Health Metrics That Matter
As a customer success leader, you have a critical mission - defining what a 'healthy' customer looks like for our organization. This may seem like a straightforward task, but it requires a deep and thorough examination of our product, our users, and our business strategy. The goal here is to identify the key metrics that can help us track and measure customer health effectively and accurately.
One of these metrics could be user activity. However, defining 'good' user activity is not as simple as it may seem. Is 'good' defined by the frequency of use? Or is it about the intensity of use? Could it perhaps be the diversity of features used? These are questions that need thoughtful consideration, as they will form the basis of how we gauge customer engagement with our product. We need to understand what optimal usage looks like for our product, and then benchmark customer activity against this ideal.
The next step in this process is to identify the features or pages that customers should be using frequently. This helps us understand the value they are deriving from our product. For example, if we find that a critical feature of our product is underused, it could be a sign that our customers are not fully realizing the potential value of our product, which could be a red flag. This could signal a need for improved onboarding, better feature visibility, or perhaps even a product redesign.
Thirdly, it's essential to look at how customers are utilizing their license. Are they using all the seats they've purchased? Or are there still some left unused? These patterns can tell us if the customer is getting their money's worth, which can directly impact their satisfaction and their likelihood to renew their contract. If there is under-utilization, we need to dig deeper to understand why and how we can help the customer maximize their investment.
Understanding where the largest Return On Investment (ROI) comes from is also crucial. This knowledge can provide insights into what aspects of our product are delivering the most value to our customers. It helps us align our product development and marketing strategies with what truly matters to our customers, thereby fostering customer loyalty and long-term growth.
By the end of this exercise, the goal is to have a comprehensive list of potential health scoring metrics. This list will serve as our compass as we build our customer success program, helping us focus our resources on the most impactful areas. It will guide our strategy, our goals, and our tactics, ensuring that our customers are always successful in their journey with us.
Building a customer success program is not a one-time event, but a continuous process. It requires regular review and refinement of our metrics as our product evolves and as we gain a deeper understanding of our customers. But with a well-defined set of health scoring metrics, we can ensure that our customer success program is built on a solid foundation that will drive customer satisfaction, retention, and growth.
