Leadership In Customer Service

Every successful CSM I know manages their customers *ACTIVELY*. What's the difference between passive and active CSMs? 🧐 ❌ Passive CSMs are afraid to challenge their customers ✅ Active CSMs challenge tactfully and early ❌ Passive CSMs stop at the first objection ✅ Active CSMs engage and ask 'why' until they fully understand ❌ Passive CSMs have "check-in" calls with their customers ✅ Active CSMs deliver engagements that help clients succeed ❌ Passive CSMs ask customers about their goals ✅ Active CSMs co-create Success Plans (and don't let them die) ❌ Passive CSMs accept excuses for lack of progress ✅ Active CSMs hold customers accountable ❌ Passive CSMs pray for the customer to renew ✅ Active CSMs ask "If your renewal date was today, what would prevent you from signing for another year?" often, and take action ❌ Passive CSMs only contact the people who were introduced to them ✅ Active CSMs multi-thread the customer's organisations ❌ Passive CSMs wait for customers to ask for demos ✅ Active CSMs always show new products and features that can help the customer achieve their goals. ❌ Passive CSMs wait for customer information to surface ✅ Active CSMs research information beyond the CRM to prepare for conversations If you want to go far in Customer Success and truly become a trusted advisor to your customers, you've got to be active. How can you do it? 1 - Preparation: You have to research and prepare for your conversations. You can just show up and hope for the best. You need a good agenda, insights, questions to ask etc. What does a customer of this maturity, industry etc. want to see? 2 - Practice: You need to practice having these conversations, especially the hard ones. "Real-play" is something I am a big fan of. Partner with your manager or another CSM and go through the conversation you are hoping to have. 3- Feedback: Ask your customers and your manager for feedback, they will tell you whether your approach is working or not, and give you tips on how to improve. What's stopping you? - 📥 If you like this content, you might enjoy my weekly newsletter. It’s a short 2-3 minute read to help you build a truly customer-first organisation and become a top customer success professional. Join 4800+ subscribers today! [link in the comments section] #CSM #Customersuccess #CX #NRR #SaaS #B2B

Tough Talk Tuesday? If your company says Customer Success is strategic but still treats it like a support function, stop pretending. If your CS team is occupied mainly with “check-in” meetings and renewal prep instead of driving outcomes, stop pretending. If your leaders talk about trust and value but can’t show how CS moves the business forward, stop pretending. Customer Success is not a concierge desk. It is not a feel-good function. It is a growth engine. And it needs to be treated like one. That means: • CSMs who understand the customer’s business better than Sales or Product • Success plans tied to business outcomes, not playbooks • Metrics that reflect value delivered, not just effort made • A culture where CS earns its seat at the revenue table by showing up with data, direction, and urgency We are not here to smooth things over. We are here to move things forward. Five steps to start shifting from support to strategic: 🔢 1. Replace activity metrics with outcome metrics Track customer impact, not just engagement frequency and volume. Stop counting touchpoints and start measuring progress. 🔢 2. Know the customer’s business priorities by heart Treat every EBR and senior executive session like a board meeting. Tie your updates to what your customer’s CEO and CFO care about. 🔢 3. Stop asking “How can I help?” and start saying “Here is what we should do next.” Lead. Recommend. Own the play. 🔢 4. Align CS goals with company goals Revenue, retention, margin, influence - whatever matters to the business should matter to your CS team. 🔢 5. Tell the story of value loudly and often One story, once a week. Share a real example of customer success inside your company until others start doing it for you. The future of Customer Success belongs to those who stop waiting to be seen as strategic and start behaving like it. What is one move your CS team could make this week that shifts how you are seen? #CreatingTheFuture #CustomerSuccess #Leadership #Growth #ClientValue #DISQO

