then it is marketing adjacent. We would help the marketing team understand what our customers were looking for, the kinds of questions that they asked and how they were using the software. So all of those things can inform marketing so that marketing is hitting the mark right out the gate as opposed to trying to sell on features that weren't important to the majority of our customers. So working alongside support, sales, and marketing became a really huge part of customer success and still is. Customer success is absolutely 100% communication. Everything that you do is a communication either internally with those other departments or it's absolutely communication with those customers. And developing how you speak with customers, talking about the tone that you use, talking about words that work well and how we communicate with customers is really super important. It's the key to every relationship is communication. And we all know that, right? That's the key to communication with spouses and with parents and with friends and with children. Communication is the crux of every, it's that hub point of every relationship. And what does customer success do? It builds relationships between your product and your business with your customers. So fine-tuning that communication is really important. So what did we do? We wrote scripts, we had scripts and did we read them word for word and sound very wooden, of course not. But having talking points, having things that were scripted whether that's through email or that's leaving a voicemail or talking through on a Zoom call, having those points and having that kind of rehearsed expectation of how to communicate with people and the items that you wanna communicate was super important because it gave a comfort level to whether we had new customer success agents or seasoned customer success agents being able to have that open communication and have that comfort level with how to communicate about what we do. Super important. It's also onboarding. Whether you have an onboarding tutorial that you've created or you do Zoom calls and you do one-on-one onboarding with people it definitely is about helping them get started with the process. Whether that's again is software or whether that's you're building a website for somebody. So having that onboarding those calls or at least a series of emails or you've created YouTube videos whatever that onboarding looks like customer success should be part of that and should be the friendly face that tells people this is how you work with us and this is how we can help you be successful. Definitely at times it's hand-holding. I can't tell you the number of frequent flyers that we would call frequent flyers people who are constantly reaching out to customer success because of fear. They're worried that they're not gonna do something right. They're worried that they're gonna mess up their website. They're worried that they're not gonna raise money because they don't know what a webhook is or they don't understand the right terminologies to use. And so sometimes it was hand-holding it was doing one quick call with somebody to show them how to set up webhooks with Stripe or PayPal or how to use a code on their site so that they would be able to just kind of pick that form up and plop it down anywhere. So the idea of that hand-holding usually didn't take very long but it was that reassurance that your customers have that there's somebody else on the other end of an email or a phone call that says, hey, I got your back. This is how you do that moving forward. It's also celebrating. We would get, cause I would get emails from somebody saying, look, we've got it set up. What do you think? And then just being able to respond with an email that says, that looks fantastic. I'm so excited about your opportunities to raise money through your website or whatever it is that you're celebrating but to be able to celebrate with those customers. Those were a little few and far between but knowing that people felt comfortable enough to reach out and do that. And also just to find those best use cases and be able to push those through to marketing so that we could write articles about customer success. We could write, we can put blog posts out there. We could put social media posts out there celebrating some of the different ways that people were using our business. And it is definitely tied to your own income because when your customers succeed they continue to subscribe. They continue to use your services and year over year they will continue to pay you for the opportunity to work with what it is that you're selling them. And so that year over year income is definitely part of that customer success journey. So how is your customer success, your customer or your success also? Because successful customers are happy customers. Happy customers being renewals, also new projects and also referrals. So when somebody comes to you and they've, they love your services or they love your software so much that they're recommending it to other people. I mean, that's when went all the way around. So having those referrals, having those renewals and then people bring new projects to you is absolutely part of your success. And that means that they're happy and that things are working well for them as well. So let's talk about what works versus what actually helps as well. So I love this. This is one of the first things that I remember, memorizing from my childhood is that good, better, best, never rest until your good is better and your better is best. So are we providing good services, better services? Are we providing the best service, the best experience that we can for our customers? And so that's super important to think about. So when we move from what works to what helps, we move from satisfied customers to delighted customers. Satisfied customers, they might come back but they also might look for the next best deal or a cheaper solution. But as a lighted customer becomes brand loyal and in turn, even brand ambassadors for you. So these are the customers that are singing your praises to