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Setting expectations in Customer Success is a lot harder than it sounds. As a Customer SuccessManager (CSM), you’re likely all too familiar with the challenges that come with trying to align your team’s efforts with your customers’ needs.
Miscommunication, shifting goals, and unmet expectations can easily derail a relationship that once seemed promising. You want to ensure that your customers feel supported and confident in their journey with your product, but in the fast-paced world of Customer Success, even small missteps can lead to dissatisfaction or worse, churn.
In this article, you will learn how to effectively set, communicate, and manage expectations in Customer Success, as well as about tools and techniques you can use to streamline the process and ensure customer satisfaction.
Let’s have a look at how you can make expectation-setting a seamless part of your Customer Success strategy.
Why is setting expectations critical to Customer Success?
Setting expectations is essential for successful customer relationships. It’s not just about making promises; it’s about ensuring that your team and customers are aligned on goals and processes. Here’s how it makes a difference:
Understanding the customer journey
Clear expectations set the stage for a well-defined customer journey. When everyone is aligned on goals, milestones, and timelines, it reduces confusion and ensures both parties know what to expect. This alignment helps customers feel confident in their journey and ensures your team is fully engaged in their success.
The role of expectations in customer retention
Unmet expectations often lead to customer churn. When customers don’t receive what they expected, dissatisfaction grows, leading to potential loss. By managing expectations upfront, you build trust and reduce the risk of churn. Customers who feel understood and valued are more likely to stay and engage in long-term relationships.
Understanding the importance of setting expectations is just the beginning. Next, we’ll delve into common challenges CSMs face when setting these expectations and how to overcome them.
Common challenges in setting expectations
Even with the best intentions, setting expectations can be challenging. Miscommunication, scope creep, and client uncertainty are common obstacles that CSMs face regularly. Understanding these challenges is the first step in overcoming them. Here’s a breakdown of the most common issues:
Miscommunication
Miscommunication often stems from vague or poorly communicated expectations. When expectations are not clearly articulated, misunderstandings between CSMs and customers can arise.
This can lead to confusion about what is expected, when it should be delivered, and what success looks like. Over time, these misunderstandings can erode trust and satisfaction, making it crucial to be as clear and precise as possible when setting expectations.
Scope creep
Scope creep occurs when the boundaries of a project start to expand beyond what was originally agreed upon. This often happens when expectations aren’t clearly defined from the outset.
Without clear guidelines, customers might request additional features or services that weren’t part of the original plan, leading to an overextension of resources and potential delays. It’s essential to set firm boundaries and communicate them effectively to avoid scope creep.
Client uncertainty
When clients are unsure of what to expect, it usually points to a lack of standardized communication or unclear deliverables. This uncertainty can cause anxiety and frustration, as clients might not know what progress is being made or what the next steps are.
Clear, consistent communication is key to reducing this uncertainty and ensuring that clients feel confident throughout the process.
One way to address these challenges is by using Customer Success tools like Velaris for their standardization tools. By creating playbooks and reusable email templates, you can ensure that communication with clients is consistent and clear.
These tools help standardize your processes, reducing the likelihood of miscommunication and scope creep, while also giving clients a clearer understanding of what to expect at every stage of their journey.
Recognizing these challenges is crucial, but the real key is finding effective strategies to overcome them. In the next section, we’ll explore strategies for setting clear expectations that can help you navigate these challenges and keep your customer relationships on track.
Strategies for setting clear expectations
Setting clear expectations is essential for maintaining a strong relationship with your customers. By establishing a solid foundation from the beginning and maintaining consistent communication, you can ensure that both your team and your customers are always aligned. Here are some key strategies for setting clear expectations:
Be realistic during onboarding
The customer onboarding phase is your first opportunity to set the tone for the customer relationship. During this critical time, it’s essential to establish clear expectations about what the customer can expect from your product or service and what your team needs from them.
Using onboarding checklists and welcome communications can help standardize this process, ensuring that all necessary information is conveyed consistently. This not only helps to avoid misunderstandings but also makes the customer feel supported right from the start.