The average tenure of a VP of Customer Success? 18 months. Ask a CS leader why, and they'll tell you: unrealistic expectations. Ask a CEO, and they’ll say: failure to meet expectations. Who's right? Both. CEOs set aggressive goals but don’t always understand what it actually takes to achieve them. CS leaders want to rise to the challenge but often fail to educate and manage up. The result? A giant game of misalignment and unmet expectations. But here’s the thing—both sides want the same outcome: 🟢 Customers who stay. 🟢 Customers who grow. Having been on both sides of this, I’ve seen it done right—and painfully wrong. If I were stepping into a CS leadership role today, here’s how I’d bridge the gap: 1️⃣ Get Clear on the Goals Before running full speed ahead, sit down with the CEO (or senior exec). Look at the data and align on goals. But—newsflash—where you’re starting from matters. You can’t promise to hit a 130% NRR when retention is tanking at 85%. Aligning on the baseline ensures you’re setting a strategy, not a fantasy. 2️⃣ Analyze the Data You can’t fix what you don’t understand. Before you start building a 42-step CS strategy, figure out: ❓ What’s actually driving churn? ❓ Where are the biggest risks? ❓ What will move the needle fastest? If adoption is the biggest issue—your focus isn’t just “more QBRs.” It’s training, enablement, and change management. Solve the right problem. 3️⃣ Keep It SIMPLE CS leaders love to overcomplicate things. (Guilty.) But here’s the truth: Good today > Perfect six months from now. Start small. Run a pilot. Test and learn. Execution beats perfection every time. 4️⃣ Align on Leading Indicators NRR and GRR are great—except they’re lagging indicators. If you wait for those numbers to move, it’s already too late. Instead, track: ✔️ Expansion pipeline growth ✔️ Health score trends ✔️ Early-stage adoption signals Catch issues early. Pivot fast. 5️⃣ Iterate or Pivot As Needed If something isn’t working, fix it fast. There’s no trophy for sticking with a bad plan just because you wrote it down. Make data-driven decisions. If the signs are there, adapt before it’s too late. 6️⃣ Communicate (Early & Often) Execs don’t need every little detail. But if you’re not proactively sharing progress, they’ll make up their own story. ✔️ Weekly or bi-weekly updates ✔️ Regular check-ins ✔️ A clear, consistent narrative When there’s silence, assumptions win. And assumptions are rarely in your favor. CS isn’t like Sales, Marketing, or Finance—it’s still a black box for many execs. Your job is to demystify it. Set expectations. Educate. Show impact. Manage up. This won’t solve everything—but it will make things a lot better. _________________ 📣 If you liked my post, you’ll love my newsletter. Every week I share learnings, advice and strategies from my experience going from CSM to CCO. Join 12k+ subscribers of The Journey and turn insights into action. Sign up on my profile.

Handling Conflict Isn’t Optional. It’s a Leadership Skillset. (And the best leaders don’t avoid tension, they navigate it): Everyone wants a strong culture. But no one builds one by avoiding hard conversations. Unspoken tension doesn’t fade, it multiplies. Here’s what I’ve seen the best leaders do differently when tension rises: 1. Spot the Pattern, Not Just the Problem → Most conflict isn’t about the issue, it’s about what keeps repeating. → Look for misalignment in expectations, not just misunderstandings. 2. Regulate Before You React → The calmest voice in the room holds the most influence. → You can’t lead the moment if you’re consumed by it. → Yes: Stop. Breathe 3. Get Clear on the Actual Issue → 90% of surface arguments are masking deeper frustrations. → Ask: “What’s really at stake for each person here?” 4. Hold the Tension, Don’t Rush the Fix → Moving too fast to resolution often shuts people down. → Sit in the discomfort long enough to understand it. 5. Choose the Right Approach for the Moment → Not every situation needs a roundtable. Know when to: Decide, Defer, Debrief, Disagree & Move on. 6. Clarify, Don’t Cushion → Clear is kind. Vague is avoidant. → You can be direct and still be deeply respectful. 7. Close the Loop → Don’t assume things are resolved because no one followed up. → Recap what was agreed. Confirm what’s changing. Conflict isn’t the problem. Unskilled leadership is. If you want high-performing teams, learn to handle hard conversations with grace and clarity. What’s one thing you’ve learned about navigating conflict well? ♻️ Share this with a leader who needs this reminder ➕ Follow Helene Guillaume Pabis for smart, human-first takes on leadership ✉️ Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dy3wzu9A

