{"id":38534,"date":"2022-02-25T14:51:19","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T14:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/?p=38534"},"modified":"2026-01-06T05:25:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:25:55","slug":"sc-customer-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialchamp.com\/blog\/sc-customer-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Champ\u2019s Journey – From Customer Support to Customer Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How many times have we lost our interest in a service or a product after spending just a few minutes?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Let’s imagine – I visit a top-ranked, much-talked-about website with several social media ads running. I click here and there, making a handful of efforts to make sense of the product but eventually leaving!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I am a\u00a0Lost Customer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This must not be the first time and might often happen to us. But the question here is, why did I lose interest?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There could be a number of reasons why we lose a potential lead, but more important is to realize that our customer journey somehow crashed somewhere along the way. Or else, why would your well-created product be left for a competitor’s product?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Customers are the driving force of any business, and without them, you and your brand are going nowhere. Once you finish building a product, it is no longer a secret that your product needs extraordinary sales and marketing efforts to make it a brand. But in the current chaotic online and eCommerce situation, where customers have endless options, sales and marketing strategies alone aren’t enough to sustain growth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This blog will discuss how Social Champ mapped its customer journey. A journey from providing essential customer support<\/a> to a stable, effective, and worthy customer success strategy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So, let’s start.\"Customer<\/p>\n

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What Is a Customer Journey?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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When you think of your customers, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If it is,\u00a0‘how to retain my customers?<\/em>‘, the situation is alarming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The question should be,\u00a0‘can I name their intentions, requirements, and pain points?<\/em>‘\u00a0and above all,\u00a0‘do you know why customers choose you instead of your competitors?<\/em>‘<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If you are worried about\u00a0customer retention<\/a>, then a few changes in your strategies can make it work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mapping a customer journey is important for a long-term business strategy. It is best to know what a customer experiences at every stage when they are using your product or service to fulfill their requirements. In today’s time, on average, a customer has 10 different<\/strong> means to communicate with you, and that needs to be acknowledged every time without fail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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All this sounds like sunshine and rainbows in theory, but the question remains; “How can you make sure that all customers are happy, going smoothly, and are satisfied?”<\/strong>\n<\/div>\n

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The answer is simple: Outline your customer’s journey within your platform by visualizing what they are experiencing at every step in real-time. This will help you understand the customer’s thought process and pain points.<\/em>\n<\/div>\n

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Through this, you will be able to connect with your customers better, and in return, your business will achieve more credibility.<\/p>\n

\"Customer-Journey-Map\"<\/p>\n

Social Champ’s Journey From Customer Support to Customer Success<\/h2>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Beginning<\/h3>\n

Social Champ started as a team of 2 in September 2016 with high ambitions.\u00a0Limited features and a simple user experience was the main idea, to begin with. The team grew to 3 people, and we got our first customer onboard in February 2017<\/b>. Yay!<\/span><\/p>\n

This is where the actual customer journey began. With a limited team comes limited resources and less knowledge of how a customer will perceive our platform. As discussed above, mapping all customer touchpoints is crucial. A buyer’s persona should be created around it – but did we know this then? No!<\/p>\n

Thus our customer facilitation started, and so did our adventures.<\/p>\n

Customer Support On The Go<\/h3>\n

2017:<\/strong> A booming year for Social Champ started with limited features now taking shape as a product and welcomed by renowned people like Guy Kawasaki<\/a> and Jehan Ara<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Social Champ closed this year with a total of 71 customers <\/strong>on board\u00a0which was a great start. The pioneer customers were easily facilitated. Most customers were either new to the concept or were experienced with a social media management tool<\/a> and were looking for a fresh experience. Customer support was not a hassle at all with a maximum of\u00a05-8 interactions a day<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The connections were tighter and more on a one-to-one basis over emails and social media platforms. A simple suggestion would come flying from a customer and be implemented immediately. If possible, feature requests would get integrated in a few hours and go live.<\/p>\n

