Customer Success Managers: Who Are They & What They Do

Once you have gone through the decision-making process and chosen the pricing software that best suits your business, you will be looking at getting it up-and-running as quickly as possible. As a part of making return on investment (ROI) as quickly as possible with your pricing software of choice, you will be turning to your pricing vendor to put everything on the table, so you know exactly what to expect (and what not to expect) from them in terms of post-implementation support while also becoming self-sufficient as soon as possible. However, that does not mean you should be abandoned as soon as you’re on your feet and independently using your pricing software solution. Quite the contrary. Your pricing software vendor should appoint you with a Customer Success Manager (CSM) – sometimes also referred to as a Customer Success Executive (CSE) – straight out of the gates. Designated Customer Success Managers are integral to business success because they provide personalized attention and support to their customers, fostering strong relationships and ensuring all their needs are met. 

At Pricefx, we have spent the last decade+ analyzing the unique pricing requirements of each individual client that chooses to work with us and have configured their pricing technology solution accordingly. Given our extensive experience and expertise, we are confident in our ability to offer the support necessary to not only set up a highly effective pricing system, but also one that our experienced CSMs monitor so that you receive value equal to or greater than the value proposition that justified you investing in Pricefx in the first place. 

Other pricing vendors have Customer Success Managers too, but as we know our own processes and service standards best, in this article we will concentrate on the unique ways our Pricefx CSM team provide you with the level of customer success your company needs to flourish with your Pricefx pricing software solution. However, let’s start off with a high-level industry-wide look at what CSMs do across the pricing industry. 

The Customer Success Manager Role Across the Wider Pricing Industry 

Critical to the success of pricing software vendors and ensuring a good reputation for the pricing industry, Customer Success Managers are professionals who are responsible for ensuring that customers achieve their desired outcomes while using whatever pricing software product or service they have purchased. In the pricing software industry, CSMs work closely with clients to help them achieve success with their pricing strategies by supplying guidance, support, and education on the effective use of pricing software. They act as the main point of contact between the client and the software vendor and handle managing the client relationship throughout the customer journey. 

CSMs in the pricing software industry typically work with clients to understand their unique business needs and goals and provide tailored solutions that meet those specific requirements. They assist clients and provide ongoing training and support to ensure that clients can effectively use the software to achieve their pricing objectives. They also act as the advocate for the customer within the pricing software vendor’s organization, communicating customer feedback and requests for enhancements or new features to the product development team.  

How the Pricefx CSM Team Assist You to Drive Value with Our Software Solution 

At Pricefx, we take enormous pride in providing our customers with a range of features and services to ensure your success with your pricing software. There is absolutely no point in us selling you a pricing software solution and then ignoring you. It’s simply not part of our company DNA, we want you to succeed. It is part of our philosophy to become your long-term business partner and advocate for your success across all arms of our organization and beyond.  

From personalized onboarding and support to continuous updates and improvements, to a comprehensive set of pricing tools and analytics, Pricefx is designed to help businesses optimize their pricing strategies and achieve their pricing goals, while receiving 7 diverse levels of support from your appointed Customer Success Manager:

Establishes, Monitors, and Evaluates Your Success Through (Value) Metrics  

Selecting the right pricing software vendor can make a significant difference for businesses aiming to optimize their pricing strategies, but it is only the first step. 

It is crucial to ensure that your chosen vendor offers you a Customer Service Manager to facilitate your success. 

 

We consider the crucial element of this CSM support to be the establishment, monitoring, and assessment of your success as our customer through value metrics as outlined below.

Value metrics allow Pricefx to validate the investment case for your software and continuously demonstrate the impact of pricing on margin and price management to your business. Pricefx’s uniform capabilities in Sales Insights and Customer Insights simplifies the visualization of margin and price improvement opportunities. Moreover, we provide our customers with a range of comparison dashboards that can evaluate the impact of your company’s pricing initiatives and actions over time, illustrating the impact of pricing on your organization’s profitability. 

