The DX Engine Driven by Treasure Data and Dentsu Inc. [7]What is the "use of data" that enables customer success?
Yosuke Shigehara
Treasure Data Inc.
Satoshi Abe
Dentsu Digital Inc.
Customer success is now gaining attention across various businesses. What is needed to provide customers with successful experiences?
A conversation between Satoshi Abe, DX support at Dentsu Digital Inc and Yosuke Shigehara, who manages customer success at Treasure Data, which provides customer data platforms, revealed the relationship
<Table of Contents>
▼Can Customer Success Break Through Business Stagnation?
▼What Separates Companies That Can Drive Data Utilization from Those That Can't?
▼Four Transformations to Guide Clients to Success
▼What KPIs Are Required for Customer Success?
▼Connecting Data and Deepening Customer Understanding Leads to Success
Can Customer Success Break Through Business Stagnation?
Abe: I drive DX (Digital Transformation) at Dentsu Digital Inc. Specifically, I support the customer success domain.
Many of our clients are large corporations, and when speaking with them, I sense that every company has a strong sense of crisis about their current situation.
Shigehara: What kind of sense of crisis?
Abe: From a broader perspective, it's a sense of crisis about the future of the Japanese economy, driven by factors like population decline and market shifts. That's why they're considering transformation in various ways.
Shigehara: The larger the organization, the harder it is to change the existing business model, right?
Abe: I feel that companies that have set KPIs heavily focused on "immediate sales" or "acquiring new customers" are particularly struggling with the current societal changes. In other words, everyone shares the sense of urgency that "in today's era, we must focus on increasing LTV (Lifetime Value) rather than immediate sales," but they also face the challenge of not knowing exactly how to do it.
Shigehara: So you started your customer success initiatives to solve these challenges for companies.
Abe: Yes. While customer success originated in the B2B business world, over the past two years we've supported it for clients across various industries and business models, including B2C.
As mentioned earlier, our support focuses on shifting from a business model centered on "selling products or services to customers" to one focused on "increasing LTV by enhancing customer experience." It involves supporting the building of long-term relationships and trust with customers using what could be called "non-selling marketing" techniques.
What became clear through this work is the critical importance of "data" in designing customer experiences. Our collaboration with Treasure Data was a natural progression. I am truly delighted to have this opportunity to speak with Mr. Shigehara, who leads customer success at Treasure Data.
Shigehara: Thank you. The team I lead at Treasure Data primarily supports client companies in advancing their businesses using " Treasure Data CDP," our customer data platform. Recently, within the DX context, we're increasingly being asked for support that goes beyond just the Treasure Data CDP tool itself. Our customer success approach itself is evolving.
What distinguishes companies that can effectively leverage data from those that cannot?
Abe: Mr. Shigehara, how do you view the use of data within customer success?
Shigehara: Having worked in the data business field for the past decade, my sense is that customer success for companies providing services to consumers is, broadly speaking, an "extension of recommendation."
A major recent shift is that initiatives which previously leveraged recommendation engines at online touchpoints can now connect with real-world behavioral data, enabling broader recommendations to customers. In other words, we can now analyze not just "online data" like web browser history, but also combine it with "offline data."
Abe: So, by leveraging offline data that was previously inaccessible and gaining a deeper understanding of customers, this leads to "providing a better experience = customer success," right?
Shigehara: What Treasure Data CDP enables is very simple: "collect and store" data, "integrate and analyze" it within Treasure Data CDP, and "reflect it in initiatives." Because it's simple, it can be applied to any scenario, but precisely because of that simplicity, you must clarify "what you want to achieve."
For companies providing services to consumers, the overall design—specifically, "what data to connect and how to connect it to understand customers and deliver better experiences"—is crucial.
Abe: So the key is how you use the tool, right? As Treasure Data CDP adoption grows, I imagine some companies are leveraging data effectively while others aren't. What's the difference?
