B2B Chief Customer Officers collect voice-of-customer data to learn about account health-- but are they asking all the right questions? Check out this list of essential questions that will guide B2B customer success teams to achieve their goals and how to get there.

1. Essential Questions Every
B2B Chief Customer Officer
Needs to Ask
GET
THE
RIGHT
VOICE-­‐OF-­‐CUSTOMER
INSIGHTS,
INCREASE
REVENUE
&
CUSTOMER
SUCCESS
IN
2015

2. When
it
comes
to
understanding
B2B
customer
loyalty
and
strengthening
relationships,
there’s
one
thing
Chief
Customer
Officer’s
(CCO’s)
need:
Voice-­‐of-­‐Customer
(VoC)
data.
!
No
big
deal,
right?
Your
Customer
Success
Managers
(CSMs)
and
Account
Managers
(AM’s)
know
exactly
what’s
going
on
with
each
account.
Wrong.
!
Business-­‐to-­‐business
companies
have
such
complex
inner
workings,
it’s
not
enough
to
mimic
typical
consumer
market
research
methods
to
achieve
customer
success
(CS).
2

3. If
Customer
Success
is
the
goal
3

4. Surveys
can
be
the
vehicle
to
get
you
started
navigating
and
improving
the
customer
journey
4

5. So
if
you’re
going
to
run
surveys…
5

6. ...you
need
the
right
tools
to
ask
the
right
questions
and
take
the
right
prescriptive
actions.
6

7. Before
you
ask
customers
any
questions,
CCO’s
need
to
ask
VoC
vendors
how
they
gather
all
the
necessary
insights.
7

8. !
Here is THE
of
Essential Questions Every CCO
Needs to Ask
In 2015
!
(and why)
8

9. 1) How can we use customer feedback
to reduce churn?
!
The
metric
you
need:
Track
the
percentage
of
accounts
that
did
NOT
respond
✓ Research
shows
that
silent
accounts
are
up
to
7x
likelier
to
churn
faster
than
even
the
angriest
of
customers
–
they
don’t
even
care
enough
to
tell
you
how
mad
they
are!
And
they’re
clearly
not
waiting
around
for
you
to
fix
the
problem.
!
✓ Most
companies
focus
on
getting
high
response
rates
but
they
fail
to
hone
in
on
the
fact
that
if
50%
of
people
respond,
that’s
still
HALF
of
your
customers
who
are
disengaged!
Is
your
team
focused
on
silent
accounts?
!
✓ Increase
the
representativeness
of
your
answers
with
real-­‐time
data
during
feedback
collection
and
get
in
contact
with
important
accounts
who
are
not
engaged.
9

10. 2) How can we compare satisfaction scores to
understand whether they are “good” or not?
The
reporting
you
need:
Create
benchmarks
within
your
company
by
comparing
and
contrasting
similar-­‐accounts*
!
✓ Expensive
B2B
benchmark
reports
from
third-­‐party
companies
won’t
give
you
an
accurate
comparison–
no
other
business
is
exactly
like
yours!
!
✓ Easily
use
your
own
historical
VoC
data
to
get
a
clear
outlook
on
not
only
overall
performance
but
also
within
segments
like
product
tiers,
geographical
regions,
or
industries.
!
✓ By
running
a
customer
success
program
with
the
proper
metrics
and
data
collection,
your
company
will
be
able
to
juxtapose
one
account’s
data
with
similar
accounts
for
apples-­‐to-­‐
apples
contrast.
*see
page
20
for
an
example
10

11. 3) How does Management know if VoC data provides
an accurate snapshot of Customer Success?
The
metrics
you
need:
The
percentage
of
total
accounts
that
responded
and
the
breakdown
of
who
specifically
responded
within
the
account
!
✓ To
avoid
response
and
selection
bias,
your
survey
invitations
should
cover
a
pre-­‐determined:
!
✓ Minimum requirement for overall responses (i.e., coverage is not complete until 3 people respond for
each account)
✓ Minimum requirement of responses from different roles within the account (i.e., Decision Makers,
End Users, Influencers, and any other user type that makes sense for your business)
!
✓ Set
these
guidelines
from
the
beginning
to
ensure
representative
data
and
cast
away
margin-­‐of-­‐
error
doubts.
!
✓ Use
this
framework
to
also
track
whether
you’re
questionnaires
are
completed
by
important
segments
like
strategic
accounts.
11

