Three (3) Problems That May Affect Adoption Implementation 

What hinders CSMs from effectively implementing adoption plans? 

A Customer Success Manager takes a lot of time and effort to identify the best approach for an organization to achieve value with its products and services. Depending on users’ ability, the stakeholders’ plan, and much more, the process of preparation, commitment, and onboarding can take months before a CSM can move forward to adoption implementation. However, with all these hours set aside to ensure smooth value realization, there are challenges in each stage that a CSM must successfully manage. One of the most commonly overlooked but equally important factors to consider in determining the success of a strategy is the microenvironment of the customer’s organization itself. 

In simple terms, a company’s microenvironment is how multiple elements of an organization work independently and collaboratively and how they affect each other. These elements include customers, competitors, suppliers, media, employees, and shareholders. In this article, we will examine how the relationship between employees and business shareholders affects their ability to implement adoption plans successfully and prevents them from generating value.

Not all users are aware of and are interested in the initiative 

As Customer Success Managers usually communicate with the decision makers of a company when planning for and selecting the “best approach” to generate value, end users are commonly forgotten in the consideration. It is important to remember that the users and their participation will define the strategy’s effectiveness. Without their interest in the initiative, there would be no one in the team to do the necessary task, even to start generating value.  

The role of a Customer Success Manager is to get the end users interested, invested, and, even better, excited about the initiative. Hence, it is essential that before proceeding to adoption implementation, you must have had clear communication with the end users of your product and services, identifying: 

• What is the product or service for? 
• How would it help them? 
• What are they expected to do and achieve? 

Only when the users could perceive the value you can deliver would they be willing to put in the effort and use your products and services. After all, some, if not most, employees aren’t aware of what KPIs are and are not focused on how much revenue a company makes compared to its costs. They are focused on their tasks and how they can do them well and quickly; then, the best way to influence them to participate is to show them exactly that.

There is a considerable gap between the expectation of stakeholders and the users’ ability 

Relative to the limited participation of users in the decision-making in selecting your products and services, it is always possible that the values and expectations the stakeholders have shared with you are not entirely correct. Multiple factors affect an employee’s ability to work that monthly or annual KPIs can’t measure, such as household issues, ability to manage stress, time management, or simply not being in the right state to work. Despite how irrelevant it sounds, it is undeniably true that, to a degree, these affect their ability to do their tasks properly and quickly.  

Then, aside from helping your customer’s organization complete a series of tasks to attain their expected outcomes, it would also be beneficial to serve as a communicator of the reality behind the KPIs. Identify the issues the impacted users faced before and are continuously facing, communicate them to the stakeholders in a way that is meaningful to them, and adjust your approach in a way that best fits the users’ ability. This would help not only in achieving the stakeholder’s version of success but may also improve the culture within their organization. Though, as a Customer Success Manager, it is not your responsibility to solve them, you must ensure that they know the situation for them to decide how to handle it best.

An internal conflict within the customer’s organization exists 

It is common to have conflict within an organization. Although sometimes this conflict can be positive as it brings competitiveness to the table, it may be detrimental in certain situations, especially between a decision maker and an employee. There may be an existing mistrust between workers and managers that not only slows down their progress from failure to communicate, but they may even, to an extent, choose not to believe what each other is saying. How does this affect adoption implementation? 

When an employee reports difficulty in accomplishing a particular task in line with your adoption implementation strategy, a doubtful manager may disregard it as some employee wishes to laze about and not do the necessary work. Rather than reaching your ears and effectively planning around the issue the user is facing, this issue may be hidden from your sight, which would put your strategies to a halt. However, a current issue like this in an organization is challenging to manage. An excellent step is to allow for discussion and feedback from both the managers and the users for you to observe their experience and adjust accordingly.

Summary, 

Adopting a new system is a complex process requiring careful planning, good communication with stakeholders, and an understanding of the user’s needs. The result of an adoption project depends on three problems when planning for an effective adoption strategy: not all users are aware of and interested in the initiative; there is a considerable gap between expectation and ability, and there may be internal conflict within the customer organization.