How Qumulo Builds Customer Loyalty and Success
As we wrap up another cycle of Net Promoter Score (NPS) reviews at Qumulo, I took a moment to reflect on what it takes for a fast-growing company like ours to maintain exceptional customer loyalty.
Having spent years in the Support and Success industry, I’ve observed a few key factors that contribute to our success. But before diving into those, it’s worth revisiting the foundational distinction between Customer Support and Customer Success — something we emphasize with every new team member who joins our company.
Support vs. Success: What’s the Difference?
In legacy customer support models, the focus is on closing tickets as quickly as possible and, where possible, deflecting customers, avoiding conversations. Processes and systems are optimized for speed at the expense of deeper engagement.
At Qumulo, Customer Success is an entirely different philosophy. For us, it’s about engaging customers in meaningful, ongoing conversations. Instead of prioritizing closure, we focus on staying connected. Instead of reacting, we value proactiveness and collaborating with our customers to address their needs.
Our systems and processes reflect this philosophy. We aim to be proactive, approachable, and accessible—qualities that resonate strongly with our customers.
A Success Model Built by Customers, for Customers
One of the unique aspects of Qumulo’s approach is that our Customer Success process was designed directly by storage admins, not support people. And it’s not limited to just the CS teams. It’s genuinely a whole company effort.
This customer-centric design ensures that every tool, process, and interaction is tailored to support their real-world challenges.
For example:
- Real-time engagement: Customers told us they value immediate, direct communication over waiting in ticket queues. That’s why we prioritise platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, where they can get quick, meaningful responses.
- Empowered problem-solving: Customers appreciate when their issues are handled by teams empowered to act quickly. This led us to build a culture where Customer Success Engineers (CSEs) and Customer Success Managers (CSMs) take ownership and collaborate in real time to resolve problems.
- Transparency and trust: Feedback highlighted the importance of open, ongoing dialogue. As a result, we’ve made continuous engagement a cornerstone of our philosophy—keeping conversations open even after a solution is found.
This collaborative, feedback-driven approach ensures that everything we do is rooted in our customers’ real needs. It’s not just a process; it’s a partnership.
Real-Time Conversations: The Heart of Qumulo’s Customer Success
One of the standout features of our approach is the use of real-time communication tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. While these platforms are not traditionally associated with external customer support, they have proven to be game changers for fostering open-ended, impactful conversations.
Customers appreciate the immediacy and authenticity of this real-time engagement. Whether it’s resolving a critical permissions issue, addressing a routine hardware failure, answering a “how-to” question or just sharing their kids Halloween pictures, these platforms allow us to meet customers where they are—with speed and a personal touch.
The Magic of the “Two-Minute Question”
A perfect example of the power of real-time support is the “two-minute question.” Imagine a customer asking, “Can you remind me of the steps to change [X]?” Instead of creating a ticket and waiting for a callback, they can simply ping us on Slack or Teams.
Here’s how it plays out:
- For the customer: It’s a quick, frictionless interaction. They get an answer in two minutes without navigating a ticketing system or waiting in a callback queue.
- For Qumulo: It’s a streamlined process that eliminates wasted cycles, such as phone tag or email back-and-forth.
This approach is especially valuable for low-priority issues, which often get deprioritised in legacy support models. Why should a two-minute question take 2 days to get a response? By removing these barriers, we not only solve problems faster but also reinforce trust and reliability in our customer relationships.
Want to see a real-world example? (forgive my crude attempt at redaction!)
The People Behind the Process: Qumulo’s Amazing Team
At the heart of Qumulo’s success is our dedicated and talented team and an incredibly stable product (thank you, Engineering!). It’s their commitment, expertise, and genuine care for our customers that make everything possible.
Our CSEs bring their technical prowess to the table, swarming critical issues with urgency and precision to ensure swift resolutions. Meanwhile, our CSMs and Professional Services teams go above and beyond to understand our customers’ needs, building long-term partnerships based on trust and shared goals.
The Qumulo team operates with a unified mission: to empower our customers to succeed. Whether it’s a quick two-minute question or a complex, high-priority challenge, our team brings passion, empathy, and relentless problem-solving to every interaction.
It’s not just about having great systems or tools—it’s about having great people who genuinely care about making a difference for our customers. And that’s a cornerstone of why our customers continue to choose Qumulo, trust us with their businesses, and recommend us to others.
Building Loyalty Through Engagement
At Qumulo, our high NPS score isn’t just a reflection of satisfied customers—it’s a testament to the loyalty and trust we’ve built by prioritizing engagement over closure.
- Collaboration over resolution: We treat every interaction as an opportunity to strengthen our relationship with the customer, not just as a task to be completed.
- Proactive monitoring and responsiveness: By using our cloud based monitoring and real-time communication, we’re able to address issues before they escalate, creating a sense of partnership and reliability.
- Customer-first mindset: Our systems and culture, developed with direct customer input, are designed to ensure the customer feels supported and valued.
Why It Matters
One of the most common questions I’m asked by prospective customers is: “It’s great now, but can it scale?” The short answer? Yes.
We’ve grown from 1 customer to 100 to 1,000 without breaking a sweat. If it’s efficient for the customer, it’s efficient for Qumulo. This alignment of goals is what keeps our process sustainable and effective. We fully intend to stay on this path, continuing to prioritize customer engagement and loyalty as we expand.
By staying true to our Customer Success philosophy, leaning on the strengths of our team, and continuously evolving based on customer feedback, we’re not just earning high NPS scores; we’re building a thriving community of loyal customers. These customers trust us to be there for them every step of the way—and, in turn, they become our greatest sales people!
This is what drives us at Qumulo: not just success for ourselves, but success for our customers. That’s how we measure true loyalty—and true impact.
Don’t just take our word for it. Gartner Peer Insights Reviews are directly from our customers.
