September 08, 2024 | Read Online
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Welcome to your Sunday edition of the GrowthCurve newsletter, The Level Up. Next week we’ll share an update on our new name and branding for the newsletter.
Until then, let’s have a little heart-to-hear about empathy…
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A lot of people in customer success are having trouble finding jobs right now.
People with fantastic exposure to a range of industries, and with different types of customer facing work history and skills, from handling support cases, to onboarding customers, to configuration, administration, and training.
Someone in this situation recently sought my advice and cited all of the experience above. Given the range of skills they presented, I wanted to know what this person thought their most important skill was. So I asked the following:
…of all the work you’ve done that you mentioned above, what are you the best at?
The answer, in a nutshell?
“Maintaining relationships and empathy toward customers.”
This anecdote illustrates a challenge that pervades customer success. The perception that empathy for the customer and relationship building is actually a job versus technical case management, customer onboarding, project management, customer training, account management, or other specific customer jobs to be done.
I believe this stems from the fact that in many companies, customer success is still a jack of all trades, master of none type of role. In this situation, the only unifying factor of the work is customer empathy. So I get it.
But the SaaS industry is undergoing a transition, one which I believe is permanent. Over the past 15 years, you could get away with a “warm body” approach to managing csutomers. Having a designated success manager every customer could use as a concierge resource for onboarding, product feedback, support, and renewal negotiation is no longer an option[1].
I decided to respond with a healthy dose of tough love. Here’s what I said:
Everyone who works with customers should have empathy, so that’s not really a differentiator for you. Especially in today’s economy. I would pick a very clear lane and own it. You are a customer support specialist, onboarding specialist, or client account manager. Empathy is how you work. Relationships are the result of having contributed to the customer’s wellbeing in a specific and meaningful way.
I encouraged this person to focus on a specific type of work they are good at, and look for jobs where they can do more of that work. Even in a startup where several (or all) of those skills are useful, founders are looking for employees who can roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty helping customers with the product and pushing them to adopt it.
I can hear it now, “He’s saying empathy and relationships don’t matter!”
Well, no, that’s not what I’m saying at all. Empathy and relationships do matter. A lot. But only in the context of doing a specific job for the customer. And I actually believe everyone in SaaS needs empathy to do their work
Product managers need to see value through the eyes of the buyer.
Designers and engineers need to see usability in context of an end user’s complete workflow.
Marketing needs to understand the goals of your target customers.
Sales needs to understand the motivation of each buying committee member.
Support reps need to understand the specific task a user is trying to complete.
Professional services consultants need understand the sponsor’s vision and timing. And the hurdles the customer project manager must clear to get the product integrated into their environment.
Account managers need to understand all the parties at the table who influence renewals and expansion purchases.
Company executives need to understand broad trends as they seek to advance the industries they serve[2].
Empathy without substance is vapid.
But in combination with a specific job to be done… it’s priceless.
There’s not a single job in SaaS that doesn’t require (or at least wouldn’t benefit from) some level of empathy. Over the course of my career, the stand-out product managers, engineers, marketers, salespeople, customer service reps, and executives I’ve worked with bring a high degree of empathy to their work.
But empathy is not the job itself.
🤘
[1] That’s because free money has dried up. And SaaS companies used free money to create artificial service level differentiation which they can no longer afford to do. These companies, now find themselves needing efficient customer success, go to market, and product development strategies just to survive.
[2] A business has other stakeholders, too. It must deliver a healthy working environment for its people, returns for its investors, and positive impact on the community in which it operates. How can it deliver without understanding the interests and needs of all these parties? .
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