Digital CS: Practical Strategies for Efficiency, Consistency, and Sustainability with Staffbase Violaine Yziquel, VP, Global Customer Success @ Staffbase, former Slack, Box

SaaStr Europa 2024

1. Digital CS: Practical Strategies for
Efficiency, Consistency, and Sustainability
with Staffbase
ViolaineYziquel
Global VP Customer
Success
Staffbase

2. A Little Bit About Me
8 years at Accenture, leading Product and Operations teams
Passionate about Product and enabling teams & customers
Developed a strong Customer Success expertise at Box then Slack/ Salesforce
Co-founded the largest peer learning community for CS professionals -Customer
Success Network
Now Global VP Customer Success at Staffbase, looking after 130+ team members
across Consulting, Customer Success Management and Customer Care
My motto:
-Arnold Schwarzenegger

3. Context: What is Digital Customer Success
Digital Customer Success is a blend
of human and digital touch points
that support the customer journey.
From self-service resources and
automated engagements to pooled
CSM models and predictive
modeling, digital can turn your
teams into retention, adoption, and
expansion machines.
-Gainsight
Digital Customer Success uses
automated engagement toolsto
provide a personalizedCustomer
Success experience for customers
at scale while requiring low-or-no-
touch from the actual Customer
Success Managers. Digital
Customer Success takes
advantage of automation tools,
leveraging their power to
strengthen customer relationships
and enhance communications,
while lightening workloads for CS
teams.
-SuccessHacker
This is a data-driven approachthat
prioritizes automated interactions
and leverages digital processes to
support customer outcome
achievement at scalethrough
digital tools such as in-app, email,
knowledge bases, and event-
triggered notifications.
-Forrester

5. Mistake #1 -1 CS Leader To Rule Them All
Assume you an appoint a Head of Digital
Customer Success quickly:
New role and no clear remit -on the
fly!
No previous experience as role is
new in the industry
Lots of messaging across multiple
audiences -a powerpoint heavy
role!
Instead:
Get an Executive Leadership Team
sponsored stream with regular
check ins and commitment
Double down on comms back to the
teams and on crowdsourcing
Hire a contractor to test the water
before transforming into a
permanent role

6. Mistake #2 -Launch Quickly
Assume you can fix all pain points at
once:
Team workload and poor
engagement survey results
Customer inconsistent touch points
and frustrations
No actionable insights to expand
the base or mitigate the risk
Instead, ask yourself the following:
What does my digital offerings look
like
What do customers say about your
current engagement model
How do you shift to a new model
whilst not overloading other teams

7. How To -Digital & Scaled Offerings

8. Mistake #3 -Assume It Will Be An Easy Ride
Easily assume the following:
Systems are well integrated and
data flows seamlessly
Data is accurate and actionable, oh
and real time too
Our cross functional partners are
available with no conflicting
priorities, including Product
Instead, never assume any of those!
Build a core team that is up for the
challenge and can get Sh*t done -
IT should be in there too!
Your first offerings will require extra
manual work
***Have a dedicated CSP admin***

9. Mistake #4 -1 Way & 1 Off Communications
Assume everyone is as excited as you
about Digital Customer Success
Not everyone understands what
for the business and for them
White glove support is still the
primary customer engagement
model in the industry
A lack of feedback from the teams
on the ground is usually a bad sign
Instead, take a step back and put
Be a parrot -any opportunity to talk
about DCS is a good opportunity to
seek feedback
Focus on the customer impact
Create various materials and share
across multiple channels for
broader reach, leveraging champs

10. How To -Comms Channels & Assets

11. Key Takeaways

12. Are You Ready?
Digital Customer Success is part ofan overall company digital strategy
Never launch too quickly-always think about the internal and external
impacts first
Leverage the tool stack you have -do not invest in too many toolsat first
Be a parrot!

14. Thank You!