I've spent a lot of time over the last few years thinking about growth. Not just how businesses win new customers, but what happens afterwards.
It's easy to celebrate a new customer. It's a milestone everyone can see. What's harder, and arguably far more important, is everything that comes next.
That's exactly why I wanted to invite Toby Andrews, Customer Success Delivery Manager at Datel, to join me on Incremental Edge.
Customer success is one of those business terms that can mean different things to different people.
It's often associated with a team or a job title, when in reality it's something much bigger.
Throughout our conversation, Toby explains why customer success is really about creating the conditions for customers to achieve the outcomes they set out to achieve. When that happens consistently, businesses build stronger relationships, greater trust and, ultimately, more sustainable growth.
One of the biggest shifts we've experienced at Datel came as we transitioned towards a subscription-based business.
Winning new customers remained important, but keeping them, helping them realise value and supporting them as they grew became just as important.
That shift changes the questions businesses need to ask.
How do we know our customers are successful?
Where do they experience the most value?
What could we do better?
For us, the answers didn't come from one transformational initiative. They came from a series of small improvements that gradually changed the experience our customers had with us.
In many ways, that's exactly what Incremental Edge is all about.
One point we kept coming back to throughout the conversation was that customer success can't belong to one department.
You might have a customer success team, but customers don't experience your business through an organisational chart. They experience every interaction they have with your people.
From marketing and sales through to onboarding, delivery and ongoing support, every conversation either strengthens or weakens that relationship.
That's why customer success isn't simply a function. It's a mindset that should influence how the whole business thinks about creating value.
Our conversation naturally moved on to onboarding.
It's often viewed as a process to complete, but it's so much more than that. It's where expectations are set, confidence is built and customers begin to understand the value they'll receive.
From there, the focus shifts to adoption. Helping customers make the most of what they've invested in by understanding what success looks like for them and supporting them on that journey.
None of those things are revolutionary.
They're small, deliberate improvements that, over time, create stronger relationships and better business outcomes.
What struck me most after recording this episode was how closely customer success aligns with the philosophy behind Incremental Edge.
Neither is about quick wins.
Neither is about one big transformation.
Both are built on consistency.
Businesses that retain customers, create advocates and achieve sustainable growth don't get there by accident. They do it by continually improving the experience they deliver, listening to customers and making thoughtful changes over time.
That, for me, is the biggest takeaway from this conversation. Sustainable growth doesn't end when you win a customer. In many ways, that's where it really begins.
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