The problem isn’t the tool; it’s your process.
I’ve spent the last 7 years watching companies buy new software to solve their process problems, shortly after, they hit a wall and place all the blame on the tool or provider.
The next thoughts are based on my experience as a Customer Success Manager and Account Manager for a different range of B2B clients and a high touch model.
Here’s what I’ve learned and what you, as a CSM can do to help.
Imagine this scenario. You love to eat and cook for yourself and your family.
When you find time to cook, you really enjoy it, but for whatever reason, you often end up ordering the food or just waiting on someone else at home to take the lead and prepare something.
This happens to me. One day I thought, “Hey, a kitchen robot could help me”. I imagined that having a tool that suggests new recipes and guides me in preparing those dishes easily and in a timely fashion would solve my frustrations. Well, I couldn’t be more mistaken.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the robot, and my family uses it on a daily basis, but I didn't turn the Chef I thought I would. The reason was, I wasn’t preparing myself to cook.
I didn’t save time on my agenda to think about what I wanted to cook, what ingredients I’d need, whether I had those ingredients or if I needed to buy them. And if yes, am I ordering those groceries with enough buffer time for my cooking?
Without this organization and process in place, my challenge remained unsolved by the kitchen robot.
I hope this previous exercise makes some sense to you because, in my opinion, the same thing applies when some companies decide to buy new software.
I’ve seen many companies buying new software, hoping that the new tool solves deep cultural and organizational problems. Sometimes they even use the new tool to force the adoption of a new method/process.
It could sometimes work, although, in my experience, that’s not the ideal approach.
The process should be established beforehand, with:
- the main players identified;
- key actions needed;
- expected outcomes;
- with a small internal pilot to validate all the assumptions.
Most importantly, with the internal buy-in of the involved staff.
Take into consideration my example with the kitchen robot. If I already had the daily habit of cooking for my family, what groceries I needed to buy, and when I needed to buy them, I would have had this mental process up & running. Hence, buying a kitchen robot wouldn’t be anything but changing to a different tool.
Instead of the stove, I’d use the kitchen robot.
So what can you do as a CSM
I know this could be highly arguable and controversial, but in an ideal world, the prospect should be qualified about their readiness to adopt the new tool.
If it’s not ready, their Success Plan should include an initial phase to access, design, and validate the new process to be implemented, and only after, the Onboarding begins.
Instead of jumping right into the new software, I’ve had customers who started a transition stage, using paper to record stuff and excel spreadsheets to analyze it, legitimizing the processes and expected outcomes. Plus, the new process was designed, taking into account what my tool would need them to do.
After this stage, moving to the newly purchased tool was smooth and a lot easier.
In my experience, if this approach is well performed, it will help to manage customer expectations and avoid frustrations, promote loyalty, and if it’s done from the very beginning, it places the provider as an industry expert leader.
Yes, the overall implementation will take more time, but the final result will make it worth it.
Let me know if you agree with my perspective on this, and feel free to reach me to discuss this topic further.
