As a CSM, you're on the front line when customers express dissatisfaction. As the person responsible for the customer relationship, you have to face up to it and find solutions. Here are 5 tips for reacting well and turning setbacks into opportunities!
#1. Work hand in hand with the support team
As a customer, what's more frustrating than having to explain your problem again and again to different people? When CS and support work as one team, communication flows, information is handed over smoothly and the customer enjoys a seamless experience.
- Share the same open-plan space, whatever the team
- Hold regular joint meetings
- Connect your support helpdesk to your CRM or your Customer Success Platform. This is key and does several things:
- first, every support conversation appears on the customer's record, so the CSM knows about every interaction with their customer, whatever the channel.
- second, support can see the customer's category straight away and adapt the help they give accordingly.
- Set up dedicated Slack channels for key accounts: that way, sales, support, CSMs and Product can communicate, flag issues, keep each other up to date quickly and keep a record.
- Pair people up to cover holidays and absences. That way, issues aren't put on hold when a CSM is away.
#2. Be responsive...
Who enjoys waiting for hours without knowing whether their message has been seen or when they'll get a reply?
On live chat, replying to the customer within 2 to 3 minutes is key to starting to defuse their frustration. If you're in other conversations, simply let them know you've seen their message, that you're finishing another conversation and that you'll be back with them shortly. In the same way, it's important to acknowledge the customer before you start investigating, and above all to keep them informed of what you're doing.
If you need to raise a ticket with the technical team, tell the customer. Don't commit to a resolution time unless you're 100% sure it will be met. Otherwise you'll only make things worse.
If you work mainly by email, use filters to spot unhappy customers quickly and prioritise your replies to them.
#3. ...and proactive
When there's a technical issue or an improvement request, try to offer your customer a workaround. Show them you're there to help, to suggest solutions and to make sure they can keep using your tool until the fix or the new development arrives.
If a ticket is taking a long time to resolve, make a point of updating the customer regularly. It's important that they feel valued and know they haven't been forgotten.
Track the number of incidents per customer so you can trigger the right actions. For example, proactively offering a commercial gesture to a customer who has run into several problems with your solution in a short space of time can make a real difference.
#4. Involve the product team
Use a product management tool
Using a tool such as Productboard or Harvestr to categorise customers' improvement requests helps you prioritise, build a roadmap aligned with customer needs and, above all, personally let the customers who made a request know when a new feature is available, whether or not they're still customers. It strengthens your relationship with customers, who feel listened to and valued. These tools can be connected to your CRM, so each customer record shows their improvement requests and their status. Whoever the customer speaks to, everything is logged and the CSM can follow up properly.
Bring the product team into your customer meetings
This is valuable for everyone involved. The customer can explain their needs and give a more concrete perspective straight from the field, and the product team can explain its technical constraints and how it works.
It often helps calm things down: the customer feels listened to and taken seriously, and the CSM isn't just a go-between passing messages from the customer to the product team.
Involve your customers in designing features
In the same way, when a feature doesn't work as the customer expected, or they've been waiting for it for a long time, involving them in its design can be really beneficial. Discovery interviews, mock-up reviews, beta tests: all of these help keep customers patient, get them involved and also make sure what gets built is what they actually expected. Everyone wins.
Share a reliable roadmap
As a SaaS company, your customers expect your tool to evolve regularly, and they're full of ideas to help. The best way to keep them patient is to have a list you can share with them covering at least the next three months. It lets you tell them what you're working on, bring them along and reassure them. And perhaps one of the planned features will be a real plus for them, even though they'd never thought of it. Be careful not to make promises you can't keep, though. That would only increase their dissatisfaction.
#5. Set an example in how you behave
Listen actively
Listen carefully without interrupting. A customer won't be able to listen to you until they've fully expressed their frustration. Feel free to rephrase what they say so they feel heard and understood.
Show empathy
Every customer comes to you with a different role, a different position in their company and at a different moment in their life. It's important to consider the customer's context to try to understand them and see the implications of your answers. Take an interest in your customer and in what the problem means for them. Sympathise where needed, and show them you understand and fully grasp the situation.
Adopt the right attitude
- Stay calm and polite. It doesn't always come naturally!
- Try lowering your voice so they stay attentive.
- Your body language should inspire confidence: show that you're listening, confident and available. Remember to smile, because people can hear it even on the phone.
- Don't take things personally and avoid putting the customer in the wrong (even if they are); don't get defensive.
- Don't hesitate to apologise on behalf of the company and acknowledge mistakes where that's justified.
- If you're communicating in writing and the conversation is going round in circles or dragging on, pick up the phone! 5 minutes on the phone is often worth more than 10 emails back and forth. It brings the human element back into the conversation and defuses many situations.
- In writing, be responsive: keep the customer informed of what you're doing, and don't leave them waiting without news.
- Limit the number of people involved and avoid complicated processes: appoint one owner who follows the problem through to resolution and liaises with the various stakeholders where needed.
- Remember that it's better to under-promise and over-deliver.
Choose your words carefully
Whether in writing or on the phone, bring the human touch back! Avoid at all costs the stock phrases and overly formal wording typical of customer service. Make your exchanges human, and be transparent about how you work, how you're organised and what you're doing. Vary your phrasing, rephrase, and don't dig your heels in.
Simplify technical terms and avoid jargon, because it widens the gap with the customer and adds to their dissatisfaction.
Speak in the present tense and keep your language positive. We tend to remember the individual words more than the sentences they make up. So ban phrases such as 'I'm afraid that', 'I fear', 'unfortunately', 'the problem is', 'I can't'...
💡 Tips
- If the customer is shouting, turn down your phone volume so you don't get wound up.
- Make sure the conversation takes place in the best possible conditions (a quiet place, good signal, microphone properly positioned...).
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