The Startup CEO’s Guide to Customer Success and Onboarding – Arrows

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Introduction

We see it every day at Arrows: You're the CEO of a startup. You know you need to retain and grow your existing customer base and are starting to think about customer success, but you have no idea where to start.

It's 2021 and customer success is more than a buzzword. If you're a growing startup, odds are you hired your first customer success person within your first 10 employees (or are about to).

Startup CEOs are no longer asking "Do we need customer success?" They're starting to ask "How should we make customer success work for us?"

So if you're reading this guide, you're on the right track!

Let's face it: you spent a ton of money on marketing and sales to acquire your customers. They were hard-won. But without a success program, those customers and all that revenue will be gone a lot sooner than you expect.

Customer success is about keeping the customers you've won and growing their average spend so your business scales faster.

This guide's purpose is to give you guidance on what customer success is, when to prioritize it, and how to set yourself AND your customers up for success.

Customer success requires investing time and money, but don't think of it as a cost. It's an investment, both in your customers and the ultimate health of your startup. It's the single most impactful thing you can do to ensure your customers and business continue to succeed.

Let's get into it!

CHAPTER 1

What is customer success and why does it matter

Your customers came to you with a pain point they are hoping to solve. They have a job that needs to be done and they believe your business is going to help them get it done. That's why they are paying you. Your job is...

CHAPTER 2

Hiring your first customer success person

Now, with a better understanding of what customer success is and why it's important, let's talk about that crucial first hire - especially if you are currently the CEO and interim Customer Success Manager. Don't get us wrong...

CHAPTER 3

What should your first customer success hire do during the first 3 months?

Starting any job can feel overwhelming. You have new coworkers to meet, systems to learn, and processes to understand. If you're in the market for or just hired that first customer success person, odds are you have a lot...

CHAPTER 4

The business impact you can expect from your customer success strategy

Your customers came to you with a pain point they are hoping to solve. They have a job that needs to be done and they believe your business is going to help them get it done. That's why they are paying...

CHAPTER 5

Why you should have dedicated onboarding roles on your success team

If you've invested in hiring your first customer success person, it's clear the customer experience is important to you. This experience is made up of multiple phases and touch-points throughout...

CHAPTER 5

Why you should have dedicated onboarding roles on your success team

If you've invested in hiring your first customer success person, it's clear the customer experience is important to you. This experience is made up of multiple phases and touch-points throughout...

CHAPTER 6

How customer success works with other departments

Your customers came to you with a pain point they are hoping to solve. They have a job that needs to be done and they believe your business is going to help them get it done. That's why they are paying...

CHAPTER 7

How to calculate the value of a customer success team

Your customers need to use your product or service to get value from it; we can all agree there. That's how you keep them around and set them up to grow their business with you over time. Doing so results...

CHAPTER 8

How to calculate the value of an onboarding team

Each interaction with customers is an opportunity to help them realize the value you provide. As customers realize that value, they are inclined to leverage more of it and for longer...

CHAPTER 9

When and how to scale your customer success efforts

If you've made it this far in this guide, we are hopeful you've seen the value of investing in customer success. If you see the value, odds are that your customers do too, whether it's getting...