Most of the conversations around people happen in the marketing or product teams. These groups use personas to define typical customers by their demographics, tastes, values, backgrounds, goals, challenges, aspirations, etc. A person profile includes a picture and some definitions that represent the person.
It can include where to connect with that person, especially for marketing purposes. The product team could use it for successful product design, so that a product is attractive, has higher performance and fewer technical problems.
The use of people-based services in implementation, customer support and customer success lay an essential foundation for businesses. A case is presented below as an example.
It started with an internal commitment to become a 100% customer-centric organization. It was known that it could be improved Customer experience, which is good, but the level of effort was not materializing in the result. We satisfy customers, but we don't thrill them either. We look at every process, deliverable, product, and customer engagement through the lens of the customer and are committed to a method of constant reinvention to improve the customer experience.
Personas persist throughout the customer lifecycle. From sales to implementation and support, satisfaction with the customer's product or service and its renewal.
Then, numbers and metrics appear that add value. Although each client's implementation is different, there are some similarities and features that can be compared across various sets of clients. For the case in question, 250 checkpoints were examined: around two-thirds were internal and the rest came from secondary research on the company and the market.
Some of the items analyzed were:
- Have they used a competitor's software?
- What is your reason for choosing us?
- Are you transitioning from spreadsheets and files?
- What specific problems are they trying to solve? For example, one client noticed that competitors provided partner quotes within hours, unlike his company, which took several days.
- What is your main goal to achieve with our software?
We add this intelligence to the standard knowledge transfer between sales and implementation teams to learn as much about the customer as possible. All those points were used to categorize each customer into one of four people. These people work for us. The customer data within each definition can lead to honing in on the people who matter most among the customer base.
Implementations are categorized into four different personas.
- Simplicity — Focused on speed of implementation, time to success, and functionality is out of the box. Care and support centers need to be involved in 30-60-90 day planning and best practices from the start.
- Marketing — Focused on design and customer experience. They can ask 10 questions about the same web environment facing customers. They will ask about specific design elements, like whether buttons can have rounded corners instead of squares, etc.
- Coach — Focused on experience influenced by new technology. Customers will have more significant technical requirements, more customizations, and a sophisticated focus on functionality and automation. They want to know about integrations, automation, workflows, segmentation, notifications, etc. Implementations require technical resources, more developers, and detailed concept briefs.
- Technology — The customer who wants a little of everything. He wants the implementation to be fast so that he can show results quickly and he focuses mainly on best practices. He knows that we are the experts and wants to understand how others do things compared to his processes. He is looking at benchmarking processes and how they can improve partner operations. For example, they ask: “This is how we manage the registry. How do the others do it?
This generates a problem solving matrix to create customer profiles with these 4 axes of people (simplicity, marketing, technical and consulting) and that contains a brief description, challenges and what each of these axes needs to be satisfied.
Based on those people, we determine what specific actions will bring them satisfaction, including the resources we provide, how we communicate on time and expectations, and even what type of project manager is ultimately assigned.
For each case, the manager of each implementation project is determined based on capabilities, products, requirements, logistics, geographic location, etc.
Once the appropriate adjustments have been made and the success of taking into account all these factors has been verified, project managers and people-based schedules are automatically assigned. When you start a new implementation, you are given the project plan for execution. Preferred resources are automatically included in that project plan based of the factors around the client and his defined characteristics of person.
There is also feedback to leaders on progress, how the product or service will be used, what results should emerge from implementation, and even who should be on the project team. It then anticipates what can be done to create the project plan so that teams can deploy the right people, processes, and technology at the right time, even before the customer requests it. It surprises and pleases customers to be ready for what they need before they ask for it.
For example, if the customer is a technical person, their developers are automatically included in calendar invites. The expectations that your technical team needs are established, and they should not even ask certain topics, we know they will need them. For marketing, we include front-end designers and UI members in implementation calls, etc.
Following these steps leads to better implementation results. In the case of the example, in 2020, customer satisfaction was between 2.5 and 3.0 (on a scale of 1 to 5). At the end of 2021, the 12-month average was 4,81. In 2022, we move to NPS surveys conducted at closeout, after implementation, and every six months after that. Our NPS is 71 on a 90-day average.
The person axes are maintained throughout the customer's life cycle. From sales to implementation and support, customer success and renewal. It's more than just segmenting by a customer type or segment; it is a DNA marker of the client. Open the door to innovation in the customer experience. Instead of simply asking, “What would improve the customer experience?”, it allows teams to brainstorm value-added services that serve a particular person. Thus, customer needs can be predicted and met before they are aware of the need.
Other industries have used this approach successfully for decades. For example, the disparity between people who would buy a Ford F-150, a Ford Mustang or a Ford Transit. The stronger the brand, the more diverse the use cases and more value will be obtained from people-based services.
How can you set up your personas? There is no one-size-fits-all methodology. First, you need to understand what success looks like for the customer and understand your ecosystem. You need to go beyond the basics. Start with customer demographics and then look at what makes the offer unique. Why do customers use these products and solutions?
With that knowledge, you can determine what key data points they want to use. You can and should also learn a lot from what customers say. What challenges are they having? What complaints are heard?, especially those that are repeated. A key for successful professionals is to focus on where they are failing and improve it to make it a great success.
Startups (and not only them) can use people not only in marketing and product management, but also in implementation and customer satisfaction. Next, it is necessary to surprise and please the customer when the things he needs are provided before he asks for them. Big improvements in customer satisfaction and NPS scores will be appreciated when they are realized.
