Welcome to your dose of Customer Experience & Customer Success insights, DE&I amplification and wellness banter.

October is upon us, and with it the start of Q4.  Q4 in a year which has challenged many in the Tech world, from behemoths to “babies”.  It may also be a time when many challenge their pricing models, plan for the future and beyond.

Pilots are one area to “price” to attract customers.  The concept of free pilots or freemium has been the topic of many early-stage conversations as a result. One thing I remember from a talk by Tessa Flippin of Capitalize VC a few months back, is you can have free pilots/discounts, but the key to success is to ensure they are retained after the freebie is over.

Wiser words could not have been said.

Here are some concepts to consider when launching your pilots to stand the test of time.

1. Minimum Cost to Value: You can give away goods for free (freemium) but, you do not have to give it all away.  The goal is customer value, but enough to drive them wanting more (i.e. the upgrade).  What is the minimum amount of freeware you can afford to provide said value.  Where you may consider offering 10 credits, consider if 5 credits can get the same result.
2. Time to Decision: Pilots are all about data, both for the customer to assess your product and for you to gather insights, and to gain a decision on the path forward.  Defining the length of a pilot, even if you change it later, can help drive that data collection and decision-making. You can define the pilot period as long as you want, but make sure you achieve the value above, and the time does not cost you more money than you can afford.
3. Bundling up for Growth: Multi-module products have a great asset, you can choose which products to add in your pilots, and leave many to upsell.  Consider which bundles can achieve success for growth as well.  Can a tier one bundle be a pilot to contract winning design?
4. Documentation is key: This topic is not new here, but remember to document as much as you can about your pilots, what they include, how long, at which cost, and what success looks like.  In three years you may forget, and it could come up during renewal season.  The more you document the more you know.

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If you want to continue this discussion about data or anything related early stage Customer-centric thinking:

• Shoot me a message, would love to chat further!
• Read my column on Inc. Magazine which is focused on CS 101
• Follow our new Youtube Channel  - Exponential Customer Success

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Recent things I have heard, wrote or read:

• The Bain Article on Customer Success - Bain & Company published an article on how Customer Success is not delivering to the level perceived. While there was some great data presented, the time frame for the assessment was a bit challenging for me - they looked at the period just before and just after the pandemic. The scale of change in the software landscape, interest rates, and change in customer business stability may have impacted NRR, but the article did not look at Logo retention over the period. Where post-pandemic growth may have wavered, I do wonder if customers were still retained - had the article compared NRR to Net Logo Retention for example, it could have painted an interesting picture of customer "retention" not just dollar retention.
• The state of feedback. My favorite + semi-controversial person to follow is Jason M. Lemkin - his recent post was about the death of feedback.  He contends people only give good feedback - but actually, most feedback tends to come when negative experiences happen.  Take it from a CS leader who had NO NPS a few times, it was not a time of great customer knowledge.
• Culture v. Customer Experience - Clare Muscutt (WiCX) from Women in CX recently shared a newsletter about how striving to change company culture could come at the detriment of customer experience.  She suggests combining customer-focus with the company’s strengths.  Again, having worked at a company without a shred of customer-centricity, I have to disagree.  What happens on the inside shows on the outside, and it's an uphill battle for a CX person in both situations.
• Exponential Customer Success on Youtube: In my recent conversation with Gemma Cipriani-Espineira of CS Angel, where we chatted about how investing in CS tech can be a good deal, as many functions benefit in the long run. Listen in here.

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Upcoming events of interest:

• The 🪷South Asian Success community is hosting a webinar on “Building from Experience:  The journey from Consultant to CS to Sales with Roopesh Nair .” It’s open to anyone to join!
• I am joining the CX Best Practices Symposium at Michigan State University on October 7- 9, 2024, where we will talk about the comprehensive development of CX.  Explore more here: https://www.cxmbestpracticessymposium.com/ #CXM360
• If you are a Consultant, Fractional or Fractionally-curious, consider joining us at #FRAK2024 - www.fractionalconference.com. Use this code - FRAKNSPEAKER - for 10% off the registration fee.
• The Customer Success Festival is coming back to Chicago - Nov 13 - 14, 2024. This was a great kickoff event in Chicago last year, and should measure up to be good again. I hope to see you there.

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Connect with me via a DM (Parul Bhandari)or book some time. I look forward to hearing from you!