CS Coffee Hours Podcast

Tune in to our coffee & customer -centric podcast and get your fix of industry insight, tips, and news.

Growth in Long-Tail and Tech Touch Customer Success Segments With - Angeline Grace Gavino, Sandy Yu and Vincent Manlapaz

Tech touch and customer segmentation, go hand in hand, this is a must-listen, if you want to nail these disciplines.

Mano, Co-founder, AppEQ.AI

WEBINAR RECAP

During the insightful webinar hosted by AppEQ Inc, industry experts Sandy Yu and Angeline Grace Gavino delved deep into the nuances of customer success and engagement strategies. The session was marked by a rich exchange of experiences, with both experts sharing their unique perspectives on topics such as segmentation, tech touch, and personalization at scale.

Angeline, with over 15 years of experience in customer success roles, emphasized the significance of digital customer success strategies, especially in managing engagement with long tail customers. She highlighted the challenges and opportunities of implementing tech touch strategies across various startups she has been associated with .

Sandy Yu, on the other hand, brought to light the importance of segmentation not just for specific customer groups but as a cornerstone for the overall business strategy. She underscored the evolving nature of segmentation, which is now moving beyond just value-based categories to use-case-based categories .

The webinar also touched upon the challenges of finding the right balance between automation and personalized engagement, with both experts agreeing on the need for a hybrid approach. The discussion underscored the importance of understanding customer needs, leveraging technology, and ensuring that strategies are adaptable and scalable.

In conclusion, the webinar provided attendees with valuable insights into the world of customer success, emphasizing the need for adaptability, personalization, and a deep understanding of customer segments.

5 Key Takeaways

On Customer Segmentation

Quote by Sandy Yu :

“Segmentation is not just important for long tail and tech touch customers. But it’s important for your overall strategy. And I think we’re talking about different types of segmentation. Typically, we all know you, you know, segment by segment, by, you know, value. But I mean more increasingly, the industry is moving towards a place where you’re segmenting by use case.”

As highlighted by Sandy Yu: Sandy emphasizes the importance of segmentation not just for specific customer groups but for the overall business strategy. She highlights a shift in the industry where segmentation is moving beyond just value-based categories to use-case-based categories.

Quote by Angeline Grace :

“In my previous companies, we would segment… based on their spend with you. How much is their ARR with the company? But here we are… The way we do it is we look at the company revenue to segment based on enterprise or slash commercial.”

As highlighted by Angeline Grace Gavino: Angeline shares her experience with different segmentation strategies. While previous companies she worked at segmented based on customer spend, her current company uses company revenue as a basis for segmentation.

What is Tech Touch Customer Success?

Quote by Angeline Grace:

“Tech touch first means, at least from my perspective, or at least for the use cases of my personal experience. Typically for us, Tech touch is when we employ automated engagements either via email or in-product, in-platform or other automation.”

As highlighted by Angeline Grace Gavino: Angeline defines “tech touch” based on her experience. For her, it involves automated engagements with customers, whether through email, in-product prompts, or other channels. The emphasis is on automation and self-service.

Quote by Sandy Yu :

“For me, the long tail customer doesn’t exclusively mean tech touch. And so there are other ways. So you can do one too many support for your customers.”

As highlighted by Sandy Yu: Sandy points out that “long tail” customers don’t necessarily only fall under the “tech touch” category. There are various ways to support these customers, including one-to-many support methods.

Personalization at Scale

Quote by Sandy Yu :

“Segmentation is actually the key to personalization at scale.”

As highlighted by Sandy Yu: Sandy ties back the concept of segmentation to personalization. By effectively segmenting customers, businesses can achieve personalization at a larger scale, catering to the specific needs and preferences of different customer groups.

Quote by Angeline Grace :

“Product adoption metrics, how our customer uses our product. We segment by that because then their whole strategy is defined by those different segments.”

As highlighted by Angeline Grace Gavino: Angeline discusses how product adoption metrics play a role in segmentation. By understanding how customers use a product, businesses can create segments and tailor their strategies accordingly.

Challenges and Opportunities

Quote by Angeline Grace :

“There’s definitely more emphasis when it comes to creating better strategies when it comes to, you know, working with your long-tail customers… Tech touch first is never tech touch only.”

As highlighted by Angeline: Angeline observes that there’s a growing emphasis on refining strategies for long-tail customers. While the initial approach might be “tech touch first,” it doesn’t mean it’s the only approach. There’s a need to balance automation with other engagement methods.

Reimagine Low-Touch Customer Success with In-the-Moment Insights

In today’s fiercely competitive B2B SaaS landscape, retaining and expanding your customer base is paramount. But achieving success with traditional low-touch customer success strategies can be challenging. Generic communication, a lack of real-time customer context, and difficulty identifying at-risk customers hinder your ability to deliver exceptional experiences and drive long-term value.

Here at AppEQ , we empower Enterprise B2B SaaS organizations to unlock the true potential of low-touch customer success. Our innovative solution, AppEQ, tackles the limitations of siloed data and empowers Customer Success teams to leverage in-the-moment customer insights within their existing workflows.

