This post is part of the B2B Retention Handbook series. To explore more challenges and solutions, check out the series here.
While unfortunate, if your customers don’t trust you can solve their problems it likely boils down to a series of internal messaging issues. Creating processes and resources that support internal communication for Sales, Marketing, Product, and Customer Success teams provides a common message. This message keeps your customers informed and aligns your team’s planning for action throughout the customer journey.
Establishing a customer-centric culture across and throughout your teams can prevent costly missteps that erode trust.
Outline
Reasons
Customers will churn if they believe that they were promised more than they were delivered or that they were misinformed in some way about the performance and outcomes that they should expect.
- This is really an alignment problem in which Sales, Marketing, Product, and Customer Success are not on the same page as to what you can deliver and all of the details involving each customer account.
- Disconnects can occur at any time throughout the customer journey, from a variety of sources including:
- Marketing messaging and content
- Sales engagements and content
- Customer onboarding/training
- Post-sale marketing and events
- Meetings and communications between customers and Sales and Customer Success/Support reps
Solutions
- Make customer happiness your #1 priority as a company. Make it a core value and part of your mission statement. Provide the necessary staffing, training, and budget to back up your claim to customer-centricity. - How to Build a Customer-Focused Company, According to 10 People Who Did | HubSpot
- Align your Sales, Marketing, Product, and Customer Success/Support teams on what your product does and how it benefits customers across every known use case. Rigorously align your messaging across all customer-facing teams and continuously update messaging as your product grows to make sure that no one oversteps the reality of what your product delivers in terms of uses and outcomes. - Why You Need to Align Your Product and Marketing Teams + How to Make It Happen [A B2B Guide] | Crayon
- Develop and require product training for all of your customer-facing team members - Product Knowledge Training 101: The Whys, Whats, and How-tos | iSpring
- Keep your teams updated constantly via internal, product-specific channels, and notify them immediately if issues arise that may impact customers. - Product Knowledge Training 101: The Whys, Whats, and How-tos | Brent Tworetzky
