Change Management in Customer Success
Change management, at its core, is the act of influencing people to do things differently.
It’s behavior change. And that's mostly what Customer Success is about - teaching people different, better ways of doing things. The key to understanding behavior change is that it’s inherently human, and it is a process.
To be impactful, you need to recognize where people are on their change journey, meet them there, and guide them to the next stage. This requires two things:
1. An understanding of what a typical change journey looks like
2. The flexibility to operate across a range of dimensions, including time and scale
We’ll cover both in this article.
Understanding what a typical change journey looks like
While several change management methodologies exist, such as Prosci’s ADKAR model and SuccessHacker’s Change Management for CS course, the change journey can be summarized in three main buckets:
Motivate
Enable
Reinforce
Motivate. This stage aims to drive awareness for your change effort and build desire in the person or group you are hoping to change. The key is to demonstrate the WIFM - “What’s In It For Me.” It’s easy to underestimate how hard it can be to drive someone outside of their comfort zone. A compelling WIFM helps do this.
Enable. In this phase, you want to empower people with the resources and tools they need to complete the anticipated change. This should involve simple next steps that are easy to understand as well as learning material and support. Customer Success Managers are typically the most comfortable in this phase. However, it’s important to remember that enablement represents just one stage of the change journey and is incomplete on its own.
Reinforce. One of the most effective strategies in driving change within Customer Success is highlighting wins. This does two things - it reinforces positive change and demonstrates what good looks like. Those responsible for the positive behavior are motivated to continue that path. Their recognition creates awareness and desire in peers who haven’t yet adopted the change, naturally bringing this next cohort into the beginning of their change journey.
Let’s dive into two examples.
Scenario 1: You are launching new software to an entire division
Example: Rolling Jira to an Engineering team
A leader sends a “what’s coming” message to motivate their department, making everyone aware that change is on the way. The communication includes a clear vision that addresses why the team is moving in this direction and how this tool will help employees do their jobs.
This leader also includes information employees can reference to learn more about this new way of working and offers a series of training sessions to help enable employees in adopting these new practices. Once training is complete, workshops are provided to help employees identify how the new tool will help them do their jobs better.
Managers look for examples of employees using the new software in meaningful ways and highlight them in team meetings. This demonstrates what good looks like and reinforces that this new way of working is important for the business. Teammates see the value in doing things differently and adopt similar practices.
In the span of a few months, adoption has taken off, and the department leader is feels great about the results.
Scenario 2: You want to expand into a new department
Example: Engineering is using Jira, and now Support is interested
You meet with the leader of the department. You realize that although another part of their business uses your tool, they may not have much familiarity with what it does. To drive awareness, you explain how your product came to market and what problems it helps to solve. You also recognize the power of social proof, and motivate this leader to engage with you by sharing how your product has driven value for similar organizations (e.g., has reduced ticket volume by 50% or has increased CSAT by 2x).
Your goal in this meeting is to attain commitment from this leader to pilot your product. To enable them to do so, you share a pilot plan, specifically highlighting what resources you need from them, and where your team plays a role.
With all the information they need in front of them, the leader agrees to a pilot, and you schedule a follow up for one week out where you can highlight progress and reinforce the incremental wins of moving in this new direction.
Flexibility to operate across a range of dimensions, including time and scale
I like these examples because they help illustrate two different dimensions within the change journey: scale and time.
Behavior change happens at every level, from the individual to the Fortune 500 company.
We often think of change as limited to a specific process or program and forget that most of it starts at the individual level. These two examples represent both a macro change event (department-wide software launch) and a micro change event (opening an executive’s eyes to new possibilities).
The scale of these two events is much different - department vs. individual - but both require you to guide these parties through each phase of the change journey.
Time is also a significant yet relatively arbitrary dimension. A software launch typically requires more time, but that journey can be accelerated or decelerated depending on the attention paid to each phase of the journey.
Similarly, when speaking to an individual, like an executive, it’s the journey that’s important, not the length of time. You could very well move an executive through the first few stages of the change journey in a single conversation.
The key is not to skip past any phases, for example, rushing into making your ask for expansion before motivating the executive to consider a new approach. If you do that, you may find yourself further behind than you started.
As you head into upcoming projects and executive meetings, consider how you might use this understanding of time and scale to meet your audience where they are at. Here are examples of questions you might ask yourself as you prepare:
Who am I meeting with, and what am I asking them to do?
How much of a change is this for them?
Where are they at in their change journey?
How can I bring them to the next phase?
Is there a timeline for completing this change effort? If so, what can I do to accelerate it?
This is the first post in our Change Management for Customer Success series.
Expect to see deep-dive articles on the Motivate, Enable, and Reinforce phases for change coming later this year.
Have a topic within this framework you’d like covered? Let us know, and we will be sure to address it in our series!
Want to dig deeper into change management and behavior change in the meantime? Here are some excellent resources to check out:
Courses & Certifications
• SuccessHACKER’s Change Management for CS Course
• Prosci’s Change Management Certification
• eCornell’s Change Management Certification
Books
• “Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard” by Dan Heath and Chip Heath
• “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel H. Pink
• “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
• “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert B. Cialdini