others and recommending you to others. They're also the customers that don't look at how much they're paying necessarily every year. Unless you're raising your rates ridiculously high, they're usually happy to continue to pay you for the work that you're doing with them or for the services or software that they're buying from you because they know it works and they're happy with what keeps coming in for that. So that's the difference between just somebody who's satisfied and somebody who's delighted. Have you ever, one of my experiences, for example, I fly a lot, I travel a lot for my job and I can get on an airplane and just be satisfied that I've got my seat, I've got my Dr. Pepper or whatever they're serving and my little bag of pretzels and then I can get off the flight. I arrived on time, I'm a satisfied customer. But I get delighted when the air crew is especially kind, especially nice. As somebody with a disability, I usually board first and they're usually very helpful to me. I've never had a problem as a disabled person getting on a flight and usually those air crew are so super helpful that I am a delighted customer and I have become brand loyal to a specific airline that always goes above and beyond to make sure that I am not only satisfied but that I'm delighted with their service. So that is where I always try to book and if they're not flying to where I'm flying, I'm disappointed that I have to go a different route because they have made me not only a delighted customer but somebody who then is gonna continue to use their services and is always recommending them to other people. So you can be satisfied or you can be delighted and again, those delighted people are the ones that are making you incredibly happy because they are continuing to use your services and then again, recommending them to others. When you are delighting your customers, sales becomes easier because you're selling to clients who are a good fit and again, those relationships are built. I like to think even though it's not with a particular person, when it comes to the way that I feel about airlines, for example, I feel like I have a relationship with the airline that's always doing nice things for me even though it's never the same gate agent I'm talking to, it's never the same flight crew that I'm talking to. They have built a, I can't think of words today, they have built a culture that, where everybody that you talk to has that same kind of way of interacting. So if your customer success team is one person or 20 people, those 20 people are all kind of the same mindset and they've all have the same training to be that relationship building between your product and our services and that customer. So people are often really brand loyal to things like Jeep, right? So people have an experience with Jeeps and there's a whole Jeep culture out there of people who are buying Jeeps and driving Jeeps and if you're driving down the road in a Jeep and there's another Jeep, they wave at each other and leave little ducks, little rubber ducks on each other's windshields saying, hey, I ducking, love your Jeep. There's a whole Jeep culture because people have built that relationship with that brand even though it's not with an individual person. There's an affinity, you feel like you belong. That's what people, that's what happens also with your software and with your business when you've gone that extra step to build relationships, people become that brand loyal and become those brand ambassadors and then renewals are seamless. So we, at the height of when I was working there, our recovery rate, our renewal rate was really, really almost double what a lot of other plugins were experiencing in the ecosystem at that time. And I really do believe it's because we would talk to people on the phone. They knew there was a number they could call if they were experiencing real issues, they could contact me and I could escalate that issue within our support system, for example. So if they were doing a specific fundraiser and it was today and something wasn't working, we could push them to the front of the line and make sure that things got looked at. Did that happen often? No, but the important thing was it was available to people. So they were so happy, those renewals became seamless and so our renewal rate year over year was really high. And then again, those recommendations abound, people are happy to recommend you. And thus, of course, your bottom line is better. So let's look at a few ways that you can delight your customers. The first thing is have a product or service that's worth paying for and paying for again, as in those renewals year after year. So it's super important, maintaining a customer. You've heard this before, I'm sure. Maintaining a customer, keeping your customers less expensive than attaining a customer. Marketing is expensive. Keeping those customers that you already have is usually an email. And people buy our products and services we celebrate and we should celebrate renewals even more because those renewals are, it's money in the bank if you can get that to happen but that's spending a lot of money that's win-win. So a good product or service, customers will look for other good products or services that will beat your price. Black Friday's coming up. We know that people look for those deals are they gonna jump ship from your product to somebody who does the same thing or are they gonna stay with you? Well, part of that will be if you have a great product or service because customers are gonna stay rather than take the time to look for other opportunities and other relationships. If you've built a nice relationship with them and they know that you're trustworthy and they know that they can continue to come back to you to help them continue being successful. So do you have a good product or do you have a great product? Do you have a good customer experience or do you have a great customer experience? It's nuanced, but it absolutely makes a difference. So the second thing I have is be human. How many times have you ever tried to get customer