I was in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago to attend the Technology and Services World conference put on by the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA). The TSIA—a community of 35,000 technology and services leaders from Fortune 100 to growing companies—helps services providers like Logicalis grow and advance in the technology industry.
As the executive responsible for customer success management here at Logicalis, it was powerful to hear TSIA researchers and like-minded companies talk about their customer success management journeys and the successes and failures they’ve had. So powerful that I met with TSIA leadership to talk about Logicalis’ customer success management organization.
I didn’t know it at the time, but my enthusiasm for customer success was making me a candidate for one of two open position on their advisory board. After a panel interview, I was asked to join the Technology Services Provider advisory board—and I gladly accepted.
Walking the talk: A serious commitment to customer success
Talk is cheap, as they say, and for far too long, the industry has paid lip service to the value of customer success.
So being asked to serve on a TSIA advisory board that’s focused on customer service and success is a valuable opportunity to share the thought leadership we believe in here at Logicalis. More importantly, I’m honored to be at the forefront of industry thinking and leadership, while raising our own bar.
The added benefit is that we can take advantage of TSIA’s research-based insight and strong community support to improve our customer success and other programs, while driving the strategic, operational and financial performance of Logicalis.
In other words, this appointment represents a powerful opportunity to validate whether we’re doing right by our customers, to share what’s worked and to make improvements along the way.
Validating our customer success methodology
But how can you tell if a company is serious about customer success? According to this article, you should look for “specific practices that companies adopt in their customer success programs to determine if the company is serious about ensuring the success of their customers.”
As an example, Cisco recently received the TSIA’s highest recognition—the STAR award—because they saw that their customers were struggling in their digital transformation journeys and feeling less than confident about choosing the right solutions to achieve their business outcomes.
To make it easier for customers to make the right choices, Cisco aligned their product management and marketing teams and empowered their service delivery teams to take ownership of customer issues. (It should be noted that Cisco has received more STAR awards from the TSIA than any other organization—more than 30—since the TSIA started in 1990.)
As a more than 20-year Cisco partner, Logicalis followed suit. We modeled our customer success management program after theirs and became a Cisco Lifecycle Advisor. You can read more about the intensive process that Logicalis undertook here.
We have now rolled out our customer success methodology to our other partner solutions, including Microsoft, NetApp, Veeam and others.
Logicalis: Leading the change in customer success management
At the end of the day, our goal is to improve the value that customers receive from our solutions and services. And if we do that right, we’ll increase customer loyalty while growing our own business. This is precisely the mission statement for our Services team:
“Deliver services that provide extraordinary user experience and value, while challenging the status quo in order to promote a culture that embodies excellence, innovation and dedication to the development of new business for Logicalis.”
Being at the forefront of change in our industry by serving the TSIA helps us all. We can’t possibly be successful if you’re not successful. So we strive to ensure that the solutions and services that you receive from Logicalis not only meet your needs, but that they help deliver the outcomes you require.
In other words, we’re leading the change.
Learn more about how we can help you make the digital transformation journey a smooth one so you can better achieve your business outcomes…contact us today.
Jeremy Blanton is Vice President of Services for Logicalis US, responsible for delivering Managed Services, Professional Services, Customer Success and Service Desk.