Who is “the customer?”

In the SaaS world we’re always talking about “the customer.” Is the customer getting value? Is the customer a churn risk? Will the customer expand?

Who, exactly, is this “customer” we’re always talking about?

There’s the person who decided to buy your product. They may or may not personally use it.

There are the people who are tasked with administering and rolling out your product internally. It may be a big or small part of their day job, and they may or may not be excited about this task.

There are end users who may be required to use your software (an HR system, a CRM). Or to them it’s just some logo that sits in their Okta that they may or may not ever check out. If you’re lucky maybe a co-worker tells them about it (this is what you count on for product-led growth).

As a Customer Success leader, are you thinking about the experience of ALL of these customers? Because all of them play a role in whether a “customer” churns or expands.

Are you looking at usage data to see if product adoption is consistently increasing? Do you know if your customer education materials are being accessed and are effective? What about that new feature you pushed the product team for — is it being adopted at the rate you expected? On top of the quantitative data, do you have “listening posts” set up to collect ongoing sentiment data?

So the next time you find yourself using the phrase “the customer,” make sure you know who, exactly, you’re talking about, and what, exactly, you are doing to help that customer succeed.