service and all you get are like FAQ pages on a website or you get in that phone system where all you get is recorded messages and all you wanna do is talk to a person. So be human, be that person. Real relationships happen between people not between a person and a business. Your people represent that business and therefore they build that relationship with your business for you because they've shown the human side of who you are. Businesses are impersonal. Would you rather chat with a bot like I said would you rather have the question comes up with like hi chat with us and you're like, cool, here's my question. And then all of a sudden like the responses are we have articles in our knowledge base that addresses this big, big, big, big, big but you haven't actually talked to a person you had that experience that you were thought you were gonna get somebody for real and then you did it. So businesses can be impersonal but humans make a difference. If you can talk to a person on a phone or you can get an authentic email reply or that chat bot that comes up isn't a bot but an actually human being that takes over the chat and answers your questions which would you rather have, right? So businesses are impersonal. I feel like I have to do the work on my own. I feel like I have to delve in and sometimes that's great because if you have an answer for me and I can find it quickly on your website and solve my own problem, that's great. But oftentimes if it has elevated beyond where I can do that and I'm frustrated talking to a real human being whether that's again online or on the phone can make a huge, huge difference. Outreach and availability. So I always said don't wait until a customer has a problem do periodic outreach to check in and see how they're doing. So if you want renewals to happen doing periodic outreach whether that's a phone call or an email to your customers but specifically to them not some generic thing that you just send out every six months to everybody that can really make a difference. So we would do phone calls at the six month mark and then the nine month mark because we wanted to make sure that people were remembered that that annual renewal was coming up and that however many hundreds of dollars is gonna come out of their bank account because of their subscription with us. So in order to make sure that they didn't do charge backs or they didn't dispute charges, things like that we wanted to make sure that they were happy with the product and that they were using the product and that they were happy to pay that renewal rate. So doing those check-ins was important. Now sometimes people think that you're just trying to sell them something else. So you really have to be like quick in the initial whether it's email or that phone call or voicemail you have to be quick to make sure that to say hey just calling into check and see how you're doing if you have any questions because you don't want people to think that you're just trying to upsell them on things. People hate that, right? We all hate that. It's important sometimes, right? Cause upsells are important but if they're not expecting it and if it's not timed the right way they're just gonna think you're another telemarketer for example. And so but getting people on the phone usually meant like we would call somebody and we would say just checking in and see how things are going. And so often instead of saying great thanks and hanging up or hanging up on us because they thought we were telemarketing they would say oh I actually do have a question. And so they didn't necessarily think about emailing us they didn't think about reaching out to us but we were able to help them solve those questions that they had in the back of their head because we were proactive and reached out to them. And so that really delighted them a lot of the time. Yes, we got some people that said please take my phone number off of your call list and don't call me again and we're happy to do that as well. And some people are just they're just DIYers and they don't want your help and that's perfectly fine but being able to talk to the people who found that to be useful was really good. Now take calls answer email but set boundaries for your team. So we never ever ever used our personal phone numbers. We used our personal phones but we didn't use our personal phone numbers and there's ways that you can do that whether it's Google voice, Air call there's other online ways to get a phone number that works through an app and doesn't actually expose your personal number to your customers. Also made sure that my team always didn't work outside of work hours. Yes, we all put Slack on our phones but if I saw people responding to Slack if I saw them responding to emails outside of their work hours that was a conversation because I wanted to protect my team as well to make sure that they had the stamina to continue through day by day by day and I don't want them burning out. So setting those boundaries of those work hours is super important for your customer success team. It's exciting to work in customer success. You really feel like you're making a difference to people and there is a little bit of endorphins in that, right? To have all that positive feedback. So it's easy to see how you might want to be like oh, I'll just answer a few more emails or I'll just make a few more calls but setting aside making sure that those work hours are adhered to me, make sure that you can continue to do that sustainably. And then also set expectations, appropriate expectations in your contracts and communication. So yeah, when we sell software, the contract is you bought it you have it for a year, and contracts within when I was freelancing and when I built websites for people are a different thing, right? But make sure that however you're doing that that you have set expectations. So if nobody answers email from midnight to 6 a.m. have an automatic reply between midnight and 6 a.m. that says hey, our team is asleep right now but we'll be back in the morning and we'll be happy to answer your email. Something like