Shigehara: I believe "organization" is the key point. Organizations with a company-wide commitment to leveraging data to transform their business seem to be progressing well. On the other hand, I often see difficulties when efforts are driven by siloed departments. Essentially, it comes down to whether cross-departmental collaboration exists.
For example, you might find that data which should definitely exist is inaccessible because it's under the jurisdiction of the next department over, so you end up only being able to use online data. Various departments, including IT and marketing, need to collaborate and coordinate.
Abe: I see. I agree. Organizational barriers are the biggest challenge.
Shigehara: Of course, more companies are seriously committed to advancing DX. So, even before implementing , we often discuss things from an "organizational" perspective as well.
Four Changes to Guide Clients to Success
Abe: So far, we've discussed customer success for "companies providing services to consumers." Now, let's hear about Treasure Data's own customer success initiatives for clients. First, how long have you been focusing on customer success?
Shigehara: The team itself has been around for about five to six years, before I joined.
Abe: Five to six years ago was a time when the concept of customer success itself wasn't very widespread, right? What does customer success mean for Treasure Data?
Shigehara: Defining customer success in a SaaS business like Treasure Data is tricky, but fundamentally, it boils down to "how to increase customer satisfaction" and "how to help them create success stories." Some say customer success is just about post-sales support, but we don't see it that way.
When Treasure Data first established its customer success team, it seems one member sometimes handled an extremely large number of clients. Honestly, that's a huge burden. I joined Treasure Data in 2019 and took on customer success responsibilities just six months later.
Abe: I hear the team has grown significantly since then.
Shigehara: We started with about 10 people, but now we're a team of over 40. Over about a year and a half, we've transformed into a team focused on driving greater success for our clients' businesses.
My first initiative was to completely separate the post-sales role from customer success, allowing us to focus solely on client support. At the time, customer success was part of the sales team, so the post-sales mindset was very strong.
Abe: So before Mr. Shigehara joined, the key focus areas for customer success hadn't been solidified yet.
Shigehara: Yes. It was like, "Wait, is that even part of customer success?" Removing the post-sales role was an essential change needed to truly guide clients to success.
The next initiative was introducing "Customer Satisfaction Evaluation." While we had survey metrics before, starting in 2020, we began conducting more regular and quantitative surveys about satisfaction with the CDP specifically targeting client representatives who were actually operating Treasure Data CDP or making decisions about it. We gather their evaluations and feedback on the product, which we then use to improve our services and features.
Third, we visualized "how clients are using Treasure Data CDP" as data. Of course, our system is designed so we cannot see "what kind of data clients are handling," ensuring security.
This visualization refers to aspects like "how much data clients import and what types of processing they run." Essentially, from a vendor perspective, we built a system that handles data integration, dashboard creation, and integration with third-party platforms and marketing activities, enabling us to provide necessary support when needed. In short, we analyzed what challenges clients face based on their Treasure Data CDP usage patterns to optimize our support activities.
Abe: So, by researching through two methods—listening to the clients themselves and observing their CDP operational status—we enabled analysis of "how to achieve customer success."
Shigehara: And the fourth point is providing knowledge to clients. Our CDP clients are businesses; we don't have individual contracts. Therefore, compared to tools like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which individuals also use, there's very little knowledge available through web searches.
Therefore, starting in April 2020, Treasure Data launched "Treasure Academy for CDP Masters," a CDP training service. Additionally, our Customer Success team posts articles on a website accessible only to contracted users, , working to expand our knowledge base.
What KPIs are required for customer success?
Abe: I understand you're tackling many challenges in a short timeframe. I strongly agree that "customer success" is about "the practice of delivering successful customer experiences." However, when speaking with managers burdened with KPIs like "revenue," the conversation inevitably tends toward recommending upsells or cross-sells.
Shigehara: Setting KPIs is crucial in that regard. While it naturally differs depending on whether the client's business is B2B or B2C, shouldn't the ultimate KPI be "maximizing customer satisfaction"?
