In a recent conversation, we talked to Choice about how Customer Success streamlines migrations, helping even experienced IT managers complete projects quickly and painlessly.

What’s the role of the Customer Success team at BitTitan?

Choice: Being a Customer Success Manager is rather like being a concierge. We’re the point of contact for anything related to larger migration projects. It’s important for us to know everything about what makes for a good migration, including knowing where to find the correct  information or knowing who to ask. It’s my job to help customers understand our product and how it will work in their environment so they can have the best migration experience possible.

When do you come in on a project?

Choice: We start with a discovery phase as soon as a customer signs on with BitTitan and before they begin configuring their migration. That’s when we’re able to uncover ways to help make their project successful. Some customers have specific objectives or concerns and we’ll want to take them into account as we move forward together with their project.

What kind of projects do you typically work on?

Choice: The Customer Success Team adds the most value on larger, more complex migration projects. MigrationWiz makes smaller, self-service projects easy to complete without assistance, so we’re mainly focused on enterprise migrations of around 70,000 mailboxes. I’ve even worked on projects with up to a million mailboxes that can take a year to complete.

How big do the projects get?

Choice: Well, I recently worked on a project to migrate the second largest public folder database Microsoft has ever experienced. Initially the customer went to Microsoft for help and they said they didn’t have the bandwidth. We anticipated it would take eight months to migrate 17 terabytes and ended up migrating 14 terabytes in just under two months.

What’s the difference between Customer Success and Customer Support?

Choice: Good question. The Customer Success team establishes a proactive partnership with the customer, then stays with them throughout the duration of the project. We’re there from the beginning to assure a successful migration. If an issue comes up, we get Support involved. But even then we make sure to help frame the problem and provide information the Support team will need to fix things and keep the project on track. Through it all, we’re there as the customer’s advocate.

What are the most common issues your team helps with during migrations?

Choice: First, and most important, we try to anticipate as much as possible. This involves careful planning and understanding our customers’ environment. A seemingly small thing like permissions can create a frustrating bump in the road, so we make sure to give customers a heads up at the right time. We also get requests for modifications from time to time so we need to know what’s realistic and how that might impact the project.

Do experienced IT managers need your help, too?

Choice: Some customers need a more comprehensive relationship than others during a migration. There are IT managers who already have a few MigrationWiz projects under their belts, but product enhancements happen quite frequently, so we want to make sure we’re keeping them informed. The Customer Success Program helps us make sure customers are aware of what’s new and where the pitfalls may be.

What are some of the ways you help make projects a success?

Choice: The key is careful planning, configuration, and testing before the migration starts. And it’s important to set realistic expectations. We also want to make sure customers understand best practices and potential pitfalls before plunging into the project. This means we spend time teaching them about the product and providing access to the right knowledge base articles. We don’t stop there, though. We continue on throughout the duration of the migration, making sure things are going as expected. This can mean daily or weekly check-ins depending on where they are in the project.

How does your team stay up-to-date on policies or application changes that affect migration projects?

Choice: We read lots of technical bulletins to keep up with changes from Microsoft, Google, and other vendors. We also have cross-functional team meetings, and the Support team has key point people who provide us with updates. I personally do a lot of product and feature testing because I want to know the product inside and out. Another great source of information is our customers themselves. We see them as partners, and they share information that helps us understand their needs. We even send customer feedback to our Dev team. We love customers who are engaged at this level because they help us improve our product.

What attributes make for a great Customer Success team member?

Choice: For us, it’s all about the customer. Being the customer’s advocate means always putting them first. We’re a voice of the customer within BitTitan. This mindset helps us create the best customer experience while at the same time improving our product and service offerings. Sure, we need to be organized, proactive, and always willing to learn, but a lot of what we do relies on a high level of empathy. That’s the most important because these are high-stakes projects which come with a lot of stress. We want our clients to have a good experience and be heroes inside their own company.

One last question: What do you personally enjoy about being a Customer Success Manager?

Choice: I love helping people. With some of the projects I’m working, I’m collaborating with teams around the globe from right here in Washington State to Singapore, India, Germany, and Sweden – sometimes all in the same day!

Learn more about BitTitan Customer Success offerings here.