At Pricefx, we strive to capture the value that your company receives from the beginning. Our unique Pricefx Plasma tool enables you to compare your pricing against other companies in your industry, and even more widely to observe how pricing trends develop in other industry sectors. Plasma employs transaction and quoting data from over 20 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) benchmarked against more than 100 companies across 10+ industries. A series of user-friendly dashboards are generated with multiple pricing performance metrics designed to answer your company’s unique and most pressing pricing analytics questions. This way, you can rest assured that you are getting the most out of our software, and in doing so, meeting the unique critical benchmarks that will assist your business in achieving its goals. 

Plasma can also be used as an insight to determine which KPIs you would like configured into your Pricefx solution standardized for your company as part of your implementation. Read the article below to learn about the type of insights you can obtain into your company’s pricing with Pricefx Plasma: 

Listen to your CSM when they suggest you use Plasma. They have your best interests for your business at heart. Plasma’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can assist your company to recognize strengths and weaknesses. While it’s great to give yourself a pat on the back when you’re doing well, it is also especially important to act on areas where your organization may not be doing as great with its pricing.  

Guide You Through Onboarding, Launch, Adoption & Post-Implementation 

As a business partner committed to the long-term success of your organization, Pricefx aims to help improve your margins, revenues, and efficiency with our end-to-end pricing software. But we believe that to achieve continuing success, a solid foundation must be laid first. That’s why we aid with implementation and training, enabling you to become self-sufficient as quickly as possible.  

Whatever you need, tell your CSM and they will make it happen. 

We understand the importance of ongoing support and will continue to work with you throughout the three lifecycle phases (onboarding/launch, adoption/implementation, and post-implementation) to ensure that our solution is driving value for your business. 

 

We want to be transparent about what you can expect from us in terms of post-implementation support, so you can make an informed decision about choosing Pricefx as your pricing software. 

 

Your CSM will be your internal advocate within Pricefx to champion your needs across all departments of our company and ensure that your organization’s requirements are addressed, and the necessary resources are made available to you to ensure successful outcomes.

At Pricefx, as your long-term business partner, we want you to have confidence in your decision to choose us and use the support of your CSM to champion your cause. However, to get a ‘feel’ for the level of the technology support you should expect, please refer to this article for a detailed explanation of the software support you can expect from Pricefx after implementation. 

Create a Roadmap to Drive and Increase Your Value from Pricefx 

Taking a moment to reconsider your company’s expected value proposition, in liaison with your designated Customer Success Manager, Pricefx partners with you to produce a personalized Pricing Maturity Map (PMM) tailored to your organization’s requirements. This map is designed to improve the value of your pricing journey and help you reap the advantages of using our software. 

The PMM is an extensive system created to assist businesses in assessing their pricing capabilities and pinpointing areas for growth. It draws on a wealth of expertise gained through years of working with various industries and is founded on a set of best practices and benchmarks. The framework is divided into five stages, starting from basic to advanced pricing capabilities, with each phase defining a group of key skills that businesses can build upon to enhance their pricing performance. 

By using the PMM to evaluate their pricing capabilities, businesses can gain a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and develop a roadmap for improving their pricing strategy and execution over time.

The PMM can be a highly useful tool for businesses of all sizes and industries. It provides a structured approach to pricing improvement that is rooted in proven best practices and real-world experience, and it is used extensively throughout the value capture lifecycles. 

Usage & Satisfaction Monitoring for Success 

Usage and satisfaction monitoring are critical components that your CSM will facilitate to ensure your organization’s success and satisfaction with your pricing software.  

Pricefx monitors customer usage and satisfaction levels to identify areas where customers may be struggling or encountering issues. The proactive approach ensures that customers can fully leverage the software’s capabilities as much as possible. Usage monitoring involves tracking how customers use the software, such as which features they use most frequently and where they face challenges.  

This data can then be used to develop tailored training programs and support resources to help customers overcome obstacles, drive user adoption, and reach superior results. 

Your Pricefx CSM will facilitate satisfaction monitoring to gather your feedback on your overall satisfaction with the software, as well as your experience with various aspects of the Pricefx services. This includes but is not limited to; customer support, established value metrics monitoring, product updates, and implementation delivery. Satisfaction monitoring may also include conducting User Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Surveys, as well as collecting feedback via online reviews and other mechanisms. 