\"Startup<\/p>\n

Emails were the key communication tool.<\/p>\n

Social Champ stuck by one rule from day one: ‘customers are precious and our utmost priority.’<\/p>\n

The customer journey at Social Champ was then precisely mapped as a buyer connects with the team and gets a quick demo of the Social Champ’s platform on the run.<\/p>\n

Next, if they have any suggestions, they will be acknowledged on priority within a 24 hours response time<\/strong>. Once a customer subscribes, the expectation was for them to do well unless anyone would reach out over an email with an identified blocker. If the issue seems urgent to handle, then a quick call was the last resort.<\/p>\n

At this stage, Social Champ’s customer support was not well-defined but was a check on all significant boxes. Here a question arises;<\/p>\n

What is Customer Support?<\/h3>\n

‘Customer support is a service a business provides to its customers where they can be listened to, answered, and looked after. A team of one or more who knows the product best would cater to customers, facilitate them and resolve their queries by connecting their respective engineering or development departments.<\/p>\n

Quality customer support is quick, timely, and empathetic by keeping the customers first’.<\/p>\n

Social Champ was doing all of the above except having a defined team and a process<\/strong>, which made the customer support crumble.<\/p>\n

Customer Support Is Not Enough!<\/h3>\n

2018:<\/strong>\u00a0Social Champ was molding itself as a social media management tool where new features were adding up and the customers, but the core concept was the same.<\/p>\n

The business was doing well and was technically growing, but the customer support faced a setback. Customers are the most vital component of a growing business.<\/p>\n

Social Champ, the customers were increasing in number but also their expectations. Subscriptions rose 200% from 2017 to the end of 2018<\/strong>. Time management was becoming a challenge for the team.<\/p>\n

Customer queries started to pile up, and more people began to question the presence of a customer advocate for them. The only means of communication, emails, were suffering the most; the response time increased from 24 hours to a 72 hours window<\/strong> and sometimes more. It was a year of struggles.<\/p>\n

It was safe to say that the customer support was not enough!<\/p>\n

The focus from customer acquisition shifted 180 degrees to customer retention<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The realization that catering to customers, resolving their issues on priority, a one-on-one connection, and an overall support methodology are not enough to keep customers at difficult times.\"Startup<\/p>\n

A New Beginning Towards Customer Success<\/h3>\n

2019 – 2022:<\/strong> Realization is not acknowledged by many, but those who do, win the race. With the major failure of customer support methodology, Social Champ took no time to bounce back, and this time with a well thought, strategized, and long-term customer success strategy.<\/p>\n

What is Customer Success?<\/h4>\n

\u2018Customer Success<\/a> is a vision that aligns not only with your customer’s needs but also with their journey as they grow.<\/p>\n

This is a process where a designated team will look into customers and their journey with your product deep down at every stage. The focus is not only to make the customers feel heard, but they should feel nurtured, preferred, and essential. The customers’ growth becomes a preference equally as their issues become a priority. Unlike the customer support system, the customer success eye-on creates various channels to have a definite path for communications, help, assistance, community building, and much more.’<\/p>\n

For Social Champ, this was a fresh start that changed everything. The company jumped to a spike of 450% growth in the subscription <\/strong>as per the end of the year 2021.\"Live<\/p>\n

Are you ready to learn about the 6 channels we created for a successful customer journey<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

Then here it goes:<\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    Team Building<\/h4>\n
    The initial team was composed of 3 people juggling multiple tasks, which grew bigger. Over the period of 2 years, the team grew 700%.<\/b> The first learning was definitely to have ‘designated tasks,’ and we required a designated team for customer success; this was the first thing implemented.
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    Grand strategies are mere ideas if there are no right people to execute them.<\/p>\n

    So the hunt was for the best fit Customer Advocates.<\/p>\n

    What are the qualities of a good Customer Advocate?<\/strong><\/p>\n