All customer success meetings exist for the sole purpose of assisting customers. This is the foundation of any CS endeavor.

The meeting is your opportunity to “swing for the fences.” You can either take advantage of the situation at hand or let it pass you by. In this competitive business world, it’s either you or the competitors. 

If you have a successful customer meeting, you will be able to increase adoption, which will result in greater usage and higher revenue. 

Main types of Customer Success Meetings 

Typically, customer success meetings fall into one of the following four categories: 

• Kick-off meetings – After the sales team has secured an account and introduced the CSM to the discussion, these meetings occur. This initial encounter establishes the tone for the entire relationship. 

• Onboarding meetings – Onboarding calls, one of the standard CSM sessions, are essential for promoting product acceptance, advancing the client’s goals, and creating customer connections. 

• Check-in meetings – These occasional contacts may appear to be simple check-ins, but they are much more than that. They reassure customers that you have their backs, give proactive support, and assist you in being in tune with clients’ demands.
   
• Offboarding meetings – These are the least desired meetings between the customer and the brand. If done correctly, they are a treasure trove of client insights.  

The ultimate goal of any customer meeting is to assist the customer. Therefore, it is essential to get ready ahead of the customer meetings.

How to prepare the Kick-off meetings 

Depending on internal processes, the kick-off meeting (i.e., the meeting where the customer meets the CSM) can take place either before or after the sale has been finalized. Regardless, a CSM should prepare for the meeting in the following ways:

Collect all pertinent information about a customer. Collecting all information concerning the client’s enterprise, products or services, customers, and competitors. Obtain as much information from your sales team as possible. 

Determine the reason the customer selected your product or service. Occasionally, this is straightforward; the client will inform you before to the initial encounter. Occasionally, the salesperson dealing with the consumer will be aware. 

Determine the customer’s business objectives and ambitions. This may be one of the first points mentioned in their marketing materials or the first email you received from them. If you have access to this information, record it beforehand. If not, it is always prudent to inquire. 

Learn and comprehend how your goods or service will be of assistance. Learning what they aim to solve or accomplish with your product will allow you to formulate a strategy. Before meeting with the customer, provide a comprehensive outline of how you will assist them in achieving success. Demonstrate this to the customer on the first call, and you will earn their lifelong allegiance.  

Including this information in your introductory call will make an excellent first impression. It will quickly demonstrate to the customer that you made an attempt to comprehend them. You must then collaborate with sales to organise the meeting itself. 

To successfully conduct a project kickoff meeting, you will need to adhere to the agenda to organise it effectively. The ai tool isLucid can help you set up any agenda you need for the meeting, which will help you to cover all the important topics. 

Onboarding meeting tips 

All of your customers learn how to attain their goals with your product or service during the onboarding meeting. This is their objective, which you as a CSM should also share. 

Here’s how you ensure that each customer receives the most value possible from their onboarding call: 

• Keep your scripts concise and navigable. Call scripts for customer onboarding might be useful, but they can become cumbersome if they are overly complex. Concentrate on the essentials and allow the conversation to flow freely. 

• Share your display while discussing a product. A demonstration is usually preferable to a description. If there is something you need to highlight, share your screen early or share it again once the product tour has concluded. Don’t wait until the client is puzzled before providing clarification. 

• Consider the customer’s time. Confirm the time and duration of the conversation with the customer, and don’t forget to add a little additional time for questions and other potential talks. 

• Prove your worth as quickly as feasible. By far the most important challenge is convincing the buyer that they’ve made the right decision. Therefore, be prepared to demonstrate a specific problem that your product solves, how it does so, and how they may implement it themselves (or set it up for them, if you can). 

Review the content. To remind your consumers of the meeting’s content, share the meeting’s highlights with them thereafter. You can easily do this when you use isLucid to take notes for you during the meeting.   

Start real-time transcription and manage it with a few clicks – simply mark the transcription to generate tasks. If it’s a task for you, the information will be instantly saved to your project management software, or CRM if you wish to keep track of the client’s information. Another alternative is to use voice commands – bookmarks; simply say noticed and isLucid will bookmark the transcribed section so you can return to it when the meeting is over. 

How often should you have a check-in meeting? 

Regular check-ins are beneficial, and there is no one way to do them correctly. It can be influenced by the company culture, the type of work needs, and the customer’s personality.  

Besides, you should always inquire about the best communication channel. Typically, you write a recap email after the meeting, then approach a client after 5 days to ask if he had a chance to play around with the product and if there are any questions.  

In the first month, approach a client several times (depending on how things are going), then once per month directly, or bi-weekly newsletters/tips/updates, and so on. However, you must state that everything is dependent on the product or service you are providing. Each case may be unique.

Sometimes, a weekly check-in meeting is suitable. Weekly check-in meetings with clients help to align all stakeholders so that setbacks or roadblocks don’t come as a surprise. A weekly check-in meeting is a more detailed progress report. It should serve as a starting point for each employee’s weekly priorities, as well as a recap of the previous week’s accomplishments and areas for improvement. Existing constraints and next steps are being discussed.  

The quarterly check-in is one of the most common check-in structures. 

Quarterly check-ins are simple to sell. They correspond to the four quarters of the year (though if your fiscal year differs from the calendar year, you could also align here), with the first two quarters playing a larger role than the average check-in. 

Then, decide whether a weekly, biweekly, or monthly meeting is appropriate. Examine the projects or potential projects, the ticket flow, and the relationship or communication gap to determine how frequently it makes sense. 

Final Thoughts 

If the customer sees the value in the discussion and a project requires more frequent connections, the cadence can be adjusted. 

The more time you spend talking with the client, the more trust you will develop. Mistakes and miscommunications are unavoidable on large projects, and a successful meeting to identify them quickly can save your life. 

Once you have the customer’s agreement to meet, make the most of your time together by focusing on consistently providing value! 

isLucid Summary  

isLucid, an AI-based digital meeting assistant, manages every part of your online meeting. It transcribes your meetings in real time with multilanguage support. You can create tasks or highlight important details through voice commands. Every task integrates with multiple project management and CRM software. isLucid allows you to create meeting minutes and have a generate meeting minute file after the meeting. You can edit it, add tasks and share it with other employees.  

If you are interested in isLucid digital meeting assistant, get it for MS Teams and try for free: isLucid Download Page  

You can also book a demo and get a walkthrough: Book a Demo.