The Challenge: Fragmented Data Hinders Low-Touch Success

Traditional low-touch customer success strategies often rely on one-size-fits-all communication and automated campaigns. This approach fails to consider the unique needs and challenges faced by individual customers. Moreover, valuable customer data resides within various enterprise applications and analytics tools, creating a fragmented view of the customer journey. This lack of real-time, actionable insights makes it difficult for CSMs to:

Identify at-risk customers: Without early warning signs, it’s challenging to intervene before churn occurs.
Personalize low-touch interactions: Generic communication lacks the power to resonate with individual customer needs.
Proactively engage customers: Limited customer context hinders the ability to identify opportunities for proactive support and upsell/cross-sell initiatives.

The AppEQ Solution: Unleashing the Power of In-the-Moment Insights

AppEQ bridges the gap between data and action, empowering your low-touch customer success strategy. Our platform acts as a central hub, seamlessly connecting and aggregating customer data across various enterprise applications, including:

Inbox (Gmail, Outlook)
CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot)
Customer Success Platforms (Gainsight, ChurnZero)
In-house developed product applications

By unifying customer data, AppEQ generates real-time, actionable insights that surface directly within your existing workflows. Imagine a CSM working in Salesforce reviewing a customer account. AppEQ can automatically display relevant insights based on:

Product usage patterns: Identify customers who are underutilizing features or nearing storage limits, prompting targeted training or upsell opportunities.
Support ticket history: Surface past support interactions to understand customer pain points and proactively address potential issues.
Sentiment analysis from emails: Proactively identify frustrated customers and personalize outreach to address concerns.

This in-the-moment awareness empowers CSMs to deliver a more personalized and data-driven customer experience, even within a low-touch model.

The Benefits of In-the-Moment Insights for Enterprise B2B SaaS

By harnessing the power of AppEQ, Enterprise B2B SaaS companies can unlock significant benefits and achieve long-term customer success:

1. Increased Customer Retention:

Proactive Churn Prevention: Identify at-risk customers early on based on usage patterns and sentiment analysis. This allows for timely intervention to address concerns and prevent churn.
Improved Customer Satisfaction: By delivering personalized interactions and proactive support, AppEQ empowers CSMs to build stronger customer relationships and foster positive sentiment.

2. Enhanced Customer Lifetime Value:

Targeted Upsell and Cross-Sell Opportunities: Leverage real-time product usage data to identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities that align with specific customer needs.
Streamlined Onboarding Processes: Gain real-time visibility into customer onboarding progress and identify potential roadblocks for faster customer activation.

3. Data-Driven Decision Making:

Actionable Customer Insights: Empower data-driven decision making across all aspects of your customer success strategy, from onboarding to account management.
Improved Resource Allocation: Allocate resources effectively by prioritizing high-impact interventions for at-risk accounts.

Real-World Success Stories with AppEQ

AppEQ is transforming low-touch customer success for B2B SaaS companies across various industries. Here are some examples:

A leading enterprise software company used AppEQ to identify at-risk customers based on declining product usage. By proactively engaging these customers and addressing their concerns, they achieved a reduction in churn rate.
A cloud storage provider leveraged AppEQ to personalize onboarding experiences based on customer data. This resulted in a increase in customer activation rates within the first 30 days.

Reimagine Your Low-Touch Customer Success Strategy with AppEQ

In today’s digital age, customers expect personalized experiences at every touchpoint. AppEQ empowers you to deliver on those expectations, even within a low-touch customer success model. By leveraging in-the-moment customer insights, AppEQ equips your CSMs with the knowledge and agility to:

Respond to customer sentiment in real-time: Address frustrations and concerns before they escalate, preventing churn and fostering positive customer relationships.
Predict customer needs and proactively offer solutions: Anticipate customer challenges based on usage data and proactively offer solutions, exceeding expectations and building trust.
Cultivate deeper customer relationships: Personalized interactions based on real-time insights demonstrate that you understand their unique needs, strengthening customer loyalty.

Next Steps: Unleash the Power of In-the-Moment Insights

Are you ready to transform your low-touch customer success strategy and unlock the full potential of your customer base? Here’s how to get started with AppEQ:

Schedule a Demo: Experience AppEQ firsthand and see how it can revolutionize your approach to customer success.
Start a Free Trial: Take AppEQ for a test drive and witness the power of in-the-moment insights within your existing workflows.

Don’t let siloed data and generic communication hinder your customer success efforts. Embrace the power of AppEQ and empower your team to deliver exceptional low-touch customer experiences that drive long-term value and propel your business forward.

The future of customer success lies in leveraging data and technology to deliver personalized experiences at scale. AppEQ empowers you to unlock the potential of in-the-moment customer insights and transform your low-touch customer success strategy. With AppEQ, you can build stronger customer relationships, drive higher customer lifetime value, and achieve sustainable growth in the competitive B2B SaaS market.

Ready to take the first step? Schedule a demo with AppEQ today!