Your assigned Customer Success Manager at Pricefx meets with your team on a regular basis to conduct a business review, which may involve a cross-section of your leadership/pricing project steering team depending on your company’s organizational structure and your Pricefx Project Team. 

The purpose of this review is to discuss what we can offer you to assist in your success and to identify any meeting/action items that you, as the customer, may need to contribute.  

Open and honest communication is encouraged, as your feedback can help us to identify areas where we may need to improve our offerings and recognize areas of excellence to enhance customer satisfaction. In addition, a strategic account plan is developed for each customer.  

During the business review, your CSM will present the upcoming Pricefx product roadmap and the imminent products/pricing functionalities to help your business understand what to expect in the future. Your team will receive an explanation of what the upcoming product updates entail and the value your organization can expect to receive from the new functionalities offered. 

Build Value Cases and Case Studies to Promote Best Practices 

Your CSM will access and select the best value cases and case studies that suit your company that Pricefx has undertaken to promote best practices for your organization’s success that are based upon; 

•  Identified customer success stories: Pricefx collects and shares customer success stories that demonstrate how the solution helped clients just like you achieve their business objectives. These stories are typically based on actual experiences of customers and highlight the advantages they obtained from utilizing Pricefx solutions. 
• Data and feedback collection: Pricefx gathers data and feedback from customers about their experience with the product. The data collected is utilized to evaluate the effect of the solution on their business, encompassing enhancements in efficiency, revenue, and customer satisfaction. 
• Constructing a value proposition: Pricefx formulates a customized value proposition that highlights the potential advantages of extending the solution into new areas of business or functionality, based on the data and feedback collected, and the business goals required. 
• Building a Case Study: Pricefx produces comprehensive case studies that highlight the success story of our customers and presents concrete instances of how the solutions enabled our clients to attain their objectives. The case study incorporates metrics and data to substantiate the value proposition and illustrate the return on investment (ROI) of the solution. 

Your CSM will share these success stories with you not only to generate trust and credibility with our company and its product, but also how you can generate fresh ideas for your business and highlight the concrete advantages of implementing the Pricefx pricing solution in the pricing practice of your organization. 

Escalation Enablement for Commercial & Technical Matters 

Enabling customers to escalate issues in a prompt and effective manner is essential to ensuring their success, especially in matters related to business and technology. Pricefx recognizes this need and has prioritized equipping its customers with the necessary tools and resources for this purpose. As part of its commitment, the company has devised an all-encompassing escalation process that streamlines escalation to the relevant personnel with ease and efficiency. 

In the event of an issue, customers can contact their designated customer success manager who will assess the problem and forward it to the relevant team member.

This escalation process is formulated to encourage transparency and cooperation by establishing unambiguous communication lines and clearly defined escalation routes. By facilitating prompt and efficient escalation of issues at the Pricefx guarantees speedy resolution, reducing interruptions, and increasing customer contentment. 

How Pricefx & your CSM Both Become your Long-term Partners 

Just as PriceFX becomes your long-term business partner, so will your CSM. Your CSM facilitates your provision of a comprehensive set of tools and services designed to support your business goals. It is not a one-off.  

Your CSM and other Pricefx staff work hand-in-hand with your organization and across the entire length of your relationship with your company. Together, they devise tailored solutions to cater to your specific requirements. PriceFX’s emphasis on transparency and teamwork guarantees that you remain informed about the advancements being made and comprehend how their remedies influence your enterprise.  

Furthermore, we provide training guaranteeing that you maximize the benefits of our pricing solutions for your sales and customer experience. 

If you are ready to kick off with direct learning, you can head right away to the Pricefx Knowledge Base.  

But if on the other hand, you would like to learn more about the benefits of Pricefx training, check out the article directly below.  

Or if you are looking to begin implementing a Pricefx solution for your company’s pricing needs, talk to one of our experts now. 

Happy Pricing!