Customer Success: Driving Growth or Damaging Your Brand?
A recent customer success interaction highlighted a common problem: prioritizing upselling over genuine customer support. Instead of a promised roadmap review, the focus was solely on pushing an unnecessary product upgrade.
This experience exemplifies what happens when Customer Success becomes an extension of the sales team, especially when new customer acquisition slows. Often, the priority shifts to raising prices and aggressively upselling existing customers.
While upselling has its place, the trade-offs must be carefully considered. Short-term revenue gains can come at the expense of long-term customer relationships and brand reputation.
Prioritizing True Customer Success
Truly successful Customer Success teams act as powerful word-of-mouth marketers. They build strong customer relationships that translate into positive reviews, referrals, and organic growth.
For example, prioritizing customer satisfaction helped one company achieve over 1,000 five-star reviews on the Salesforce AppExchange. Their customers loved their VP of Customer Success, and readily provided positive feedback.
If your Customer Success team is solely focused on revenue, you risk missing out on a significant opportunity to turn your customers into brand champions.
Word-of-Mouth: The Most Powerful Marketing Tool
For most B2B companies, word-of-mouth is the leading source of new customers and leads. If your Customer Success team isn't contributing to positive word-of-mouth, you're losing valuable growth potential.
Founders and executives must be intentional about their Customer Success strategy. Understand the trade-offs between short-term revenue gains and long-term brand building. Prioritizing true customer success fosters loyalty, drives organic growth, and ultimately strengthens your brand.
At Least 20% of Your New Customers Should Come from Referrals and Word of Mouth. Ideally, 50%.