that, setting those expectations. Right now we all know that our customers have so many ways that they can be in touch with us, right? So if we have a phone number out there they can call us, they can email us, they can fill out a form on our website and then every social media platform that we use also has a way to DM or tag people. So there's so many different ways that our customers can get in touch with us that setting those boundaries and setting those expectations is incredibly important for your own mental health and for the health of your business. Number three is invest in the tools and the people that you need to support your clients in a human way. Hiring people and then not giving them the tools to do their jobs is like asking a surgeon to remove your child's tonsils with a spoon on your kitchen counter. It's not advised, let's not do that. So tools for human productivity but also ask your team what they need to feel successful to because it's gonna be different team by team, person by person. One of the questions that I've always asked whenever I've interviewed candidates for a job is other than monetary compensation what makes you feel successful? How do you like to be appreciated? And those kinds of questions really help build your team up. So like I said, use phone numbers that aren't their personal numbers. So they feel confident and you can also within those apps turn off calling between certain hours. So we've used aircall.io for our team in the past. It's not cheap, but it's a worthwhile investment. You can have automated responses. You can have hours that your phone rings or doesn't ring. So having a software like that is super important. Have an email ticketing system, not just an email address. So whether you use Help Scout or Free Scout or Zendesk or any of those other ones having an email ticketing system is really important because it allows other people to pick up when you're on vacation. You can see the status of things. You can interact with other parts of your business through your ticketing system. And then use a CRM for tracking and email automation. So whether you're using HubSpot, Active Campaign, whatever it is that you're using to build your clientele in a CRM, make sure that you're using it and that you're making notes so that other people see what's been done. And then inter-office real-time communications. So whether you're using MS, I think it's Teams, Slack. I think a lot of us use Slack. I'm a big Slack fan myself. And then other things like Zoom accounts, headphones, mics, comfortable chairs, et cetera. It all matters. If you are asking somebody to sit for eight hours a day making phone calls, being on screen, make sure that they're comfortable. They have the equipment that they need to do that as well. So what's the value added? What can you do to add value to these relationships? Well, I think that adding, having a newsletter that gives them ideas is important. So with GiveWP, we were fundraising software. So I wrote a ton of blog articles on fundraising ideas just to kind of help people with the creative juices, right? Yeah, we had lots of articles that talked about how to use the software, but more than that, like how can you add value? What are some fun ways that they can use your software? And whether if it's a form, if it's security plugin, all of those things have the ability to generate ideas and how to be more secure, how to have better success, how to pivot and how to use your product, right? So SEO software, for example, I get newsletters from SEO software that's constantly teaching me how to do SEO better, especially as it evolves over time. So have newsletters with ideas, write those blog posts that give really good SEO juice to your site, but also really provide good information for your customers and potential customers. Do webinars, trainings, workshops online. Do social media shoutouts, do tips and ideas. Maybe it's a two minute tip and every Tuesday you do a two minute tip. I need to record a video and how to be successful with what it is that you're doing. Just so many different ideas that you can include your customer success team and that outreach to your customers that also, again, is that marketing adjacent so that they are getting ideas, they want to continue to renewal, they're using your product for free, maybe they want to go into that paid premium model. And then you can also perhaps do consultations on their services, their website, their products. So oftentimes we would just say, hey, if anybody wants us to take a look at your website and give you any feedback on how you're using your fundraising software, let us know, we do that once a month. Some of these things aren't in place any longer, but they were and there's plenty of opportunities to be able to do those kinds of things with your customers. And then this feels counterintuitive, but I also try to remove thank you from most of what I say in a customer interaction. So there are times when thank you and I'm sorry you're appropriate, but there are times they're not too, so let's talk about that. Some things are so common that they lose meaning and aren't even noticed. So if you see at the beginning of an email, thank you for XYZ, blah, blah, blah, blah, you don't even, we don't even register that anymore, things that we see so often. So how can we change that up and say something other than thank you? So when I first started working there, we sent on an email that said, thank you for buying our software, you've helped us keep the lights on. And I said, let's reverse that. Instead of thanking them for helping us keep the lights on, let's tell them how exciting it is that they are now gonna be able to do something more than they've ever done before by using our software. So we stopped thanking people for their business or using the services. I don't thank people for asking me questions anymore. And I don't thank people for meeting with me unless I'm the one that initiated the invitation. I do thank people for giving me something that I asked for. I do thank people for grace when needed. I have been late