We think that 2024 should be the year of Customer Success (CS). CS are typically underrated but incredibly key teams when it comes to the growth of any business. The stats to support this are plentiful as well.
According to McKinsey, 70% of the customer’s journey is based completely on how they are being treated.
KPMG found that 90% of consumers worldwide consider “issue resolution” aka dealing with post-sale complaints, the most important element of customer support.
An annoyed customer is 4x more likely to go with a competitor if a problem they have is based on poor service.
Each of these stats on their own is strong, if not surprising, but together it really shows why a solid CS team, with tools that help and support their role can be a very powerful force.
It’s also financially astute to pour as much into CS as it is into new business development (Sorry marketing and sales!), with a 5% increase in customer retention increasing the average bottom line from between 25 to 95%.
Everybody wants to do well in the coming months and years, and so looking after your CS team is key. With that in mind, we’ve collated 13 of the best tools that can help support CS to do their job well. And, added bonus, they might help a few other departments too, although CS MAY not want to help sales out too much….
@tldv.io Who deserves credit? Sales? CS? CS's backhand? #customersuccess #cs #sales #ceo #accountmanager
♬ original sound - tldv.io - AI Meeting Recorder
1) tl;dv - Meeting Recording and Analysis
Leading from the front we have tl;dv. Every CS needs to have face time with their customer base. And while it may be more comfortable to do everything via email and Slack, doing it via video call and using online meeting software can provide that all-important “human” element. It’s even backed by science!
Whether you are a Zoom, Google Meet or even a Microsoft Teams users, tl;dv integrates directly with your meetings allowing you to capture every moment between you and your customer.
Rundown of The Pros Of Using tl;dv
- Enhanced Engagement: tl;dv offers a platform for more personal and engaging interactions with customers. Video calls add a human touch that emails and texts can’t match, fostering stronger relationships.
- Record and Review: The ability to record meetings ensures that every detail is captured. This is invaluable for reviewing customer feedback, understanding their needs, and ensuring that no critical information is missed.
- Time Efficiency: With recorded meetings, team members can revisit specific sections instead of sitting through entire meetings again. This saves time and allows for focused analysis on key points.
- Improved Training and Onboarding: New CS team members can watch previous calls to learn about customer interactions, common issues, and effective resolution strategies.
- Seamless Integration: tl;dv’s compatibility with popular platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams makes it easy to integrate into existing workflows without needing additional training or complex setups.
- Actionable Insights: Analyzing recorded calls can provide insights into customer behavior, preferences, and pain points, helping in tailoring services and products more effectively.
- Quality Assurance: Regular review of calls helps in maintaining high standards of customer service and identifying areas for improvement.
- Documentation and Compliance: Recording calls can serve as documentation for compliance and legal purposes, ensuring that all customer interactions are above board.
- Enhanced Collaboration: Teams can collaborate more effectively by sharing key segments of calls, discussing strategies, and providing feedback based on real interactions.
- Customer Feedback Analysis: With tl;dv, it’s easier to analyze and categorize customer feedback, helping in strategic decision-making and product development.
- Conflict Resolution: Recorded calls can be used to resolve disputes or misunderstandings by providing a clear record of what was discussed.
- Personalized Follow-ups: CS representatives can rewatch calls to ensure personalized follow-ups, making customers feel valued and heard.
- Customer Success Application: Captures crucial customer feedback during meetings, aiding in understanding customer needs and improving service strategies.
Price?
tl;dv offers a basic version at no cost, which is great for small teams or for those who want to test the service before fully committing. For more advanced features, there’s a premium tier available at just $25 per month per user. There’s also no lengthy contracts and is great for scaling up and down as required.
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
It enhances customer engagement and understanding through recorded video interactions, providing a more personal and thorough customer service experience.
2) Salesforce - CRM System
Salesforce revolutionizes customer relationship management, offering a comprehensive suite of tools that enable businesses to track every interaction with their customers. By consolidating customer information and interactions in one place, Salesforce provides actionable insights that can be used to personalize customer support and enhance engagement.
This CRM system is particularly valuable for its ability to segment customers, predict their needs, and streamline communication across various channels.
Pros
Customizable: Tailors to specific business needs.
Scalability: Grows with your business, from small teams to large enterprises.
Integration: Seamlessly works with a variety of other business tools.
Price?
Salesforce pricing in 2023 ranges from $25 to $330 per user per month, depending on the plan and features selected.
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Offers unparalleled customer relationship management, enabling personalized support and detailed customer insights for tailored service.