What if you gave every employee the power to spend £500 without asking permission? Most companies would call that reckless. John Timpson called it the foundation of trust. In 1975, John Timpson inherited a struggling family shoe repair business with a handful of shops. The high street retail model was simple. Strict rules. Detailed procedures. Managers who controlled every decision down to the penny. Timpson looked at this model and saw something broken. Staff treated like children don't act like professionals. He made a radical choice. Give employees complete autonomy to resolve customer issues without management approval. The reaction was predictable. Other retailers thought he'd lost his mind. How could you trust minimum-wage staff with company money? But Timpson understood something his competitors missed. Trust isn't a risk, it's an investment that compounds. He went further. Whilst other employers avoided anyone with a criminal record, Timpson actively hired ex-offenders. Today, around 10% of his workforce are people who've served time. Critics said these policies would lead to chaos, theft, and bankruptcy. They were spectacularly wrong. By trusting people completely, Timpson created a workforce that took ownership. Staff who felt respected became fiercely loyal. Customers noticed the difference immediately. The struggling repair business grew into a £300 million enterprise spanning shoe repairs, key cutting, and dozens of other services across over 2,000 UK locations. Timpson's approach proves a powerful lesson. People generally rise or fall to the level of trust you place in them. Treat employees like potential thieves and they'll act accordingly. Treat them like trusted professionals and most will prove you right. The companies that win aren't always the ones with the tightest controls. Sometimes they're the ones brave enough to let go. What would change in your organisation if you truly trusted your team? #Leadership #Trust #PeopleFirst #JohnTimpson

Too often, I’ve been in a meeting where everyone agreed collaboration was essential—yet when it came to execution, things stalled. Silos persisted, friction rose, and progress felt painfully slow. A recent Harvard Business Review article highlights a frustrating truth: even the best-intentioned leaders struggle to work across functions. Why? Because traditional leadership development focuses on vertical leadership (managing teams) rather than lateral leadership (influencing peers across the business). The best cross-functional leaders operate differently. They don’t just lead their teams—they master LATERAL AGILITY: the ability to move side to side, collaborate effectively, and drive results without authority. The article suggests three strategies on how to do this: (1) Think Enterprise-First. Instead of fighting for their department, top leaders prioritize company-wide success. They ask: “What does the business need from our collaboration?” rather than “How does this benefit my team?” (2) Use "Paradoxical Questions" to Avoid Stalemates. Instead of arguing over priorities, they find a way to win together by asking: “How can we achieve my objective AND help you meet yours?” This shifts the conversation from turf battles to solutions. (3) “Make Purple” Instead of Pushing a Plan. One leader in the article put it best: “I bring red, you bring blue, and together we create purple.” The best collaborators don’t show up with a fully baked plan—they co-create with others to build trust and alignment. In my research, I’ve found that curiosity is so helpful in breaking down silos. Leaders who ask more questions—genuinely, not just performatively—build deeper trust, uncover hidden constraints, and unlock creative solutions. - Instead of assuming resistance, ask: “What constraints are you facing?” - Instead of pushing a plan, ask: “How might we build this together?” - Instead of guarding your function’s priorities, ask: “What’s the bigger picture we’re missing?” Great collaboration isn’t about power—it’s about perspective. And the leaders who master it create workplaces where innovation thrives. Which of these strategies resonates with you most? #collaboration #leadership #learning #skills https://lnkd.in/esC4cfjS

As CX leaders, solving problems starts with people. Design thinking gives us a clear path. We start by listening to users, defining real needs, and brainstorming ideas. We then build quick prototypes and test them early. Machine learning shifts the focus to data. It breaks issues into smaller parts and finds hidden patterns. We tune models and check how well they predict results. This helps us make smarter decisions fast. Both methods bring value to CX. Design thinking ensures we meet human needs. Machine learning gives us insights we might miss. Using them together unlocks new ways to delight customers. When should you use each? Use design thinking when you need empathy and creative ideas. Use machine learning when you have large data sets and need fast answers. Merging both gives you a balanced, human-led and data-driven CX strategy.

Customer service can indeed be a challenging role, often leading to frustration for both the service provider and the customer. However, with the right approach and mindset, it can be transformed into a pleasant and genuinely productive experience. Here are some strategies to make that happen: 1. Active Listening: This is crucial. Pay close attention to what the customer is saying, and acknowledge their concerns. This helps in understanding the issue better and also makes the customer feel heard and valued. 2. Empathy and Understanding: Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Responding with empathy can diffuse tension and build a connection, leading to more constructive interactions. 3. Clear Communication: Use simple, jargon-free language. Clear communication reduces misunderstandings and makes solutions more accessible. 4. Patience: Sometimes, customers might be upset or confused. Exhibiting patience can calm a heated situation and lead to better problem-solving. 5. Positive Attitude: A positive demeanor can set the tone for the entire interaction. Even in challenging situations, a positive approach can lead to more satisfactory outcomes. 6. Knowledge and Resources: Be well-informed about your product or service. This instills confidence in the customer and enables you to provide accurate and helpful information. 7. Feedback Implementation: Take customer feedback seriously. It’s a goldmine for improving service quality and shows customers that their opinions are valued. 8. Follow-up: A follow-up after resolving an issue can leave a lasting positive impression. It shows dedication and commitment to customer satisfaction. By integrating these practices into everyday customer service interactions, not only can the job become more enjoyable, but it also paves the way for building lasting customer relationships and a positive brand image.

