10 ms·

The Startup CEO’s Guide to Customer Success and Onboarding

108 points by swanson 5y ago

skidoo48 5y ago
Nice!
jerrygoyal 5y ago
Contains just the surface level information like pick a CRM, regular updates to your superiors etc. Also this post is marketing for their own customer onboarding product (Arrow).
- danielzarick 5y ago
  That's not a fair characterization of the guide at all. Did you even read it? There's tons of useful information (fully available on the website, no need to download) for anybody who's building / working with a customer success team for the first time, which is much of the audience on HN. And yes, our "marketing" is trying to be generous with our knowledge and experience. That doesn't mean it isn't useful.
  - clarge1120 5y ago
    The parent comment wasn't flattering, but it also wasn't unfair. I did not read the guide, but did read the titles and summary info looking for the section that outlines the solution to the problem that is presented. It was not there. If it was, none of the titles indicated that it was. Given how nicely the guide is presented, I'm confident that the answer is not there. No need to read the guide.
    - danielzarick 5y ago
      Appreciate your feedback, we will look into the titles and summaries to better explain the value inside each chapter. Sorry you feel nice design devalues information.
      - clarge1120 5y ago
        Nice design indicates high-value information. The high-value information is what I was expecting, given the nice design. The high-value information is not there.
temp004 5y ago
This is the same resource in a pdf format all collected together if you don't want to keep clicking around: https://attachments.convertkitcdnn.com/112815/c7859eeb-b6f1-410e-9b0c-c7e5b25591c1/The%20Startup%20CEO's%20Guide%20to%20Customer%20Success%20&%20Onboarding.pdf https://attachments.convertkitcdnn.com/112815/c7859eeb-b6f1-... (ps: my apologies to the arrows co-founder who I see is in the comments) edit: I'm curious why this was downvoted? it's a more direct link to the same source and saves the users time. instead of being linked to a marketing funnel.
danielzarick 5y ago
(FYI - I’m the co-founder of Arrows, which created this guide) In our time building and working at startups, we came to realize customer success was a secret weapon that’s massively overlooked and underfunded. If you use customer success properly, it’s the core tool that helps you get to the SaaS holy grail of negative churn. The first employee we hired after raising money this year was our customer success advisor, Shareil Nariman. And he’s who wrote this guide which is fully published on the site. Just a small way we hoped to use the benefit of having funding to give back to the community. Let us know if there’s stuff you think we missed!
- hammock 5y ago
  This is a cool guide just in terms of organization and writing style. What previous examples did you take inspiration from?
  - danielzarick 5y ago
    Thanks so much! The team is thrilled with how it turned out... and our first marketing hire doesn't start until next week, so this was a bit of a grind. We looked at Clearbit's and Productboard's ebooks, frankly. And then we worked with a designer on the PDF itself: http://nonfik.com/studio http://nonfik.com/studio
    - yabadabadoo007 5y ago
      Your designer did a great job. It's beautiful.
- codingdave 5y ago
  > customer success was a secret weapon that’s massively overlooked and underfunded. You are right about its importance, of course, but why do you say it is overlooked and underfunded? Almost everyone I know acknowledges that it is critical to success, and it get serious focus.
  - danielzarick 5y ago
dudeman13 5y ago
Somewhat off topic, but when I scroll down there is a position: fixed element that is always shown. The "book scrolling" animation was really distracting :|
- danielzarick 5y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! Will think about ideas for how we can change it. Sorry you found it distracting, totally understand.
handrous 5y ago
Am I missing something, or is "customer success" one of those things where people come up with a new term for existing things, but with "... done correctly" implied? I read the "What is customer success and why does it matter" part hoping for clarity, and that's what it reads like to me.
- named-user 5y ago
  Customer engagement manager
- danielzarick 5y ago
  It is definitely something different, and a different framing on some existing activities. But the same way that engineering roles change, non-engineering roles also change in focus and title and expectations. Thanks for the feedback about that chapter, will dive in and see if we can try to make the answer more clear!

