With the right technology, customer success teams can amplify their impact, scale operations, and deliver unforgettable experiences. But here’s the catch:  some customer success tech are not easy to use. So using them wrong way can lead to more frustration than results. In fact, 60% of employees experience frustrations with new software and technology.

This post will share why technology is essential for customer success, how to evaluate these tools effectively, and where the common disconnects lie. Most importantly, it’ll share how to fix them.

Why Use Technology for Customer Success?

Think about this: could you run a marathon in flip-flops? Technically, yes. But you’d probably be inefficient, slow, and painfully aware of every step. The same goes for customer success without the right tools.

You’d always need data-driven insights to drive customer satisfaction. So without the right tools, you risk inefficiencies within your team, missed opportunities, and frustrated customers.

What to Look Out for in Customer Success Tech Tools

Before choosing a tech integration or tool for your customer success team, there are so many things to look out for. To get the best value for your investment, here are the key features to prioritise ;

1. Ease of Integration

Your customer success tool shouldn’t cause problems within your tech stack. Look for tools that integrate seamlessly with your CRMs, support systems, and marketing platforms. We highly recommend choosing tools with APIs or middleware alternatives like Zapier to make this easier.

2. User-Friendly Interface

Your team shouldn’t have to dread logging in or using a tool. So hop on demo calls and signup for free trials before committing to a tool. Make sure that the interface is intuitive and supports the workflows your team already follows.

3. Automation and Data Capabilities

Can this tech tool automate follow-ups, ticket routing, or onboarding sequences? Automation saves time and reduces human error especially when dealing with customers. So you want to invest in a tool that can make your team more efficient.

This integration should also offer analytics and dashboards. Now this doesn’t just mean pretty charts but predictive analytics for actionable insights. Look out for a tool that can allows you to segment data by customer type, behaviour or stages in the customer lifecycle.

4. Scalability

Your business will grow, and your tech needs to grow with it. 56% of businesses reported a loss in revenue as a result of technology down-time.  So to avoid being one of these businesses, ensure your tool can handle increasing data and complexity without breaking down.

5. Customization

One-size-fits-all rarely works. So your tool should allow you tailor customer workflows, create custom templates and generate different reports to meet your team’s and business needs.

Where the Disconnect Between Tech and Teams Happen

Technology is only as good as how you use it. And often, the real problem isn’t the tool itself—it’s the disconnect between your tech and your team. Often times, these are the issues;

• Siloed Systems: You use tools that don’t allow your team talk to each other. This can create friction and even duplicate work.
• Resistance to Change: Teams can resist new tools if they’re poorly introduced or seem overly complex.
• Overcomplication: More features don’t always mean more value. Tools overloaded with functionality can overwhelm team members.
• Lack of Training: A shiny new platform won’t solve anything if your team doesn’t know how to use it effectively.

How to Bridge the Gap and Maximise Impact

When implemented correctly, technology can unify your customer success team and enhance every touchpoint with your customers. Here’s how:

1. Start with Strategy

Explain why you’re introducing this tool to your team. They need to understand what problems its solving and why it’ll an effective solution.

You should also define clear objectives for using the tool (For example will it reducing churn by 15% or cut onboarding time in half?)

This way your team is aligned with these goals and they can be open to exploring it.

2. Onboard Like a Pro

Treat your team’s onboarding with the same care you give your customers. Start by offering training sessions, cheat sheets, and hands-on practice time.

Give room for questions, concerns and challenges. We recommend having a coach or an account manager to provide on-demand support when you need one. This way, your team can easily find their footing and maximise the benefits of your tech integration.

3. Prioritise Collaboration

Break down silos by ensuring your customer success tech integrates with other sales, marketing, and product management tools.

With this, you can have a central point for customer data and effectively identify which areas are broken and which areas need improvement in your customer journey.

It also keeps all members of the team in the loop because everyone can see the entire customer flow. So your customer success team can easily collaborate with other teams without any knowledge gaps.

4. Automate Where It Counts

Automation is a great way to increase productivity. So focus your automation efforts on repetitive, low-value tasks like manually sending satisfaction surveys.

This way, your team can spend more time building relationships and aligning with other teams. It also allows them to focus on high-priority tasks and drive more business growth.

5. Review Your Tech Stack Regularly

Schedule periodic audits to ensure your tools are delivering value. Look at what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs to change. You’ll also get insights into what tools you’d have to let go off in the long run.

The Stellafai Advantage

Integrating the right tools doesn’t just solve today’s problems; it sets you up for long-term success. By collaborating with other teams, your customer success team can leverage tech integrations to  automate routine tasks, get accurate data insights and improve customer satisfaction.

But first, you need alignment with other teams like sales and engineering to drive this growth. Not sure where to start? Get in touch with a Stellafai coach here.