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Today, technology has become a critical purchase for your business and buyers expect more… they don’t want boxes and licenses…they want successful outcomes and an outstanding customer experience long after the ink has dried on their contract.

The world has changed. Have you and your teams?

Did you know customers who have a single bad experience are 25% likely to walk away and 86% of them will never return? The world is changing to a customer lifecycle approach – our role is to provide the best customer experience every step of the way.

To win in this new world, you not only need consultative selling approaches, responsive technical support, and professional services capabilities, you also need new skill sets/roles throughout the lifecycle as you build out your Customer Success practice.

Perhaps the most important role is the Customer Success Manager (CSM). Their role? To help customers get value from their investments: driving adoption and usage, solving problems, recommending training and resources, making connections, listening to feedback, and being the champion for the voice of the customer in your business. The CSM works with customers every day, ensuring they’re achieving the value from their technology investment — and ultimately protecting your renewals and growing your recurring revenue streams. It’s a critical role, one that demands a wealth of specialist skills and knowledge to perform effectively.

How do you and your teams get set for success?

We’re here to help. Cisco has developed a Customer Success Manager (CSM) training available today on SuccessHub. The curriculum is based on our experience building one of the world’s largest Customer Experience (CX) organizations with the best customer success professionals. It helps your CSM(s) excel at every step of the customer lifecycle journey, from initial onboarding to renewals and beyond.

Don’t just take our word for it, partners are utilizing the skills learned through their training and certification process to transform their business – watch to see how they are doing it:

Another role that may be new to your team is the Renewal Manager. Renewals are a pivotal moment in the customer lifecycle, not just for you, but for your customers. Your customers have big decisions to make, and they don’t always have all the information at hand. An expert Renewal Manager can help customers feel informed and reassured about the state of their contracts and subscriptions, and the value they’re seeing so they can renew with confidence.

Our Renewal Manager verification exam and training are also available today (no registration required) on Cisco’s SuccessHub. The training teaches contract fundamentals, renewal strategies for service contracts, and further helps one understand the account team and working model.

An outstanding customer experience and building a customer success practice are critical to your future and ours. Together, we can help our customers achieve their successful business outcomes, outstanding customer experience and become their trusted partners. With the new Customer Success Manager and Renewal Manager trainings, you can be sure you and your teams have the critical skills to succeed.

Start today

Are you ready? You and your teams can begin today with our role based learning maps for CSMs and Renewal Managers available on Cisco Accelerate via SuccessHub. Cisco’s SuccesshHub also provides more information on trainings, additional customer success stories from partners, and what else Cisco has to offer to make you, your teams and your customers successful at every step of the technology lifecycle.



Authors

Denny Trevett

Vice President

Partner Model, Customer Experience