# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending December 24, 2021

Published: 24 December 2021
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-december-24-2021

I'm making this last newsletter of the year (taking a break next week) a customer-focused edition - happy holidays and happy new year y'all, thanks for all of your eye-balls and clicks this year.

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

**CLV (or sometimes LTV):** The C stands for CUSTOMER, and this metric represents [the average revenue that a customer generates (LifeTime Value) before they churn](https://saasmetrics.co/customer-lifetime-value). ChartMogul has a great [online calculator here](https://chartmogul.com/metrics/ltv/#calculate). Go to advanced mode, though, as this calculator references the traditional formula and [the David Skok version](https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/ltv/) (the advanced one is viewed as more realistic).

Link: https://saasmetrics.co/customer-lifetime-value

## 2. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Customer loyalty drives the success of a business, and the customer experience (CX) drives loyalty. Zen Desk has published its [CX Trends Report for 2021](https://www.zendesk.com/cx-trends-report/). It's full of great nuggets: support requests are up 20% on average since the start of the pandemic, 75% of customers feel loyal to a particular brand or company (that delivers good CX), and 65% of customers want to buy from companies that offer quick and easy online transactions.

Link: https://www.zendesk.com/cx-trends-report/

## 3. CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS

People trust people over brands when it comes to trust. Chart Mogul has posted an '[Ultimate' Guide to Using Customer Testimonials to Boost Sales](https://blog.chartmogul.com/customer-testimonials/), noting that a generic and insincere endorsement is just as helpful as not using anything. It's also possible to take it a step further by leveraging those frothiest customers into a referral channel. Here is a playbook from SaaStr on how to make that happen.

Link: https://blog.chartmogul.com/customer-testimonials/

## 4. CUSTOMER CASE STUDIES

Latching onto #3 above. Going beyond testimonials, case studies are super valuable at the early stages as a company needs to demonstrate its credibility, the business value, and the technical context of the product. Heavy Bit has a great guide on [crafting that first customer case study](https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/customer-case-study-template), and Uplift provides [six best practices to be used in your story](https://www.upliftcontent.com/blog/case-study-best-practices).

Link: https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/customer-case-study-template

## 5. CUSTOMER SERVICE

In this current age of the customer, enhanced by COVID, SaaSx makes the profound argument that [Customer Success IS the product](https://saasx.com/2019/10/06/customer-success-is-product/). Want to start building out that product? Check the HubSpot guide on [getting started](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/saas-customer-service-team) with your customer team.

Link: https://saasx.com/2019/10/06/customer-success-is-product/

## 6. CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION

To calculate the cost of a Customer Service Manager, it's best to segment customers out to understand the efforts required. Chartmogul has [this tremendous visual](https://blog.chartmogul.com/proactive-customer-success/), and once again, Gainsight takes a look at how to Benchmark efforts over-segmentation. [Here is what they found](https://www.gainsight.com/blog/customer-success-team-planning-cost-benchmarks/). The median amount of ARR that an Enterprise CSM can manage is between $2M and $5M, and The median amount of customers an Enterprise CSM manages is 10-50 - these revenue figures drop with mid and SMB customer segments and increase fairly dramatically with the number of customers per CSM.

Link: https://blog.chartmogul.com/proactive-customer-success/

## 7. CUSTOMER PERSONAS

SaaS B2B Marketing is a [pretty unique beast](https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-saas-marketing-is-different/) - and getting [into the minds of an idealized customer](https://www.getbeamer.com/blog/saas-personas) often requires going through the practice of creating personas - [you should try it](https://userguiding.com/blog/user-persona-examples/)- it will def make you a better SaaS marketer. For most SaaS companies [creating multiple personas](https://tomtunguz.com/marketing-to-two-different-people-at-the-same-time) is often a strategic necessity. So here is an additional differentiator (and what the difference is compared to a persona) [of an ideal customer profile](https://blog.close.com/ideal-customer-profile-vs-buyer-persona) and how to (with templates!)

Link: https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-saas-marketing-is-different/

## 8. CUSTOMER DATA

Customer data management is a practice, not a technology. I love that simple message. Gluconic gives the crib notes/5-steps [in this article about developing a strategy to optimize and improve customer experience](https://www.blueconic.com/blog/customer-data-management) using good data management practices.

Link: https://www.blueconic.com/blog/customer-data-management

## 9. CUSTOMER ONBOARDING

Onboarding success is often de-prioritized with scrappy fast-growing business but giving customers all the tools they need to succeed with your product is the best way to ensure that they stick around. Profitwell [reviews the importance of good SaaS onboarding](https://www.profitwell.com/blog/saas-onboarding) and discusses steps to create an awesome program. Userpilot also has a great tactical [complimentary post](https://userpilot.com/blog/customer-onboarding-software-saas/)on SaaS companies' best customer onboarding software options.

Link: https://www.profitwell.com/blog/saas-onboarding

## 10. CUSTOMER DELIGHT AUDIT

. It's the [Age of the Customer](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/age-of-the-customer), you know, so this needs to be a thing - here is an in-depth post from CopyHackers on [how to make this kind of Audit happen](https://copyhackers.com/2019/08/user-centric-delight-audit-saas), and here is a case study on how three big Tech companies (GitLab, HubSpot, and Zoom) make delight happen. Also[, here is a Case Study on building a customer-centric B2B organization](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/case-study-building-a-customer-centric-b2b-organization) from McKinsey.

Link: https://blog.hubspot.com/service/age-of-the-customer

## POD OF THE WEEK

WFH life for Customer Success teams - [the CEO of ChurnZero has a perspective on how to build this function remotely](https://www.saastock.com/blog/you-mon-tsang-churnzero-podcast).

Link: https://www.saastock.com/blog/you-mon-tsang-churnzero-podcast