In this article, I’ll share a significant experience from my time at Arara, a company dedicated to capturing first-party customer data in physical spaces in exchange for internet access, following the display of a digital ad. This experience underscored the importance of focusing on customer expectations regarding the service or product they receive—in essence, the importance of Customer Success service.
Initial situation
Upon joining Arara, I faced challenges in acquiring clients and encountered resistance from some distribution channels (integrators or Telcos), directly impacting the company’s commercial area. I was tasked with commercially developing the region.
Situation analysis
- I detected a low connection rate on the platform that delivered results to clients.
- There was a distant relationship with some distributors of our solution (integrators, telcos, among others).
- Customer Success meetings were difficult to schedule, and attendance was very low.
- There was a deficiency in the results delivered by the Customer Success team.
- Low renewal rate or difficulty in achieving customer renewal.
Set objectives
- Ensure that integrators, telcos, and other distributors wanted to work with us and sought us out, not vice versa.
- Increase the connection rate of end clients to the data platform and boost attendance at results delivery meetings.
- Be viewed as a strategic partner, not just a service provider.
- Increase the renewal rate to make it a simple process.
Strategy and results
- Complete and immediate restructuring of the Customer Success service (with management approval). I took the lead along with the people who were in charge at the time. The first activity was to conduct in-depth analyses of the captured data and use it to create reports. For example: fully segmented customer visit frequencies, ROI, carbon footprint reduction, which video or image campaign was yielding more results and conversions, review of terms and conditions in the legal area for habeas data, and even recommendations on big data usage and commercial strategies, sales, loyalty, omnichannel, among others.
- Request meetings for results delivery. Here, the first step was to introduce myself, highlight my professional experience, and begin presenting results with the same person(s) who had been attending these meetings. This created a stir internally among end clients and our distributors. Meetings went from 1 or 2 attendees to having up to 15 people (from areas such as legal, marketing, customer success, business intelligence, commercial, sales, digital transformation, among others). We achieved highly interactive meetings where they asked for more support. We moved from a quarterly frequency to a monthly one (requested by end clients).
- In this way, we transitioned from being a provider to a strategic partner. By channeling all meetings through our Distribution channels, they also improved their relationship with end clients. They started inviting us to more bidding processes.
Conclusion
The proposed strategy resolved several deficiencies and directly impacted the company’s sales levels, brand presence, and reputation, demonstrating the importance of focusing on customer expectations to provide an exceptional service or product. Furthermore, the renewal rate increased considerably.
Months later, we managed to close two very large deals (worth several million dollars), one with the largest bank in Peru alongside Telefónica, and another with the Government of Paraguay and Logicalis.
Thanks to the great team and coworkers
