This is a story about customer success.
Software giant Sage is facing some of the most challenging market conditions in its history.
To respond to this, Sage needed to transform its customer engagement strategy. But, after a difficult first half-year, Sage couldn’t risk interrupting revenue whilst it tried to fix the underlying issues. PwC was tasked with designing way of working that would put customers at the heart of everything Sage does, without disrupting the day to day.
Called ‘Customer Success’, the programme would deliver the best of both worlds: not only long-term culture change, but also immediate financial gains. It was clear that the best way for Sage to be successful was by helping its customers be successful. So we devised a programme that would vastly improve the customer experience and create a major shift in Sage’s sales culture. We worked intensively together for 16 weeks, with the ultimate objective of increasing the number of customers that renewed their subscriptions by 1% across the UK & Ireland.
The project ran from April to July 2018. Over this short space of time, we outperformed Sage’s expectations – and our own – delivering a 2.21% increase in renewals, a 70% increase in customer conversations, and a profound change in culture. The business unit began to consistently hit monthly (stretch) targets and delivered performance well above the previous period.
It was so successful that Customer Success has become one of Sage’s top 3 strategic priorities. Their ambition is to replicate the programme in every one of their 23 territories, highlighting a change in their thinking from ‘it can’t be done’ to ‘we’re going to change the whole business to work in this way’.
View the PwC company profile in the MCA Members Directory.