Last week we had a conversation with Rebecca Holliday, who holds the unique dual role of Head of Impact and Customer Success at Groundswell, a social impact platform. Rebecca's background in corporate social responsibility and the nonprofit sector brings a fresh perspective to customer success. Here's what we learned:
Last week we had a conversation with Rebecca Holliday, who holds the unique dual role of Head of Impact and Customer Success at Groundswell, a social impact platform. Rebecca's background in corporate social responsibility and the nonprofit sector brings a fresh perspective to customer success. Here's what we learned:
Rebecca: It's a funny title because if you think about corporate social responsibility, or ESG, the head of impact at a company might be focused on things like sustainable sourcing for its products, or engaging diverse communities for retail expansion. At Groundswell, the product itself is impact. We exist to send donations to nonprofits that are working to tackle critical issues in communities locally and globally, and mobilize corporate volunteers in support of causes in their community. My role is unique because the greater the use of our core product, the greater the impact.
I started out as the head of impact, involved in things like curating nonprofits on our site to bring awareness and donations to causes like Plastic Free July. But I was also working alongside the former head of customer success, creating toolkits and resources to help giving and volunteerism program administrators on the company side better engage employees and take advantage of moments that matter, like the Maui fires or a hurricane in the gulf coast.
We're trying to support our customers to engage their employees and ultimately have a greater impact. Sometimes the metric a company is looking for is more internally focused - they want to get as many employees involved as possible. Others are more externally focused - how many dollars are going to charity, or how diverse are the charity recipients.
Rebecca: If we can say 60% of the employees at our customers are using Groundswell and donating, that's a way higher percentage than a lot of our competitors. That means they hold onto Groundswell and have a lower likelihood to churn.
Our core business model is the software licensing fees. So customer retention is critical, as is getting new customers on board. Being able to point to high engagement, high usage, and positive experiences is crucial. On G2, we have a strong ratings - we're building up our repertoire of reviews, but it's been really positive and a lot of that is tied to our commitment to customer support.
Rebecca: We have monthly emails around cause areas to all our users, always with a place to provide feedback. We've also done some user and admin outreach, some of it asking for G2 reviews. Our product team is also really focused on user feedback to inform the new aspects of what we're going to be doing.
We've set the expectation from the beginning that our product team is involved and can be customer-facing as well. I think it's really important for our product team to interact directly with our customers.
I'm also starting to work more closely with marketing to find easier ways to get quick bits of feedback. That would include efforts to utilize SMS or pop-up notifications within the product to drive engagement and also solicit feedback.
Our help center currently has a high human touch, and that's obviously something we have to continue to figure out - how we're weaving in the use of chatbots and AI, but staying true to a personal touch that I think people still crave and really appreciate.
Rebecca: Sometimes it's help center data that tells us we're getting a spike in tickets on a specific topic, and that we need to invest resources in a product adjustment or work around. I participate in our product roadmap meetings, so I get to weigh in.
I've been with the company since the very early days, so I know there are times where we just have to roll up our sleeves and make it work while we’re determining the technical fix. I think I've developed rapport and strong trust with our product and engineering teams. When I ask for something and make a case, they know I'm really serious about it because I've also proven that we can come up with solutions when the team might not be able to get to it immediately.
There's always a tension between future customer acquisition and current customer retention. But I've found overall that we have a really positive dialogue, and sometimes a debate. At the end of the day, usually we're all aligned on what the decision is, and agree on how we’re prioritizing feature development and the investment of resources.
We're a company with a high degree of transparency and a “one team” mentality. All our Slack channels are open, and even one-on-one stuff is usually in a channel everyone can see. So when I'm making the case for something, it's not out of left field.
Talking to Rebecca was a fascinating look into how social impact and customer success can intertwine. Here are the key takeaways:
1. Impact can drive engagement
2. Balance quantitative and qualitative feedback
3. Involve product teams directly with customers
4. Maintain the human touch
5. Build trust across teams
6. Embrace transparency
By applying these principles, companies can create a more impactful, customer-centric approach to their products and services.