Here's a proven way to build trust among customers. Recently, I saw two contrasting responses in customer service in a span of 2 days. The first was at a new restaurant that we were checking out. Like I do quite often, I asked - what do you recommend in seafood? The server pointed at a particular dish and said with a big smile - this one is good. I asked him - is it too spicy? Not at all sir, it is not spicy at all. Only to be proven very wrong in a matter of a few minutes! 🔥 🔥 The second was at a salon, where the guy was telling me about a new natural moisturizer brand they are using. I asked if he was sure it didn't have chemicals. He looked curiously at the bottle for a moment and then replied - "pata nahi sir, abhi check karke batata hoon" [I don't know sir. I will check and tell you right away] Contrasting, isn't it? Saying "I don't know" is a bit of a blow to the ego, right? After all, isn’t a business supposed to have all the answers? Not really. A business is not expected to have all the answers. The truth is - pretending to know everything can actually hurt your credibility. Customers value honesty and effort far more than a polished but false response. The most honest, trust-building phrase in customer service is not - “We’re here to help.” It is “𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄—𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗜’𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁.” Today, customers can spot when someone’s winging it. A vague or wrong answer can erode trust faster than silence. And when trust is broken, you lose not just one customer—it’s their referrals, reviews, and the goodwill they could have spread about your business. On the other hand, admitting “I don’t know” (and following up with a solution) shows humility, honesty, and a commitment to finding the correct answer. It’s the kind of moment that transforms a transaction into a relationship. Here’s how you can ace the art of “I don’t know” without compromising on a great customer experience: 👉 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 “𝗜 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄” 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 “𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝗠𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝘂𝘁” Always pair honesty with action. Customers will appreciate your willingness to go the extra mile to find the right solution. 👉 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗨𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘆 Equip your team with the confidence to admit when they are unsure and the skills to research or escalate issues effectively. 👉 𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄-𝗨𝗽 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 If you need time to find the answer, give the customer a timeline. Then, stick to it. 👉 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘆, 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Customers don’t expect you to know everything. They expect you to care. Show them that their problem matters more than your pride. Saying “I don’t know” is not a weakness. It is strength. It signals honesty, commitment, and a willingness to grow. That’s what customers remember and rave about. Have you felt the power of "I don't know"? #customercentricity #customerservice #vinaypushpakaran

#CustomerExperience leaders need to split their strategies into deliberate bottom-up and top-down approaches. Many get the bottom-up right, but they struggle with the top-down. Bottom-up strategies focus on improving customer-centric employee behaviors at scale. These approaches include #CX or empathy training for front-line workers, using Voice of Customer feedback to set touchpoint expectations based on customer feedback, and building customer-centric KPIs into individual performance appraisals. But where many CX leaders struggle is often with engaging senior leaders to influence their customer-centric behaviors. It's difficult to influence C-suite behavior, but if you're expected to improve customer-centric culture in the organization, then you cannot avoid this. Top-down strategies start with showing senior leaders how customer satisfaction impacts growth, retention, margin, and lifetime value. It also includes improving CX and VoC reporting to provide more recommendations and actions, not just findings and data. Having discussions with leaders about the importance of financial and non-financial rewards for customer-centric behaviors is another tool in the top-down toolkit. And using personas and journey maps is a vital way to convert customer and touchpoint data into a compelling story of necessary change. Don't rely on dashboards and reports to do the job of top-down CX engagement. Don't count on a couple of positive customer-centric comments from leaders as a sign of meaningful, irreversible support. And do not assume that the fact your CX job exists is evidence of senior leaders' commitment to customer experience. Part of the job for a successful CX leader is to constantly prove the value of customer-centric strategies, influence senior leader priorities, and arm decision-makers with the insight they need to make customer-centric decisions. Don't just empower your frontline workers and assume the job is done. If you aren't building a consistent dialog with executives, you're not only missing an opportunity to make the most significant customer impact but also seeding future problems that can lead to declining support, budget, and resources for customer experience initiatives. Take a comment today to identify or define your top-down and bottom-up CX strategies for 2024. If there's an imbalance, solving that now can lead to better outcomes by the end of this year.