As the new year approaches, it’s time for businesses to take stock of what worked in 2022 and decide how to make adjustments that will help them be successful in 2023. With years of great change and uncertainty in our hindsight, we should expect more change in the new year to come as we navigate an economic downturn and potential recession. 

In the tech industry, companies may need to operate lean as budgets are limited, which means every individual on the team must be enabled to do more with less. Doing more with less can often lead to burnout, so it’s important for tech organizations to develop strategies in 2023 that enable their teams to be flexible and scalable, while remaining invaluable to the customers they serve. 

In the midst of these shifts, customer success teams will be at the center of driving revenue and should be empowered to operate accordingly. Read on to learn the three new year’s resolutions your customer success team needs in 2023.

Empower your CS team to be a growth engine

In 2023, tech companies should think of their customer success teams as a primary way to drive revenue through expansion. While it’s still important for CS employees to serve as customer relationship builders and nurturers as they have in the past, they also need to have access to data, tools, and collaboration so they can contribute to NRR. 

To contribute to revenue growth, customer success professionals need visibility into data so they can share key insights with customers. In addition, CS teams need to work seamlessly with sales and other departments to ensure that there is a streamlined loop of customer feedback and data to keep everyone in sync. CS team members should also be trained to look for and recognize “green flags” of account expansion opportunities throughout the customer journey, and they need to be able to communicate these with other departments to make sure opportunities aren’t missed.

Make sharing product value first priority

As customer success teams grow increasingly more responsible for revenue and retention, they need to be able to prove product value at every stage of the customer journey. During times of economic uncertainty, companies may be cutting budgets, which means your product is under evaluation. To ensure your product stays above the line during these cuts, your customer success team needs to be able to prove that the product is invaluable and business critical.

In order to do this, your CS team should share concrete, yet digestible data strategically throughout the customer journey. Start off with account data during the onboarding stage, then share usage data and recommendations for improvement during the adoption stage. During the renewal stage, use the data shared in the earlier stages to develop an ROI narrative that builds trust and credibility. From there, you can share benchmarking data to provide recommendations and establish your team as a trusted advisor to work toward expansion. 

💡 Pro tip: Check out Matik’s Hierarchy of Data for more details on how sharing data strategically throughout the customer journey can help your CS team build trust and reduce churn.

Scale your outreach programmatically

As customer success teams’ responsibilities continue to shift toward revenue and retention in the new year, it’s important for them to have scalable processes and scalable customer outreach. While customer bases increase and CS teams either stay the same size or shrink in capacity, it’s important to bring in scalable solutions that will work now and in the future as the company grows. For teams that are expected to take on more account coverage with fewer resources, burnout is a risk, and company leadership must plan accordingly to avoid it.

While CS teams may be under additional pressure to retain customers and drive revenue in 2023, your team can make shifts in its operations to ensure that CS teams can do their jobs in a scalable and efficient manner. Automate tedious processes to speed up workflows, make sure CS team members have access to essential customer data, and employ tech that provides immediate value. By scaling outreach programmatically, CSMs will be more equipped to take on additional accounts, build relationships, and drive revenue in the new year.

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Prepping for a new year can be daunting, but with these resolutions, your CS team can kick off 2023 with scalable processes. Wondering how your QBR could be improved in the new year as well? Check out our quiz to see how it stacks up and find areas for improvement.

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