To be honest, Customer Success is a field that really confused me when I first transitioned into EdTech. After all, isn’t it kind of everyone’s job to make sure customers are successful?
It turns out Customer Success departments are relatively new and their evolution has a lot to do with how software products are sold. Here is the incredibly oversimplified version: Let’s say I go to Bed Bath and Beyond and buy a toaster. As long as it works as advertised, I’m not going to think about that purchase again (and it will be a long time before I buy another toaster). And as long as the company gets a consistent stream of new toaster-buyers, they don’t care if most of us are one-time customers.
On the other hand, software companies are typically subscription-based; they’re only successful if their customers keep coming back for more. In other words, it’s not enough for EdTech companies to get new schools to buy their products — they also have to make sure their existing users find lasting value. Otherwise, those schools won’t renew their subscriptions and the company is filling a leaky bucket!
You might be thinking, “wait a second, this whole provide lasting value thing stillsounds like it should be everybody’s problem.” And you’re right! At strong companies, everyone works together to increase the retention rate (the percentage of customers who stick around) and minimize the churn rate (the percentage of customers who leave). The engineers, designers, and product managers have to build a valuable product that’s easy to use, and sellers and marketers have to ensure that the product reaches the right market and actually gets sold.
On top of this, though, most growing companies build out Customer Success departments to give existing customers more dedicated & personalized attention. These roles vary wildly (more on that in a second), but the general goal is the same: make sure your customers are happy and using the product with fidelity.
Customer Success is a dream career path for many of the teachers I talk to. After all, if you believe in your company’s product, then Customer Success roles allow you to work directly with educators and continue impacting student outcomes without some of the stressors of classroom teaching.
However, I caution teachers to be incredibly discerning when applying to CS roles because they depend so much on your company and team. Your job might involve delivering presentations, selling new features, writing emails, analyzing data, answering support calls, sending email campaigns, none of the above, or all of the above! Unfortunately, the title doesn’t always help; show me ten “Customer Success Managers” and I’ll show you ten people with totally different jobs 🙂
Luckily I’ve talked to a bunch of people in this field and can help you out a bit!
Use this resource help you identify some common flavors of Customer Success & determine your favorite:
cs_flavors-2And check out these resources if you’re interested in learning more about the field:
- ​​If you have five seconds: Join this Facebook group for women in Customer Success.
​ - If you have five minutes: Reread my Q&A with Paige Pollara, a teacher who transitioned into Customer Success at NoRedInk.
​ - If you have one hour:Watch this webinar organized by Jeff Patterson, CEO of Gaggle. He discusses the ins and outs of the field and how to maximize your chances of getting hired with a panelist of real (customer) success stories.
​ - If you have even longer: Choose a book from this curated Customer Success reading list.