This is the sixth post in our Executive Guide to Cutting-Edge Tech Customer Onboarding blog series. If you have not read our other posts you can find them here.
Adopting emerging technologies is more than just integrating new tools; it’s about guiding customers through a transformative journey. In this process, customers need more than reactive support—they require trusted advisors who can anticipate their needs, help them navigate challenges, and build internal buy-in to the value of the technology within their organizations. As solution providers, it’s our responsibility to help them articulate this value and celebrate their achievements as they drive their organizations into a new era.
Take, for example, Kathleen Rouse's work with a Global Education Technology provider. Our customers were either Chief Learning Officers (CLOs) and other HR and Learning & Development Leaders in corporations, or University Leaders such as Presidents, Provosts, or Deans. These customers were not only responsible for defining the learning paths that would shape their organizations’ future competitiveness but also faced pressures like decreasing enrollments and tighter budgets in higher education. They turned to us to guide them in identifying the critical skills needed for future success—both within their organizations and for students preparing to enter the workforce.
To support them effectively, we needed to go beyond basic customer service. This meant delivering high-quality thought leadership, providing data-driven insights, and offering guidance through one-on-one or one-to-many interactions. Our Customer Success Teams were empowered to have meaningful conversations that aligned our solutions with the evolving needs of our customers, ensuring they were prepared to meet future challenges head-on.
There are two critical components that organizations must provide:
Exceptional Customer Service: It’s essential to clearly communicate escalation paths and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), ensuring that customers feel supported by professionals who genuinely understand and care about their business needs.
Expert Guidance: Aligning the onboarding process and ongoing solution adoption with the customer’s top organizational goals is crucial. Additionally, it’s important to anticipate the customer’s needs for at least the next three years, helping them stay ahead of the curve.
So, how can organizations achieve this?
1. Build a Reliable Support Foundation: Develop a support system that not only resolves issues efficiently but also bridges the gap between support and product teams. This collaboration fosters better solutions that meet customers’ evolving needs.
2. Align Solutions with Organizational Goals: Regularly align your solution with the customer’s top company goals through Annual Success Planning and Quarterly Executive Business Reviews. Develop metrics that measure onboarding success and tell a compelling story of value.
This strategic approach is crucial, especially when dealing with emerging technologies. As highlighted by Ursula Llabres, Global Director of Customer Growth at Meta Reality Labs, aligning onboarding with value outcomes can significantly enhance adoption and value by equipping internal champions with robust business cases for funding, while also creating opportunities for growth.
In conclusion, customers adopting emerging technologies need both foundational support and forward-thinking guidance. As technology providers, it’s our duty to build a solid foundation that ensures quick issue resolution and continuous product improvement. Equally important is guiding customers through their onboarding and adoption journey, helping them position their organizations for future success. By doing so, we not only support their immediate needs but also empower them to thrive in an ever-evolving landscape.
About the Authors:
Kathleen Rouse is an Independent Consultant and has taken her 20+ years of experience maximizing adoption and increasing renewal rates to best-in-class 95%+ and 45%+ growth rates and turned them into playbooks, processes & templates for her clients to increase their customer retention and growth.
Priya Sarathy, Ph.D, CDMP is a data strategy leader and analytics enabler with over 15 years of experience in leading analytics solution design and build, and transformations across various industries, such as financial, telecom, technology, and services. She has a Ph.D. in Econometrics and Quantitative Economics, and multiple certifications in machine learning, programming, and Data management.
Ursula Llabres currently leads the Reality Labs Customer Growth Team at Meta. The team’s mission is to help clients solve business problems with tomorrow’s technology and open new markets bringing innovative XR Technology into the Enterprise. Ursula was one of the founding leaders of customer success practice (being one of the first 10 in CS at salesforce.com back in 2005) and since has transformed and led high performing global teams at some of the top tech companies like Oracle, Salesforce.com, Box, Microsoft, Insidesales.com and now Meta to name a few.
Dr. Beverly Wright serves as VP of Data Science & AI, and Executive Director for Data Science & AI at University of Georgia, as well as Past President of INFORMS Analytics Society, and Chair of Data Science & AI Society at Technology Association of Georgia. Beverly is a sought-after professional speaker at established conferences, presenting on topics related to data science, artificial intelligence, consumer insights, and marketing analytics.
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