to a meeting on occasion and of course I thank people for hanging in there waiting for me. And I thank people for their generosity 100%. But what do I say instead of thank you? I say things like congratulations on your purchase of our software. Welcome to the, our software community. I'm excited for you. Amazing things can happen because you are now using our services or our software. Congratulations on taking the next step in your success. And let's get started on building your fundraising page or your form or whatever it is, your firewalls. All of those things are empowering language instead of kowtowing language. So absolutely be congratulatory and be excited for them instead of just thanking them for helping you keep the lights on. And then the last thing is don't apologize unless you did something wrong. So apologies aren't fixes, but they can be liabilities. So why I stopped saying I'm sorry or rather what I do and what I don't, right? So I don't apologize if our software isn't a good fit for you. I didn't do anything wrong by our software not being a good fit for you. I don't apologize if I have to say no, no, we can't do that. It's not, I'm sorry we can't do that. It's just we don't do that, period, right? I don't apologize when the customer's mistake leads to issues. And I don't apologize if it isn't our or my fault. I do apologize when we make a mistake. I do apologize if I'm late to a meeting. And I do apologize if it's appropriate to apologize. But somebody saying your software doesn't work for me, that's not an apology, that's unfortunate, right? So what do we say? It's unfortunate that this didn't work out. This is how you go about getting a refund. It's unfortunate that this didn't work out. Well, cancel the subscription so it doesn't renew next year if it's beyond that refund window, right? So it doesn't seem more a good fit for your needs but here's someone or something that might work for you. So if somebody says, give didn't work for me, I need it to be able to do X, Y, Z instead of just saying, oh, that's too bad. If I can recommend another product to them now, I am actually still part of their solution instead of being a total dead end for them. If I'm unable to process a refund, I just say we're unable to process a refund for you. It's outside of our 30 day window. We will cancel your subscription so it doesn't renew next year. We wish you great success. But I didn't apologize. I still was part of their solution. I still was incredibly positive but I didn't have to apologize for something that we didn't do wrong. Also, I see what happened and we can fix it. Now, I'm sorry that you did that. I'm sorry that it made a mistake because of your user entry or your user inability to understand but I see what happened there and let's help you fix that. We can get to the bottom of this. And although it wasn't caused by our team or our product or us, let's see if we can help you find a solution to that problem. Did I mention stay human? Make sure that at the core of everything, you are a human being, you continue to be a human being and you make human connections with your customers. I wanna say thank you for being here today. I think we're coming right up on the hour in a few minutes. I do wanna answer any questions that you have. All of my social connections, everything is at meetmichelle.online. So you go there, you can find me on Twitter X, you can find me on Massed On, you can find me on all the places. If you have questions, I'm always happy to talk to people offline later or online later. I don't know what the word is anymore since we're all so remote but I wanna just make sure if you have any questions, we got a few minutes. Guillaume, thank you so much for your kind words about the presentation. Hopefully this was really helpful to people today. And yeah, I wanna, if you have any questions, that was a good time to ask them. So let me know. Let's see, I'm looking to see if there's, yeah, I think Q and A is already open right here. I'll be able to comment in there. Fantastic. Yeah. So yeah, so if you have anything, let me know. I think I just lost the, there it is, the questions. Yeah, so I hope that you enjoy the rest of today. And really looking forward to hearing about how this whole event goes for everybody. I love online presentations because they really do help people connect. Let's see. Anna, very actionable tips. Instead of abstract contents, my pleasure. Thank you for attending. I hope that this was helpful to you. And Leanne, my client told me to stop apologizing. It comes so naturally. I was once told that women especially say thank you for things we shouldn't say thank you for and apologize for things that weren't our fault. And so I think sometimes it's just ingrained in who you are as a human being. I'm sure it's true for men as well. I can only speak from my experience. But I was told to stop thanking people for giving me work, for example, when I worked at a college and they would dump all this work and I say, okay, thank you. And she said, why are you thanking me for making your life more difficult? I said, yeah, that's a good point. So yeah, so stop saying thank you. It could be a Canadian thing. This is true. And my family is French-Canadian. So I have my roots up in Quebec. So maybe it's just ingrained in me as well. So yeah, so it is one of those things that we just do. I think we're just taught at an early age take responsibility for things that we're not responsible for, to thank people for things that we don't need to thank them for. So yeah, so stopping apologizing, stopping saying thank you. Not all together of course, but using those things appropriately, the impact for them is greater than. So I did say thank you for being here because I am truly appreciative that you took the time this morning to spend some time with me here at work at Montreal. So thank you. If there aren't any other questions, I guess we'll call it a wrap and I will log out. But it was so good spending some time with y'all here this morning. Enjoy your coffee, enjoy the rest of your day and we will see you later.