108 points by swanson 5y ago

Nice!

Contains just the surface level information like pick a CRM, regular updates to your superiors etc. Also this post is marketing for their own customer onboarding product (Arrow).

danielzarick 5y ago
That's not a fair characterization of the guide at all. Did you even read it? There's tons of useful information (fully available on the website, no need to download) for anybody who's building / working with a customer success team for the first time, which is much of the audience on HN. And yes, our "marketing" is trying to be generous with our knowledge and experience. That doesn't mean it isn't useful.
- clarge1120 5y ago
  The parent comment wasn't flattering, but it also wasn't unfair. I did not read the guide, but did read the titles and summary info looking for the section that outlines the solution to the problem that is presented. It was not there. If it was, none of the titles indicated that it was. Given how nicely the guide is presented, I'm confident that the answer is not there. No need to read the guide.
  - danielzarick 5y ago
    Appreciate your feedback, we will look into the titles and summaries to better explain the value inside each chapter. Sorry you feel nice design devalues information.
    - clarge1120 5y ago
      Nice design indicates high-value information. The high-value information is what I was expecting, given the nice design. The high-value information is not there.

temp004 5y ago

This is the same resource in a pdf format all collected together if you don't want to keep clicking around: https://attachments.convertkitcdnn.com/112815/c7859eeb-b6f1-410e-9b0c-c7e5b25591c1/The%20Startup%20CEO's%20Guide%20to%20Customer%20Success%20&%20Onboarding.pdf https://attachments.convertkitcdnn.com/112815/c7859eeb-b6f1-... (ps: my apologies to the arrows co-founder who I see is in the comments) edit: I'm curious why this was downvoted? it's a more direct link to the same source and saves the users time. instead of being linked to a marketing funnel.

danielzarick 5y ago

(FYI - I’m the co-founder of Arrows, which created this guide) In our time building and working at startups, we came to realize customer success was a secret weapon that’s massively overlooked and underfunded. If you use customer success properly, it’s the core tool that helps you get to the SaaS holy grail of negative churn. The first employee we hired after raising money this year was our customer success advisor, Shareil Nariman. And he’s who wrote this guide which is fully published on the site. Just a small way we hoped to use the benefit of having funding to give back to the community. Let us know if there’s stuff you think we missed!

hammock 5y ago
This is a cool guide just in terms of organization and writing style. What previous examples did you take inspiration from?
- danielzarick 5y ago
  Thanks so much! The team is thrilled with how it turned out... and our first marketing hire doesn't start until next week, so this was a bit of a grind. We looked at Clearbit's and Productboard's ebooks, frankly. And then we worked with a designer on the PDF itself: http://nonfik.com/studio http://nonfik.com/studio
  - yabadabadoo007 5y ago
    Your designer did a great job. It's beautiful.
codingdave 5y ago
> customer success was a secret weapon that’s massively overlooked and underfunded. You are right about its importance, of course, but why do you say it is overlooked and underfunded? Almost everyone I know acknowledges that it is critical to success, and it get serious focus.
- danielzarick 5y ago

dudeman13 5y ago

Somewhat off topic, but when I scroll down there is a position: fixed element that is always shown. The "book scrolling" animation was really distracting :|

danielzarick 5y ago
Thanks for the feedback! Will think about ideas for how we can change it. Sorry you found it distracting, totally understand.

handrous 5y ago

Am I missing something, or is "customer success" one of those things where people come up with a new term for existing things, but with "... done correctly" implied? I read the "What is customer success and why does it matter" part hoping for clarity, and that's what it reads like to me.

named-user 5y ago
Customer engagement manager
danielzarick 5y ago
It is definitely something different, and a different framing on some existing activities. But the same way that engineering roles change, non-engineering roles also change in focus and title and expectations. Thanks for the feedback about that chapter, will dive in and see if we can try to make the answer more clear!