THE DYNAMIC DUO: CUSTOMER SUCCESS AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT
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Customer Success Summit 2015 breakout session: Presented by: Cynthia Balusek, Director of Customer Success, Bigcommerce
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THE DYNAMIC DUO: CUSTOMER SUCCESS AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT
- 1. Produced by 2015 1H Enterprise Plan THE DYNAMIC DUO Client Success & Support Deliver Better Together CYNTHIA BALUSEK Bigcommerce, Director, Client Experience
- 2. Produced byProduced by Powering commerce for the world’s fastest-growing merchants CYNTHIA • SAAS VETERAN • SERVICES, SUPPORT, & CLIENT SUCCESS LEADER • MBA STUDENT (GRADUATING IN MAY!) • 6 STARTUPS, 2 IPOs • PAIR OF CHILDREN AND UNAPPRECIATED CAT
- 3. Produced by
- 4. Produced by
- 5. Produced by
- 6. Produced by Average Salaries (source: Glassdoor) $0 $20,000 $40,000 $60,000 $80,000 Customer Success Manager Support Average salaries (source: Glassdoor)
- 7. Produced by TSIA 2014 Customer Success Baseline Benchmark
- 8. Produced by
Editor's Notes
- This is Liam – he is an Enterprise Account Manager
- In my career, I’ve worked as a support manager and as a CS manager As a support manager there was always a ton of conflict between the support and CS teams. Lots of blame. Lots of finger pointing. And at the end of the day it’s wholly unnecessary. We’re striving for the same goal To help our clients become more successful And I needed the CSMs – and I needed them to help me So, I’ll review some things I did as a support manager to help build bridges to our CS team, and things that I do now to make sure I have a good relationship with my support team First, a disclaimer I joined the support team as a manager at a very difficult time Average first response was two weeks for a support case 40% of phone calls went to voicemail There was a backlog that was 8 days long Clients were very unhappy, and it’s not surprising that CSMs were too It took a year to get it into a good place, and some of the things we did were really helpful to building bridges and things I carry with me today.
- Because we were so behind and understaffed, we had CSMs volunteering to answer support calls for two hours every other week We did it out of desperation, but it was a huge benefit for everyone CSMs got to hear what clients sounded like and understood how hard the job is Support team members felt that CSMs knew what it was like to walk in their shoes We even had the executive team come in and answer questions It was such a meaningful experience that it because standard practice for new hires. It’s a hard job. You don’t know who or what is going to be on the other end of the phone. No one calls support because they are having an awesome day and your software works perfectly. No one calls support because they are happy. If you haven’t listened to your support team, I recommend it. At Bigcommerce, we had a support agent answering live calls in a conference room so many people could hear.
- Because we had so many complaints and escalations, we had to develop processes for them. There weren’t any at the time – really, the whole situation was the wild west. I did a twice daily ½ office hour call where CSMs could call in and escalate a case. Some days I’d dial in and there would be 10 people already on the line waiting to talk to me. And by talk to me, I mean tell me how they and their client were angry. After about 6 months, we could abandon this call because we didn’t have as many escalations (it turns out, if you respond to clients fast enough, that will solve a ton of your problems.) 95% of the time, the CSMs would follow this process 5% of the time that the CSMs didn’t, was generally through one guy, who I’ll call Bob, and that’s not his name. Bob would walk over and beg my team to work on his case. He would IM them. He would cajole them. He would send emails to his boss and cc: my boss and our VP. Bob would do anything he could to bypass the line. Bob also had a really loud voice, and I could hear him from my office, which was right in the middle of the team’s area. I would pounce out of my office like a cat and lead him away from the area. Bob didn’t help anyone. He just added more noise. He was a distraction. We spent more time on his work, and not actually solving his client’s problems – dealing with him. Don’t be a Bob. Follow the escalation process. If you don’t have one, build one. If you have one, and it’s not working, work with your support team to change it so it does.
- I quickly discovered that as a support manager, I had very little authority in the company. Very little. One of my more recent bosses told me that being in support is like being at the end of the parade, and that’s fairly accurate. I’ll never forget getting drug into our CTO’s office about a client issue I assumed I was there because the CSM was angry about something that my team had handled poorly And when I got there, I realized that the CSM actually invited me because my team was stuck trying to get a bug fixed And they were using their influence to help make that different. Together, we were able to get it fixed. It was a good lesson, and I didn’t hesitate to ask them to use their voice to help me after that I would ask them to put commentary directly in to the bug system, explaining the business case for the client – as they knew the client the best If you can quantify something, it helps. Knowing that this bug cost the client $x amount and having that documented in a bug is pretty powerful. And the CSMs always had that data. If you look at what an support analyst vs what a client success manager makes and money equals power, then CSMs have lots more power than support analysts. And as CSMs, we can help.
- And support teams help us. One of the things I was most proud of as a support manager was the fact that my team members were highly sought after and went to other departments. And that’s typical according to the TSIA I was always happy to get on the phone with clients and explain how we were going to improve things – it took the pressure off of the CSM And as a support manager, I had other ways to help our CSM team. We did start answering the phone, so we could be available at will, where CSMs schedule didn’t allow for that. My team was full of product experts, so we could better advise clients and take those questions off of the CSMs plate. And CSMs were always better at partner referrals, or 3rd party integration options, or industry trends. http://blog.tsia.com/blog/tips-for-creating-a-customer-success-function-within-your-organization?utm_campaign=LN%20-%20Customer%20Success%20and%20Support&utm_content=9880113&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter http://www.slideshare.net/jwseals/tsias-keycapabilitiesofcustomersuccess
- We also had a margarita happy hour for the two teams. It enabled everyone to spend some time together in a relaxed environment. We actually drug the margarita machine to my support area so everyone could participate and not have to abandon the phones. At the end of the day, we were able to reduce the friction between the two teams. Our client’s support experience improved And when I worked on the other side of the table, I was able to use this information to