Regular check-ins and progress updates
Continuous communication is key to maintaining alignment throughout the customer relationship. Regular check-ins allow you to reassess and confirm expectations as the relationship evolves.
These updates help to ensure that any changes in the customer’s needs or goals are addressed promptly, reducing the risk of misalignment. Additionally, regular communication reinforces the idea that you are an active partner in their success, fostering a stronger, more collaborative relationship.
Setting SMART goals
Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals is a proven way to guide expectation-setting. By clearly defining what success looks like, you can create a shared understanding of what both parties are working toward.
SMART goals help ensure that expectations are realistic and attainable, making it easier to track progress and measure success. This approach not only clarifies what is expected but also provides a clear framework for evaluating outcomes.
Velaris’ success plans feature would be helpful here, as it allows CSMs to map out tasks and track progress in real-time, ensuring clarity for both your team and the customer.
Additionally, its ability to monitor customer health scores offers insights into how well expectations are being met, helping you address issues before they escalate.
By implementing these strategies, you can create a more structured and predictable customer experience, which is key to building trust and ensuring long-term satisfaction.
In the next section, we’ll explore best practices for managing expectations throughout the entire customer lifecycle, from onboarding to renewal.
Best practices for managing expectations throughout the customer lifecycle
Managing expectations is an ongoing process throughout the customer lifecycle. To keep your customers satisfied and engaged, it's important to apply best practices that ensure expectations are consistently met and adjusted as needed. Here are key strategies:
1. Leveraging data for insight
Use customer data to anticipate needs and adjust expectations accordingly. By analyzing trends in customer behavior, you can proactively suggest adjustments or provide resources, leading to better outcomes for both you and your customers.
Velaris’ health tracking feature allows you to set up alerts whenever a customer’s health passes a lower or upper limit – this way, you’ll never miss churn risks and expansion opportunities.
2. Proactive communication
Regularly reaching out to customers helps manage changing expectations and prevents issues before they arise. Proactive communication shows commitment to their success and allows you to address concerns early, keeping the relationship on track.
3. Automation and playbooks
Automate routine tasks and use standardized playbooks to ensure consistent communication and expectation management. This approach reduces the risk of errors and provides a predictable experience for customers.
4. Tracking and reporting
Regularly track customer progress and report on key metrics to maintain alignment. This helps identify areas for adjustment and ensures that everyone is informed and on the same page.
These practices help maintain strong customer relationships by ensuring expectations are consistently managed. However, even with these strategies, misaligned expectations can still occur.
In the next section, we’ll explore how to handle these situations and make course corrections to keep your relationships on track.
Handling misaligned expectations and course corrections
Even with the best strategies in place, misaligned expectations can still occur. Here’s how to handle misaligned expectations and course corrections effectively:
Identifying misalignment early
The sooner you can spot a misalignment, the easier it is to correct. Watch for signs such as changes in customer behavior, delays in communication, or feedback that suggests dissatisfaction. Regular check-ins and feedback loops are essential for catching these issues early.
When you notice something off, don’t wait – address it immediately to prevent small issues from becoming bigger problems.
Re-setting expectations
When expectations have gone off track, it’s important to re-set them as quickly as possible. Start by having an open and honest conversation with the customer about where things stand and where they need to go.
Use this opportunity to clarify any misunderstandings and agree on new, realistic goals. It’s also helpful to document these new expectations in writing, so both parties have a clear reference point moving forward.
Identifying and correcting misaligned expectations is crucial for maintaining a positive customer relationship. By acting quickly and using the right tools, you can get the relationship back on track.
Conclusion
Setting and managing clear expectations is a cornerstone of successful customer relationships. Throughout this article, we’ve discussed why it’s essential to establish clear expectations early, how to manage them throughout the customer lifecycle, and the tools and strategies that can help.
From proactive communication and leveraging data to the practical use of automation and AI, these approaches ensure that you and your customers stay aligned, reducing the risk of misunderstandings and improving satisfaction.
Velaris offers the tools you need to streamline this process, from automated communication to AI-driven insights.
These features can help you stay ahead of potential issues and maintain strong, productive relationships with your customers.
If you’re looking to enhance your expectation-setting process and drive better results, Velaris is here to help – request a demo today.