12. 4) How can we ensure each question is
applicable to each respondent?
The
program
design
you
need:
Use
role-­‐based
questionnaires
and
only
show
relevant
questions
to
each
respondent
!
✓ VoC
software
that
specializes
in
B2B
should
easily
allow
respondents
to
select
a
role
(like
Decision
Maker,
Influencer,
or
Day-­‐to-­‐Day
Contact),
showing
or
hiding
questions
based
on
previous
answers.
!
✓ Increase
meaningful
answers
and
response
rates
with
questions
that
resonate
with
customers.
!
✓ B2B
companies
have
such
complex
organizational
structures
with
buying
syndicates,
this
role-­‐based
reporting
is
critical
to
understanding
the
dynamics
of
an
account
and
how
they
change
over
time.
12

13. 5) How can we know which issues are most
important to our customers?
!
The
reporting
you
need:
Stack-­‐rank
the
key
relationship
drivers
for
each
account,
segment,
and
portfolio.*
!
✓ Your
survey
tool
should
list
out
which
parts
of
the
customer
journey
and
experience
would
have
the
greatest
impact
on
the
relationship
based
on
the
correlation
to
the
customer’s
Likelihood
to
Recommend.
!
✓ Prioritize
your
actions
to
improve
customer
experience
with
the
most
impactful
steps–
ideal
for
teams
with
limited
resources.
*see
page
24
for
an
example
13

14. 6) How do our CSM’s effectively close the loop
with customers?
!
The
reporting
you
need:
Automated
documentation
for
follow-­‐up
including
progress
and
action-­‐plans
with
email
notifications*
!
✓ Effective
governance
for
follow-­‐up
is
often
the
lost
ingredient
when
it
comes
to
digging
to
the
root
cause
of
an
issue.
Detailed
reports
for
account
managers
and
customers
are
the
key
to
holding
staff
organized
and
accountable
in
resolving
action
items.
!
✓ Your
CRM-­‐integrated
system
should
send
the
appropriate
CSM
an
automated
alert
when
there
is
a
Need
for
Contact
or
a
“severe
Detractor”
(customers
who
responded
with
a
0-­‐3
in
their
Likelihood
to
Recommend,
for
example)
response
that
comes
through
in
real-­‐
time.
Close
the
loop
with
a
phone-­‐call
within
24
-­‐
48
hours
to
provide
a
“wow”
moment
and
get
back
on
the
right
track.
!
✓ Management
should
also
receive
notifications
with
stats
on
which
CSM’s
have
followed
up
and
which
customers
still
need
more
of
a
high-­‐touch
approach.
*see
page
22
for
an
example
14

15. 7) How can we evaluate the impact of an issue on
the customer relationship?
The
reporting
you
need:
Key
Driver
Analysis
illustrating
the
importance
of
an
issue
to
customers
and
closed
loop
reporting
noting
revenue
loss/ROI
earned
from
resolution*
!
✓ Depending
on
the
severity
of
the
scores
or
how
many
contacts
within
an
account
are
reporting
the
same
pain
points,
the
right
B2B
survey
tool
can
help
companies
understand
whether
a
red
flag
for
an
account
is
high
priority
or
not
through
Key
Driver
Analysis.
!
✓ Companies
with
the
proper
follow-­‐up
reporting
can
also
note
how
the
issue
resolution
has
impacted
the
relationship;
whether
revenue
was
earned
or
saved
as
a
result
to
calculate
the
ROI.
*see
page
23
for
an
example
15

16. 8) What kind of trend analysis
should we be doing?
The
reporting
you
need:
Monitor
changes
in
response
rates
and
scores
for
individual
customers,
accounts
and
segments
–
not
just
overall*
!
✓ Lots
of
companies
look
at
changes
in
scores
and
overall
response
rates,
but
there’s
so
much
more
to
the
big
picture:
VoC
systems
need
to
show
changes
for
individual
customers
and
accounts
that
stop
or
start
giving
feedback
–
it
is
likely
an
indicator
for
relationship
health.
!
✓ For
example,
if
an
account
previously
told
your
team
they
were
unhappy
and
did
not
bother
responding
at
all
this
time
around,
they
don’t
think
it’s
worth
their
time—their
feedback
wasn’t
used
previously,
the
problem
still
exists,
or
they
are
about
to
leave
anyway.
*see
page
21
for
an
example
16

