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Does your Customer Success team struggle with efficiency? Maybe their processes aren’t streamlined or they can’t keep up with their tasks.
Whatever the issue, there might be a tech solution. In fact, there might be multiple.
Figuring out exactly what tools you need for an effective tech stack can be daunting. But you’re not alone – many Customer Success Managers (CSMs) struggle with the same thing.
You’ve got lots of options in terms of tools, but you want to make sure you’re being as efficient as possible.
Without a robust tech stack, staying ahead of customer issues and engaging proactively is nearly impossible. Early warning systems and real-time data are crucial, yet often inaccessible due to outdated or siloed tools. This can leave you reacting to problems rather than preventing them.
As your customer base grows, so does the complexity of managing their success. Scaling Customer Success efficiently requires tools that not only keep up with this growth but also streamline workflows through automation, freeing up your time for strategic initiatives.
In this article, we will explore how building the right Customer Success tech stack can alleviate these pain points, enhance your team's efficiency, and ultimately drive higher customer satisfaction and retention.
By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of the essential tools and how to integrate them seamlessly into your workflow, ensuring you can focus on what truly matters – keeping your customers delighted.
What to include in a Customer Success tech stack
By enhancing processes, data visibility, and engagement, a well-designed Customer Success tech stack empowers teams to achieve their goals more efficiently. But what does a tech stack look like?
If you’re unsure of which tools to start with, here’s a comprehensive list of some tools to include in your Customer Success tech stack:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
CRMs store and manage customer data, track interactions, and streamline the sales process. This can help your CS team keep track of customer interactions, manage customer information, and ensure follow-ups are timely and relevant.
Using a CRM essentially gives you a centralized platform for monitoring the customer journey and identifying opportunities for upselling or resolving issues.
Popular tools include Salesforce, HubSpot, or even your regular spreadsheets. Of course, automated alternatives are much more convenient than manually updating spreadsheets, but it’s a good place to start.
- Customer Success platforms
These platforms are designed for Customer Success Management (CSM), providing tools for customer health scoring, lifecycle management, and engagement tracking.
CS platforms help you monitor the health of customer accounts, predict churn risks, and take proactive measures to improve customer satisfaction and retention.
Some CS teams traditionally opt for platforms like Gainsight, Totango, or ChurnZerp, but there are more cost-effective and efficient solutions out there, like Velaris.
- Communication tools
Just like any department, your CS team is going to need to communicate. Communication tools facilitate real-time messaging, video calls, and collaborative workspaces.
This includes both internal and external communication, so you should be able to connect with customers as well.
Your workplace may already use platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom for communication – so you could integrate one of those into your workflows.
- Project management tools
Project management tools help in organizing tasks, tracking progress, and managing deadlines. They allow CS teams to manage the customer onboarding processes, track customer projects, and ensure that tasks are completed on time.
Some common tools include Asana, Trello, and even Monday.com, but if you’re using something like Velaris you can handle projects directly on your CS platform.
- Customer feedback and survey tools
A big part of Customer Success is understanding how your customers feel about your product. That’s why you need to integrate tools that collect and analyze customer feedback through surveys and questionnaires.
This can help your CS team gather insights into customer satisfaction, product usage, and areas for improvement – enabling data-driven decisions.
There are lots of widely available tools for this, like SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, or Typeform.
- Data analytics and Business Intelligence (BI) tools
BI tools analyze and visualize data to provide actionable insights. CS teams can use these tools to analyze customer data, track key performance indicators (KPIs), and generate reports that inform strategic decisions.
Check out tools like Tableau, Looker, or Power BI. Similar to before, some CS platforms like Velaris tend to have an inbuilt customer 360 feature, so you can have an overview of their health metrics in one place.
- Knowledge base and helpdesk software
These tools provide a platform for managing customer support tickets and creating self-service knowledge bases.
They enable CS teams to resolve customer issues efficiently, provide self-help resources, and track common problems to improve overall customer service.
Common knowledge base tools include Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Confluence.
- Email marketing and automation tools
These tools facilitate automated email campaigns and customer segmentation, allowing CS teams to engage with customers through targeted email campaigns, nurture relationships, and keep customers informed about new features or updates.
Tools like Mailchimp, Marketo, and ActiveCampaign are very popular, and may already be used by your workplace.
