What is Evolutionary Customer Service?

As I read more and more about the state of Customer Service, Customer Experience, etc., I have felt like there is an annoying itch in the back of my mind.  A feeling that, while I agree with many of the premises put out by very experienced CS professionals, there is something missing.  Sometimes it is a feeling that while two points may be very insightful, there is a link between them that seems to elude the author.  Other times it feels that the ideas are good, but limited in scope and only speak to a small percentage of situations.

I figured the only way to scratch that itch is to keep reading, listening and thinking on all of the different viewpoints and ideas.  And then today it hit me...one big problem that I see ties in exactly with the concept of this blog.  Many of these ideas, solutions, policies are great ideas, but not necessarily evolutionary.

As a quick aside, one definition of Evolutionary is "relating to the gradual development of something."  So the concept of Evolutionary Customer Service would be the gradual development of the Customer Service profession.  Unfortunately I am not good a gradual, at least once I feel that I know the path forward.  However even using the term gradual loosely, I don't believe the evolution of CS should take 100+ years.

And that is what I am starting to realize.

 A majority of these ideas are not necessarily new; they are concepts that are either exact replicas of previous ideas or they are nuanced versions of previously attempted solutions.  And yes to evolve is to make mistakes and learn from them, but to evolve in business (and be successful) is to develop at a faster and more efficient clip than your competition.  So if you want to be the best CS or CX organization, wouldn't you want to learn from other people's mistakes?  Wouldn't you want to take into account those ideas that have either already showed success in different incarnations or have failed miserably?

Like a society, we need to learn from our past in order to make better decisions for our future.  Which brings me to my main point.  We seem to be moving away from a more holistic strategy of Customer Service and regressing to a more siloed approach to overall Account Management.  I have heard many people discuss this concept recently, but it seems to be discussed as if it is a new phenomenon.  And it isn't!

Chad Hymas

I just attended a discussion in my town regarding school and community safety from a renowned speaker, Chad Hymas (HIGHLY recommended).  And one of the main points that he discussed was related to his own horrific accident which left him a quadriplegic.  When a 3,000 lb bail of hay fell on him and severed 95% of his spinal column, the question was...how would they be able to get it off of him in time to save his life.  The answer, shouted out by a girl in the audience no more than 12 years old, was teamwork.  It took 8 people, not 7 or 6, but 8 to lift that bail off him in time to save his life.  If just one person had not helped, the work would have been even harder and may not have been in time.

This is the same situation in many aspects of life, and one I tie in here.  In order to successfully manage your customers, you need to work as a team.  And not just as a CS team, but as an enterprise wide team.  In many ways we have devolved as a society, in that we are less communal than our ancestors.  They did not survive with the technologies we have today.  They survived by working as a team.  By understanding each persons strengths and weaknesses and taking advantage of the strengths and helping to fix the weakness, or turn them into strengths.

As CS professionals we are sometimes looked at as an expense, a necessary evil.  Something to clear out the debris so Sales and Marketing can grow revenue.  But like the old comparison of the hunter and farmer, the CS group can build a foundation to sustain the company when the lean times come.  In this way, it is in the best interest of ALL involved to work and provide for that foundation.  It is this foundation that will sustain you as you evolve as an organization.

Turn your Customers into Sales Reps

By focusing on success within your existing customer base, you inadvertently, unless you read this article, create additional sales reps.  Whether they are good or bad reps however depends on how you care for them.

How many times have you had a customer issue that may have been endemic to your organization that you push to resolve, but have trouble with?  How many times during those tough customer facing conversations have you heard from your main poc that vendor XYZ, your competitor, does it better?

Think of how they would talk to fellow companies and leadership in that same situation.  What if customer A is frustrated with a process or service from you and speaks to Customer B about the problem?  What if Customer B uses XYZ corporation instead of you?  Customer B will most likely say to customer A, "I feel your pain, that is why we use XYZ"  The initial BD rep work is now complete and it took zero time from XYZ's sales organization and will only increase the amount of work from YOUR sales and support organization in order to save this customer!

Enter Customer (pick your favorite descriptor) :experience, success, value, service, etc.  Regardless of what you call it, the group focused primarily on the care and feeding of your existing customer base is the one that should be looking into these types of scenarios.  I will use Customer Care for this example as ultimately I think it is caring for your customers that is the most holistic view, and by Care I am not inferring that you feel good about them, but that you TAKE care of them.

In a strong Customer Care organization, the lines of demarcation between other departments are not present.  In order for any Customer Care organization to succeed it must have insight and influence over Sales, Marketing, Support, Training, Billing, and the Executive Suite.  Any group that ultimately impacts the customer needs to not only understand their level of involvement in Customer Success, but also needs to ensure that they are organization their business processes to align with other departments toward that success.

In the example above if a Customer Care/Success organization is in communication with your customers, meaning ALL of your customers, they should be able to see any signs of weakness and be able to act on those with whatever organization is responsible.

If for example you have a sales team who will not listen to the customer and only wants to push licenses, the CS organization should be able to escalate internally within Sales Management the customer concerns so that a solution can be put in place before it is too late.  This does 2 things; first it shows the customer that you are listening across the enterprise and able to work together and second it shows that you care.  In my experience I have seen this  happen and the ultimate escalation, by a CS professional very familiar with the account was able to get a new sales team engaged that was more aware of the specific customer's situation.  This customer has since continued to invest and also become a very big reference in their industry.  And this is the type of Customer Sales Rep you want to build.

Above I picked on Sales, but this same situation could play out with:

• Marketing - constant barrage of emails/calls during a time when the customer may be going through internal troubles or making major organizational changes and needs some time to get back on track.
• Support - the IT director is constantly hearing from their team that your company is not getting back to them on time and/or not taking the necessary time to understand their problems, thus delaying resolution of key issues.
• Training - user adoption is low due to the fact that your training department is not providing relevant training for your customer's industry or business process.
• Billing - delays in invoicing or miscommunicated requests for payment due to a lack of communicating internally can leave a bad taste in the mouth of the procurement person..ultimately responsible for buying your product
• Executives - Especially with larger clients, access to executives ensure that your customer feels that they are valued at the level commensurate with their investment.

When you focus on the needs of your customers, across the spectrum, you build rapport which in turn builds references which are in essence additional field sales personnel.

So when determining how best to setup your Customer Care/Success/Experience/Etc organization, make sure you take into account the indirect benefits of adding to your Sales organization through your customers.

Setup and Purpose

Hello and Thank You for coming to my blog regarding Evolutionary Customer Success.  As a long time CS professional I have seen many types of CS organizations in many types of industries and will be spending my time on this blog outlining areas that I feel make or break these different departments.  While I prepare a few introductory articles, please prepare to provide your own insight and feedback on my ideas, the information I post or the CS industry as a whole.

I am learning more and more that we as a group can work together to iron out many of the wrinkles we find throughout our CS journey.  Experience from the front line to the executive suite is valuable in building a holistic customer centered organization that provides the highest level of service, at the right cost point, delivering the best results for customers and the enterprise.

I look forward to sharing insights, experiences and ideas in this blog and hope that you will join in the discussion where you feel appropriate.

Sincerely,

Kyle Kendall

Passionate CS Professional