I feel for Customer Success people. I really do.
Saw a post on LinkedIn recently about how if you have all the right digital tools and AI tools and etc, a CS person can support 100 accounts.
“Buy my AI CS Rep and we’ll monitor the feature adoption and automate emailing all the right materials at the right time...”
That’s cool, I just don’t see it.
I’m a huge fan of Manager Tools, so I approach this from one of their frameworks:
1. Results depend on relationships.
2. Relationships depend on communication.
But HERE’S THE KEY:
3. The communication needs to be about what THE OTHER PERSON cares about.
(Wait a minute, Jeff. You mean I need to know what the customer cares about? How would that work? Like ask them and listen?)
When you try to automate / script Customer Success it goes like this...
CS person says:
We need to meet.
Here’s who I am.
Here’s my template.
Here’s what I want to say.
Here are the new features.
Here’s my company’s framework.
Here are our upcoming webinars.
Here’s what you need to be doing.
PUSH, PUSH, PUSH
(Gee, this customer is just not very responsive..)
Then oops, guess what, I just got reassigned off your account now, here’s someone else who’s going to start back at the top.
The only problem with this is that it doesn’t work.
This is why I only work with a couple of clients at a time.
We usually meet for an hour a week 1:1 - WalkMe coaching, build review, project sync.
If we’re reviewing my client’s work:
Saw a post on LinkedIn recently about how if you have all the right digital tools and AI tools and etc, a CS person can support 100 accounts.
“Buy my AI CS Rep and we’ll monitor the feature adoption and automate emailing all the right materials at the right time...”
That’s cool, I just don’t see it.
I’m a huge fan of Manager Tools, so I approach this from one of their frameworks:
1. Results depend on relationships.
2. Relationships depend on communication.
But HERE’S THE KEY:
3. The communication needs to be about what THE OTHER PERSON cares about.
(Wait a minute, Jeff. You mean I need to know what the customer cares about? How would that work? Like ask them and listen?)
When you try to automate / script Customer Success it goes like this...
CS person says:
We need to meet.
Here’s who I am.
Here’s my template.
Here’s what I want to say.
Here are the new features.
Here’s my company’s framework.
Here are our upcoming webinars.
Here’s what you need to be doing.
PUSH, PUSH, PUSH
(Gee, this customer is just not very responsive..)
Then oops, guess what, I just got reassigned off your account now, here’s someone else who’s going to start back at the top.
The only problem with this is that it doesn’t work.
This is why I only work with a couple of clients at a time.
We usually meet for an hour a week 1:1 - WalkMe coaching, build review, project sync.
If we’re reviewing my client’s work:
- What WalkMe did you build?
- What did you run into?
- Did you try this?
- What do you want to do next?
If I’m demoing a build:
- What do you think of this?
- Does this solve the issue?
- What else does it need to do?
If we’re planning work:
- What problems is your business having?
- What’s happening in the next 3 months?
- What would be cool if we could make WalkMe do?
- Why do you want to do that?
Once we get through this, I’ll typically have a whole day blocked off for WalkMe building for that client.
Yeah, only working with a couple of clients at a time puts a ceiling on my revenue.
But asking questions like this builds relationships. And it builds thorough understanding which leads to quality WalkMe Builds (Results).
If you’re needing some help (or know someone who is), let me know.