Customer success literally means "the customer's successful experience." Without success, satisfaction drops, and naturally, if the product becomes unnecessary, they'll cancel, ultimately leading to lower sales.
Abe: I often tell clients, "Let's separate the value into two parts: the value of turning negatives into zero, and the value of turning zero into positive."
This means thoroughly eliminating situations that are negative for the customer, like "the customer doesn't understand how to use the product" or "using the product requires extra effort." In other words, turning negatives into zeros. While this activity itself doesn't directly generate money, the effort ensures the customer keeps using the product, which ultimately leads to sales in the long term. On the other hand, "providing new features" is about the next step: "turning zeros into positives."
Shigehara: The idea of "first going from negative to zero, then increasing from zero to positive" is crucial for both B2B and B2C businesses, isn't it?
Abe: There's a saying that customer success is "marketing without selling." I believe that "turning a negative into zero" also increases customer satisfaction, leading to upsells and cross-sells as "turning zero into a positive."
Connecting data and deepening customer understanding drives success
Abe: Finally, I'd like to delve a bit deeper into the theme of "Customer Success and Data Utilization." In my role overseeing customer success, I often hear concerns from various clients like, "We have data, but analyzing it takes an enormous amount of time," or "We don't know what to look at in the data."
I think these concerns arise because companies are in a situation where they must seriously consider what would make their customers happy and successful.
Shigehara: I completely agree. And to achieve that, as mentioned earlier, "connecting offline and online data to deepen customer understanding" becomes crucial. Many clients are already utilizing Treasure Data CDP in this way, and we're seeing more and more success stories.
For example, one home appliance manufacturer has a dedicated path on their member site where customers can register their purchased products. They also provide content on the site, such as "solutions for common stumbling blocks when using the product." They then use the data from viewing this content to provide feedback for product development.
In another client initiative, we built a data-driven "demand forecasting model." By predicting product demand based on customer purchase history and optimizing supply, we can enhance customer satisfaction for those visiting the store. This also leads to optimizing staffing levels for store personnel.
Abe: That's fascinating. It's a perfect example of how data utilization directly contributes to customer success. I imagine many clients will want to implement similar initiatives.
Shigehara: That's right. Implementing this demand forecasting model would be difficult using online data alone. The key point is how well we can link real-world data to unique customer IDs to gain deeper customer insights.
Therefore, by combining Dentsu Inc.'s customer success initiatives with Treasure Data's data solutions, I believe we can further accelerate the movement toward customer success powered by real-world data. Moving forward, we aim to be powerful partners, driving clients' business success together.
If you are interested in the solutions provided through the collaboration between Treasure Data and Dentsu Inc./Dentsu Digital Inc., please feel free to contact us.
[Download Overview Materials Here]
https://www.treasuredata.co.jp/d-dd-td-download/
[Contact Us Here]
https://www.treasuredata.co.jp/dx-engine-contact-us/
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Author
Yosuke Shigehara
Treasure Data Inc.
Joined the Digital Advertising Consortium in 2002. Handled product development for various advertising media within the Media Division. Later participated in developing the company's own ad network business. From 2011, seconded to a subsidiary operating the ad network business and assumed the position of Representative Director. From 2012, engaged in the development and business operations of AudienceOne, a public DMP. Later, at Legoliss, he recognized the potential of Treasure Data CDP early on, implementing CDP adoption and consulting for numerous companies. Joined Treasure Data in January 2019, establishing the Professional Services team and leading the Customer Success team. In 2020, he integrated both teams and, as Director of the newly formed Customer Success team, managed client relations for Japan and the APAC region.
Satoshi Abe
Dentsu Digital Inc.
Engaged in driving marketing DX from a customer-centric perspective. Provides comprehensive support for corporate business transformation through digital means, spanning consulting services—such as marketing strategy formulation, organizational transformation support, and data platform planning—to execution in foundational and tactical domains including marketing system implementation, application development, and communication design via marketing automation. Currently focused on customer success, advancing consulting and solution development to help clients build customer relationships and maximize LTV.
