The CSM Playbook is an essential strategic tool for Customer Success teams. It's a compass that sets the course for consistently delivering exceptional value to customers. But why, when and how should it be implemented? Discover our answers in this article.
On the program:
- What is a CSM Playbook? Definition.
- What are the benefits?
- When should you launch your CSM Playbook?
- How do you set it up?
CSM Playbook: definition
But there's nothing superficial or gimmicky about it. The CSM Playbook is a high value-added strategic tool. More concretely, it isan internal user guide, created and used by CS teams. Its aim is to empower Customer Success Manager and help them deliver exceptional value to their customers.
Inside this guide, you'll find methodologies, workflows, routines and processes to follow... depending on the different customer situations the CSM may face. In a way, it's a handbook of best practices to follow, to deliver memorable customer support.
By using such a guide on a daily basis, the teams in charge of customer success help to create value on two levels. On the one hand, following Playbooks helps to create seamless external relationships with customers. On the other, this tool impacts alignment with other teams and the fluidity of collaborations, internally. It's a virtuous circle for better sales results... But that's not all!
Why set up a Playbook? 4 main advantages
By implementing a CSM Playbook, CSM teams benefit in a number of ways. This tool contributes to :
- Process standardization: by structuring all support plans in this guide, their application is facilitated and optimized. Processes are simplified, thanks to better management of practices and customers. From ticket tracking to risk management, all subjects are prioritized more effectively. This standardization rhymes with "better collaboration" (internally and with customers).
- Greater efficiency : the Playbook contains clear instructions for CSMs. They are guided on the actions to take, the CSM tools to use, how to collaborate with other teams... Efficiency, productivity and skills development are thus facilitated. And this applies to new recruits, as well as to existing junior or senior CSMs.
- Improved customer satisfaction : this tool for the customer journey is the guarantee of a quality customer experience. Based on these user guides, CS teams are provided with clear, tailored instructions for providing the best possible support to customers at every stage of their lifecycle (handover, onboarding, retention, upsell or cross sell, etc.). The result? Smoother collaboration throughout a seamless process. Which in turn contributes to customer satisfaction.
- Continuous improvement : the Playbook is not a document set in stone. Nor is it the bible of Customer Success Management, which holds the absolute truth. The Playbook is a living document. It needs to be updated regularly, in line with best practices tested and approved by the company. It is a tool for continuous improvement, contributing to the ongoing improvement of the company.
When should you install your CSM Playbook?
The Playbook is a quick and easy-to-use tool. But when should you prioritize its creation and deployment? Is there a right time to launch it?
At Customerz, here's our advice: the best time to create a Playbook and distribute it to CS teams... is probably today! Whether you're just starting out, or have a well-established CSM team. This tool adapts to the maturity of each company. And to the maturity of each Customer Success Manager in your teams:
- For junior CSMs, the Playbook is a reassurance tool. It guides the development of skills and teaches how to better manage a customer portfolio in different situations (e.g. how to manage the risk of churn? How to detect an upsell? What to do with a "lukewarm" account? How to report a customer bug? etc.).
- For senior CSMs, the Playbook is just as useful. It enables them to manage a customer portfolio more effectively, anchor best practices in a common CSM support system, and suggest areas for improvement along the way, to boost the CS team's performance.
However, if writing a Playbook makes sense... Don't rush into creating indigestible content, 100 pages long, with 20 guidelines per page. Keep the content concise and actionable. And to help you write it, here's the first step: create the Playbook's framework (aka. its backbone).
How do you create your CSM Playbook?
To create your guide, you need :
- A tool: Notion, Confluence... The most usable tool is the internal wiki, accessible at any time by employees. For the chosen tool, the expected format of the Playbook is written, precise and concise content. Diagrams or tables can be used to explain certain processes, such as internal escalation procedures for product evolution requests.
- A framework: this is the basis of your Playbook. This framework comprises different parts or chapters. It isunique to each company, and is determined by your objectives, your needs and the maturity of your organization.
Here is an example:
This plan covers the different stages of the customer journey and the role of the CSM: from alignment with other teams to customer onboarding, to best practices in retention, upsell and cross-sell... The aim is to bring together all the strategies, methodologies and practical advice, within each specific section.
Thanks to this precise, structured chaptering, adapted to the company's context, the CS team saves time: on a day-to-day basis, they know exactly where to go, depending on the customer and their situation, to get the right answers to their questions... And deliver maximum value.
Let's take a fictitious example: your company markets a SaaS solution to a B2B target audience. Your Customer Success department is made up of a Head of CS, 2 senior CSMs and 2 junior CSMs. If one of these employees has a question about customer segmentation (or would like to improve his or her skills), he or she can go to the "Customer Segmentation" section of the Playbook, where he or she will find :
- Segmentation objectives
- Company segmentation criteria and rules
- A clickable link to segmentation details
- Risks and opportunities by segment
- Segment monitoring and management plan
Obviously, such a tool is no substitute for the discussions that CSMs can have with their superiors and colleagues in the event of a question or problem. The CSM Playbook remains a guide to better relations: its vocation is certainly not to replace and eliminate exchanges!
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