3) Hootsuite – Social Media Listening
Hootsuite stands out as a critical tool for monitoring and managing social media interactions. It allows customer success teams to listen actively to customer feedback, brand mentions, and engage in proactive customer support. By keeping a pulse on social media conversations, teams can quickly respond to customer inquiries and manage their brand’s online reputation effectively.
Pros
Real-time Monitoring: Stay ahead of social media trends and customer feedback.
Multi-Platform Management: Manage multiple social media accounts from a single dashboard.
Analytics and Reporting: Gain insights into customer engagement and campaign performance.
Price
Pricing ranges from $49 to $739 per month, with plans including Professional, Team, Business, and a customizable Enterprise plan. The exact pricing depends on the number of social profiles managed
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Keeps you connected to customer sentiments and trends on social media, ensuring proactive and responsive customer engagement.
4) UserTesting – Product Research Software
UserTesting is an invaluable tool for gathering direct customer feedback on products. It bridges the gap between customer expectations and product offerings by providing real-time insights. This software is instrumental in aligning product development with customer needs, ensuring that innovations are customer-focused.
Pros
Direct Customer Feedback: Get real user opinions on your product.
Fast and Efficient: Quickly gather and analyze feedback.
User Experience Insights: Understand how customers interact with your product.
Price
UserTesting offers tiered pricing plans but the prices are not listed publicly and likely require contacting their sales team for more information
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Directly aligns your product development with customer needs and preferences, leveraging real-user feedback for continuous improvement.
5) Qualtrics – Customer Feedback System
Qualtrics excels in measuring customer satisfaction and feedback, providing key insights into service improvement areas. It’s a powerful tool for any customer success team looking to understand and enhance their customers’ experiences.
Pros
In-depth Surveys: Create customized surveys for detailed feedback.
Analytics Tools: Analyze data for actionable insights.
Real-time Reporting: Quickly adapt to customer feedback.
Price
Qualtrics offers a flexible pricing model, catering to businesses of different scales, from small to large enterprises. Get in touch for a demo and pricing.
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Empowers you with deep customer insights through advanced survey tools, driving improvements in service based on direct feedback.”
6) Slack – Communication Platform
Slack transforms internal communication for customer success teams. It streamlines conversations, file sharing, and collaboration, making it easier to manage customer success initiatives. By having a centralized platform for communication, teams can respond quicker to customer needs and maintain alignment on projects and goals.
Pros
Centralized Communication: Keeps all team conversations and files in one place.
Integration Capabilities: Works seamlessly with other tools and apps used by customer success teams.
Real-time Collaboration: Facilitates quick decision-making and problem-solving among team members.
Price
Slack offers a free version for small teams. There are three other pricing editions, ranging up to $12.50 per user per month. There is also an Enterprise plan which is available on requests.
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Streamlines internal communication, ensuring that customer success teams can collaborate effectively and respond promptly to customer needs.
7) Google Analytics – Analytics and Reporting Tool
Google Analytics is crucial for understanding customer behavior on websites. It offers insights into how customers interact with your online presence, helping to tailor experiences to their preferences. This data-driven approach aids in optimizing websites for better engagement and conversion.
Pros
Customer Behavior Insights: Understand how customers interact with your site.
Customizable Reports: Create reports that focus on metrics important to your team.
Integration with Marketing Tools: Enhances the effectiveness of online marketing strategies.
Price
Google Analytics is available totally free, with an advanced version (Google Analytics 360) for enterprises, offering additional features and support.
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Provides valuable data on customer online behavior, helping tailor digital experiences to individual customer preferences.
8) Mailchimp – Email Management Software
Mailchimp excels in managing customer communication campaigns. It’s an invaluable tool for customer success teams to keep customers informed, nurture relationships, and engage customers through targeted email marketing.
Pros
Automated Campaigns: Schedule and send emails automatically based on customer behavior.
Customizable Templates: Create professional-looking emails easily.
Analytics and Reporting: Track the performance of your email campaigns.
Price
Mailchimp offers four pricing plans: the free plan, the Essentials plan starting at $13 a month, the Standard plan starting at $20 a month, and the Premium plan starting at $350 a month
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Enables targeted and personalized email campaigns, fostering ongoing engagement and nurturing long-term customer relationships.
9) Zendesk – Helpdesk and Support Ticket System
Zendesk streamlines customer inquiries and support ticket management. It’s essential for providing timely and effective customer service, ensuring that every customer issue is addressed promptly and efficiently.
Pros
Efficient Ticket Management: Organize and track customer issues effectively.
Multi-channel Support: Manage support across email, chat, and social media.
Knowledge Base Integration: Helps customers find answers quickly with self-service options.