17. 9) How can we decipher
open-ended comments quickly?
!
The
reporting
you
need:
Use
word
clouds,
tone
analysis
and
frequency
of
keywords
to
easily
view
hot
button
items
!
✓ VoC
systems
should
be
able
to
filter
open-­‐ended
comments
to
decipher
positive,
neutral,
and
negative
tones
and
identify
trends
in
keywords
based
on
frequency.
!
✓ CSMs
should
also
be
able
to
perform
easy
account
and
segment
analysis
by
filtering
comments
with
keywords,
Recommend
scores,
and
product
usage
to
understand
how
issues
are
related
to
use
cases.
17

18. 10) How can we ensure we’re not inundating
customers with feedback requests?
!
The
program
design
you
need:
Map
out
all
the
instances
your
company
will
collect
feedback
throughout
the
year
to
strategically
collect
enough
data
without
inundating
customers
!
✓ Combining
relationship
feedback
questions
with
information
that
will
matter
to
different
parts
of
the
business
(like
Sales
or
Product,
not
just
Customer
Support)
will
help
alleviate
the
need
for
exorbitant
surveys
throughout
the
year.
!
✓ Developing
a
sophisticated
schedule
for
covering
100%
of
customers
throughout
the
year
will
ensure
proper
data
is
collected
without
an
overwhelming
number
of
requests
that
become
ignored
over
time.
18

19. 11): What kind of B2B software is out there
for CS teams to efficiently manage
the feedback process?
!
The
software
you
need:
!!!!!!
✓ All
of
these
essentials
questions
can
be
answered
by
TopBox:
a
B2B
voice-­‐of-­‐customer
software
designed
by
Customer
Success
consultants.
!
✓ Affordable
for
small-­‐to-­‐medium
enterprises,
TopBox
delivers
unique
reporting
for
detailed
account,
segment
and
portfolio
analysis
that
garners
9X
ROI.
!
✓ TopBox
is
also
a
“managed
service”
alleviating
the
busywork
for
CS
teams
and
allowing
them
more
time
with
customers
and
resolving
issues.
19

20. Benchmarks
Get
clear
visuals
on
how
certain
accounts
rate
your
business
compared
to
other
similar
accounts.
(jump
back
20
to
the
questions)

21. Drill
even
deeper:
!
Know
exactly
who
to
follow-­‐up
with
to
understand
why
scores
have
changed
Trend Lines
Overall
Scores
&
Response
Rate Individual
Score
Changes
(jump
back
21
to
the
questions)

22. Closed Loop Tracking
● Status
of
Action
Items,
maintained
by
CSM’s
Symptom(s):
• What did the customer experience?
• “Client stated…”
Overall action plan that was agreed with the client
Appended Status history
(jump
back
22
to
the
questions)

23. Relationship Impact
How will the process be fixed so it
doesn’t happen again?
After resolution, what was the “real” cause
of this issue in the first place?
What, if any, benefits were gained by
resolving this issue?
Free-text description, with categorization fields
to be able to report on root causes
● Learn
from
mistakes,
don’t
repeat
them
(jump
back
23
to
the
questions)

24. Get
Organized
for
Action
!
Prioritize
action
items
easily.
Stack Rank Key Drivers
Understand
the
relationship
between
the
Overall
Likelihood
to
Recommend
with
each
relationship
element
and
touchpoint.
(jump
back
24
to
the
questions)

25. Schedule a Demo, Start Improving
Have you been running customer surveys but not gaining new
insight? Grow your business with strong relationships that activate
advocates and convert at-risk accounts with vital reports and detailed
action plans.
!
TopBox is the affordable, turnkey solution for B2B firms looking to
understand customer sentiment and loyalty.
!
Contact us to turbo-charge your Net Promoter or Customer Success
program with TopBox in as little as 30 days.
!!
info@topboxtech.com
408-673-2211
25