- Customer onboarding tools
Onboarding is a crucial part of Customer Success. These tools help guide new customers through the initial setup and usage of a product.
They provide in-app guidance, tutorials, and checklists that help new customers get started quickly and successfully, reducing the learning curve and enhancing customer satisfaction.
For this, you could try tools like WalkMe, Appcues, and Pendo.
- Collaboration and document sharing tools
These tools facilitate document sharing, real-time collaboration, and cloud storage. It’s one of the most basic things you’ll need to enable your CS teams to collaborate with customers and internal teams on documents, share important resources, and maintain organised records.
Plus, your workplace may already use them. Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or Dropbox work just fine, but being able to manage all your communication on one platform with Velaris could prove to be more efficient.
Building a Customer Success tech stack with these tools can help your team streamline their workflows, enhance customer interactions, and drive overall customer satisfaction and retention.
That being said, CS teams do face a few challenges when it comes to finding exactly which tools to work with.
The current state of Customer Success tech stacks
Other business functions, such as sales and marketing, have well-established platforms that combine tech stacks – enabling them to streamline processes, improve data visibility, and enhance customer engagement, all in one place.
In contrast, CS teams usually have to settle for a set of disconnected tools that are often shared with departments, leading to a lack of purpose-built technology designed specifically for their needs. This can result in inefficiencies, data silos, and poor customer experiences.
Plus, managing multiple platforms can get complicated. Of course, you could always opt for a solution like Velaris. More on that next.
Velaris' Solution
Velaris unifies the functions of multiple Customer Success tools into one single platform – making it a great addition to your Customer Success tech stack, or even a great replacement.
Here are some of its key functions:
- Automation and standardisation
Velaris automates and standardises your Customer Success processes, making it easier for CS teams to manage their workflows. With Velaris, you can:
- Automate repetitive tasks: Velaris automates tasks such as data entry, reporting, and follow-ups, freeing up your CS teams to focus on high-value activities.
- Standardise workflows: Velaris standardises your workflows, ensuring consistency across all customer interactions and reducing errors.
- Ensure consistency: Velaris ensures consistency across all customer interactions, ensuring that your CS teams are always on the same page.
- Project and task management
Velaris helps manage Customer Success projects and tasks, ensuring that all activities are tracked and monitored. Here’s a closer look at what this means:
- Project management: Velaris provides a centralised platform for managing projects, including task assignment, tracking, and reporting.
- Task management: Velaris helps manage tasks, including task assignment, tracking, and reporting.
- Activity tracking: Velaris tracks all activities, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.
- Collaboration and communication
Velaris brings customer collaboration and communication into one place, facilitating seamless interactions. This includes:
- Centralised communication: Velaris provides a centralised platform for communication, ensuring that all interactions are tracked and monitored.
- Collaboration tools: Velaris includes collaboration tools such as chat, email, and phone, making it easy for your CS teams to communicate with customers.
- Customer health monitoring
Velaris helps monitor customer health and other key metrics, providing valuable insights for proactive support. This includes:
- Key metrics tracking: Velaris tracks key metrics such as customer health scores, customer engagement, usage, and satisfaction, providing valuable insights for proactive support.
- Proactive support: Velaris enables your CS teams to provide proactive support, reducing churn and improving customer satisfaction.
- Data unification
Velaris unites siloed data, giving your CS teams a unified view of customer information. This includes:
- Data integration: Velaris integrates data from various sources, providing a unified view of customer information.
- Data analysis: Velaris provides data analysis, enabling your CS teams to identify trends and patterns in customer behaviour.
- Data-driven insights: Velaris provides data-driven insights, enabling your CS teams to make informed decisions and improve customer satisfaction.
By using Customer Success software like Velaris, you can streamline and optimise your Customer Success processes, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce churn. With its robust features and user-friendly interface, Velaris is the ultimate Customer Success management software for any business.
Conclusion
A comprehensive Customer Success tech stack is crucial for delivering exceptional customer experiences and driving business growth. By leveraging the right tools and systems, you can streamline your processes, improve data visibility, and enhance customer engagement.
If you want to integrate the functions of a Customer Success tech stack in one place, consider adopting a unified platform like Velaris into your daily workflows. With its robust features and user-friendly interface, Velaris can make Customer Success much easier.
To test it out yourself, request a demo today.