Price
Zendesk offers different pricing tiers to offer a range of pricing. The Suite Team plan starts at $55 per agent per month, Suite Growth at $89 per agent per month, Suite Professional at $115 per agent per month, and Suite Enterprise which requires contact for pricing
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Offers efficient ticket management and multi-channel support, ensuring timely and effective resolution of customer inquiries.
10) TalentLMS – Training and Onboarding Platform
TalentLMS is designed to empower customer success teams through effective training and onboarding. It provides a platform for learning and development, ensuring that team members are well-equipped with the necessary product knowledge and customer service skills. This focus on training enhances the overall capability of the team to handle complex customer queries and provide high-quality service.
Pros
Comprehensive Training Modules: Offers varied and in-depth learning content.
User-friendly Interface: Makes it easy for team members to access and complete training.
Tracking and Reporting: Monitors progress and effectiveness of training programs.
Price
TalentLMS has a range of plans. The Starter Active at $69 per month (billed yearly) for up to 40 active users, Basic Active at $149 per month for up to 100 active users, Plus Active at $279 per month for up to 250 active users, Premium Active at $459 per month for up to 500 active users, and an Enterprise plan with customizable pricing
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Enhances the skillset of customer success teams through comprehensive, accessible training, directly impacting service quality.
11) Asana – Project Management Tool
Asana is a project management tool that helps customer success teams plan, track, and manage their initiatives efficiently. It’s instrumental in ensuring that projects related to customer success, such as onboarding processes, feedback implementations, and service enhancements, are executed on time and within scope. Asana aids in maintaining clear communication and accountability within the team.
Pros
Task Management: Assign and track tasks to ensure timely completion.
Collaborative Workspace: Facilitates teamwork and transparency among members.
Customizable Workflows: Tailors to the specific needs of customer success projects.
Price
Asana’s free personal version is available for teams of up to 10 people. Asana Starter costs $10.99 per user per month when billed annually and $13.49 per user per month when billed monthly. Asana Advanced is $24.99 per user per month when billed annually and $30.49 when billed monthly
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Facilitates meticulous project management for customer success initiatives, ensuring tasks are completed efficiently and on time.
12) Drift – AI-Powered Chatbot and Assistant
Drift introduces AI-powered efficiency in customer interactions. It provides immediate, automated responses to customer inquiries, improving the customer experience significantly. This tool is especially beneficial for handling common queries, allowing human agents to focus on more complex customer needs. Drift’s AI capabilities ensure that customer queries are addressed promptly, increasing satisfaction and engagement.
Pros
Instant Customer Responses: Provides immediate answers to common customer queries.
Scalable Customer Support: Handles high volumes of interactions efficiently.
Personalized Interactions: AI-driven conversations can be tailored to each customer.
Price
Offers a Premium plan starting at $2,500 per month (billed annually) for small businesses. While this may sound expensive when you factor in the time saved and resources saved, it has quite a swift return on investment.
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Delivers instant, AI-powered customer service, providing immediate responses and scaling support to meet customer demands.
Zintego – Invoicing Tool
Zintego offers an adaptable online invoicing solution and a Receipt Maker that is ideal for both individuals and businesses. It allows you to create professional invoices effortlessly without requiring specialized software or advanced design skills. This tool simplifies and economizes the invoicing process, making it more accessible whether you are a freelancer, a sole proprietor, or running a small business. By using Zintego, you streamline your billing operations with ease and efficiency.
Pros
Easy Customization: This feature allows you to tailor invoice templates to meet your specific business needs.
Watermark-Free Templates: These templates are clean and professional, with no branding from the template provider.
Built-in Formulas for Calculations: These formulas automatically calculate totals, taxes, and discounts, reducing manual errors.
Price
A free 30-day trial is offered to start. After that, various plans are available: the Lite plan costs $3.00 per month, while the Standard plan is a favorite at $8.33 per month. The Advanced plan is available for $15.00 per month. For larger teams, the Unlimited plan is the best option, costing $33.34 per month.
Why Is It Good For Customer Success?
Zintego’s features streamline the invoicing and billing processes and contribute directly to improving customer relationships by ensuring transparency, accuracy, and professionalism in every transaction.
2024 is the year of Customer Success
In 2024, the success of a customer success team will heavily rely on the tools they use. The above list is designed to provide your team with a comprehensive toolset that addresses all facets of customer success—from engagement and feedback to internal communication and project management. Embracing these tools will not only boost your team’s efficiency and effectiveness but also enhance your customers’ overall experience with your brand.
And before we settle up, let’s circle back to the start: a happy customer success team is the backbone of a thriving business. With tl;dv, think of it as not just a meeting tool; it’s a strategic asset in your customer success arsenal. So, as you equip your team, remember to include tl;dv, your key to unlocking enhanced customer engagement and financial health.
