In a Business-to-business (B2B) style company, establishing a relationship between customers and service providers is an essential part of customer satisfaction and retention. Establishing a good client relationship is an important aspect of retaining the services offered to them by outsourcing providers. In the long run, having an excellent BPO-client relationship is beneficial and promotes longevity of service. 

What Is A Customer Success Manager (CSM)?

A customer success manager’s role is to build long-term relationships to establish trust with clients. More often than not, businesses without customer success managers may tend to neglect their relationships with their customers. This negatively impacts business relationships and as a result, would not prolong the partnership they have with your organization. 

In the outsourcing industry where the preference for service is based on the ability to deliver results and meet the ongoing or future needs of the clients, it is critical that a customer success manager is on the frontlines and addressing those needs. A CSM’s responsibility is to understand the needs, goals, and issues each client will face. The goal of the CSM is to shift the focus of customer success from providing reactive solutions to anticipating the needs of the customers and adopting a proactive strategy.

That said, what makes a great customer success manager? From a smooth transition for client onboardings, building excellent client relationships, client retention, continuous improvement and suggesting improvements for processes, providing valuable insights to clients and the company. From a business perspective, the information gathered by the customer success manager is an important guide for the company’s decisions in the future.  

Smooth Client Onboarding 

Onboarding refers to the process of integrating new customers into your organization. A CSM must ensure a seamless onboarding process for new clients. It is important to note that the initial experience with clients will leave an impression and have an impact on customer satisfaction. Being the first point of contact for clients, a CSM should have an effective framework on how to deal with new clients. 

In addition, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry caters to numerous industries, each with their own unique clients, creating the need for bespoke solutions. A CSM’s process of handling clients should always be tailored-made for every client to ensure a smooth transition from onboarding to an intricate process of relationship building and retention. 

Build Client Relationship And Retention

Once a client is onboarded into a BPO company, the crucial part of the CSM’s job is to bridge the communication gap and establish a relationship of trust between the client, and the outsourcing provider. Building client relationships through translating and communicating customer sentiments to address any issues, and resolve them in an expedient manner will improve customer relations. 

A CSM should be proactive and flexible when dealing with clients, especially when handling multiple clients with contrasting requests. When all said and done, an excellent BPO-client relationship will benefit customer retention due to the fact that satisfied clients are more likely to stay and recommend new ones.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, as the service-based industry continues to flourish and B2B transaction increases, the need for customer success managers as the point of contact between clients and businesses are vital for the retention of clients. By ensuring a smooth onboarding process and bridging relationships with clients to have a successful relationship will retain customers and help a business grow.