Getting feedback and insights from your customers is one thing, and it’s a big task.
But making sure this knowledge is spread around your whole team and taken into account when decisions are made? That’s something very few businesses get right.
Here’s how we handle it.
What is the Customer Success Newsletter?
For the past nine months, our CS department has collated a weekly newsletter summarising key insights & feedback from our customers. We distribute this to the GoSquared team at midday every Friday, like clockwork.
The Newsletter gives a no-nonsense glimpse into how our customers are experiencing our product. Yes, we celebrate the successes. But the main focus is to make the team aware of areas where our customers want to see improvements.
Why do we do it?
Every company claims to put the customer first. It’s easy to say, challenging to do, and even harder to do consistently.
I don’t believe most companies actively ignore the customer’s voice. But it can easily get drowned out by the cacophony of business priorities. (Or, for a harsher philosophy, see Hanlon’s Razor.)
This is particularly the case for team members who do not get regular face-time with clients (See also: ‘Engineers’).
Without spending regular time in our clients’ shoes, it can be easy to make assumptions, misunderstand use-cases or miss valuable feedback.
The CS Newsletter is a weekly check-in to re-centre the team around the customer. To view the past week through the clients’ lens. And to go into next week with the Customer Voice front & centre in our minds.
How do we do it?
I’ve iterated on the Newsletter a few times now. It started out as a small selection of slides in Pitch. My current process is to create the basic slides in Pitch, then film a presentation with Zoom or Screenflow as I walk through each section.
This works well for team members to view in their own time (“asynchronous communication”, if you like buzzwords).
The content for each Newsletter varies according to what is most prescient, but the core sections are:
- Round-up of the week’s NPS survey feedback
- Introducing new customers
- Deep-dive into the reasons behind churned accounts
- Top-requested product features added to our ProductBoard
- Any other client feedback received via Live Chat, Onboarding Calls or Demos
- (A few cheeky puns when no one’s looking)
I post the recording in Slack every Friday at midday, which gives plenty of time for the team to digest & discuss the content before the end of the week.
What did we learn so far?
We didn’t anticipate this when we began sending out the Newsletter last September, but the Newsletter proved to be a great way to spark inter-department conversations.
In an era of remote working, it can be easy to fall into silos. But each week after posting the Newsletter in the company Slack channel, we see waves of comments from Sales, Product and Engineering.
These can then be escalated to more structured discussions elsewhere to address the points raised in the Newsletter.
I like to think this helps keep everyone on the same page and keeps GoSquared genuinely customer-centric.
Should you do it?
When Rachel, our Head of Customer Success, first came up with the idea, my reaction was, ‘Why doesn’t every company do this?’
That sentiment remains the same today.
As SaaS businesses, we all know the value of happy customers. We all know the value of a customer-centric focus.
A weekly CS Newsletter is a great way to put those good intentions into action. Give your team a glimpse into the customers’ world, and align your departments around the customer’s voice.
Or at least, why not give it a try? Let me know how you get on!
