Margaritas, and how to SIMPLIFY Customer Success | TDSU Ep. 2

00:00:00    I'll keep it simple this is customer success not Ancient [Music] Aliens you're listening to the Daily standup by lifetime value consider this your daily dose of new ideas fresh perspectives and or hot takes as they relate to the worlds of customer success post sales or whatever the hell we're calling these days and where we ask each guest one simple question what's on your mind again okay you ready everybody ready I don't have a script I usually have a script so we'll we'll see how I do everybody's just quietly you know you

00:00:48    guys can talk right like we're going to edit everything here yeah I don't trust that all right all right well what's up lifers welcome to the Daily standup this is a brand new project from lifetime value where we want to plant as many idea seeds into the ground as possible we want a couple of those to grow into big beautiful trees maybe we'll rip a few out on the way but we're here to change the way you think about customer success and so I have with me JP Frost JP do you want to say hi what's up

00:01:22    people we've got Rob zambo Rob do you want to say hi hello happy to be here very cool and everybody knows me my name is Dylan Young and we also have the wonderful Ornella Jacobs with us Ornella can you say hi hi everyone Ornella do you want to introduce yourself yes so um so my name is arela Jacobs um I live in the UK uh based in cambri here uh I work in customer success I'm a senior CSM for ACC company in the wellness and beauty industry and I also love social media and I'm a mom a proud mom of two very

00:01:57    cool very cool so Ornella we we teed you up on what it is we're trying to do with this podcast the question we have for you is as it relates to customer success what is on your mind um so what's on my mind so I think we need to simplify customer success a lot of jargons in there are lots of like complicated words and that we don't understand and wanting to make everything sounds so complicated and I think we need to get back to the basis of what customer success is get straight to the point about what it is

00:02:32    that we're trying to do um not only so we can scale better but also so we can get more creative once we all finally understand what it is that we're doing we need to simplify how we what we need as a great CSM what we need to do how we do it and get to the point not just have strategic talk like what is it to have a strategic talk does that mean what does that mean yeah so we need to teach people how to speak with people how to understand people what questions to ask also simplify the kind of data we're

00:03:03    looking at what kind of customers we're working with and why um so simplifying by um asking simple questions I think companies corporations and companies needs to ask themselves very simple questions they need to simplify the processes so so they can scale better and then once you simplify things you can get Innovative but you know in a specific area and um instead of like getting creative meaning Reinventing something new all the time this this is what I see often when I speak to csms in general uh I

00:03:37    find that we get creative and we do things we do new things because oh my gosh like I've I've heard someone said this works or this new tool will help the company and then we jump on it we want to do something completely different and then it seems like the RO has changed completely again for the team so um so that's what's on my mind I would say like in general when it comes to customer success we need to simplify it so before I let the the gentlemen jump in here because I don't I don't have any real uh comment of material

00:04:08    except it's funny because I've been on this tear for probably the last year of I don't want to talk about tactics because I always think that tactics are so specific to the organization and I always talk at a high level that I I like that level but it it can be alienating to especially folks that are just getting into the Cs game and so I just kind of want to say that I don't necessarily have a uh anything to to to build upon what you said Ornella but Rob JP do you guys have any comments yeah I

00:04:43    certainly do I mean Ornella I love what you just shared I think it hits on a core value that we're trying to embody with this micro podcast and also just one that really stands out to me in general which is I think we're running a real risk as a customer success industry of of being a little too exclusive by making our work sound kind of fancier than it really is you know and I think we we run that risk I was joking at a conference last week that like there's just acronyms on acronyms on acronyms I

00:05:10    even had this conversation with Dylan recently too and what we're doing is we're we're making our field inaccessible to people who may not have access to working in Tech or working in SAS or working in customer success roles before so you know there's a lot of really good organizations out there like I talked to one called kind work for example shout out to them with their doing they they help people from traditional retail backgrounds which and Hospitality backgrounds which I think I know JP and I for example have that

00:05:38    background help them get into customer success because really at the end of the day the principles of what makes a good person in retail or Hospitality are are actually kind of the same as the ones that customer success so I really appreciate you're sharing that and Ornella I think you actually you relate to that as well right I think you've done quite a few posts or content about your experience in hospitality and and how that influences your CSM work is that right yeah definitely and I think in one of my social media posts I spoke

00:06:07    about a morito I think I think it was a morito and I was talking about like what makes a good morito and what's the perfect recipe and basically bottom line that the perfect like how many limes do you put in there well it depends it depends how fresh that lime in how juicy that lime is and I feel like you know we need to be flexible enough to and back to the point as well of customer success to that there are definitely limes in morito um but we need to also understand that based on where we Source them and

00:06:38    you know based on the strength that you're going to use to model those limes you know this is where you can get flexible this is where you can you know say that okay well I make my morito in 5 minutes and the other one says I'll make it in 2 minutes okay that's fine we can play with that bottom line is we need limes you we need limes otherwise it's you can't make the recipe and I think as well that back to what Rob was talking about out as well uh saying that we're making it complicated for ourselves and

00:07:04    Etc and to the industry and people trying to enter we also making it complicated for our customers to understand what we do I mean how many times like if you sending these fancy emails and you're talking about goals and value and this and that and you jump on the phone call with this customer and how many times have a customer not asked you okay how different are you from my sales rep or my account manager and you're there explaining and then they're asking you the question again straight away that's red flag that means that

00:07:33    however we are pitching ourselves we are just confusing the customers and that's what I mean like if we start focusing on try and making this simple like what it is that we do you know and yes it can vary from organizations to organizations but I also believe that the same way we all know and understand what sales rep does we need to be able to understand what CSM does you know what are we responsible for because everyone is selling in a company but who process that sale and what does that entail that

00:08:02    makes the sale rep the sales rep we need to do something similar for the CSM what it is that we do that the other teams don't do what are we responsible for that the other departments and other roles are not responsible for and I feel like when once we start asking ourselves those simple questions as an organization we will be able to simplify what it is that we do making it easy for internal um teams to understand what we do and our customers that's the most important if they don't understand what

00:08:31    you do they're not going to want to work with you and then you're there just doing these chasing games of like why most csms are struggling with engagement all the time when we're not even trying to sell like it's not a main responsibilities although we have to sometimes you know it's a problem it's a problem JP I want I want you to have a chance to jump in here uh and and tell us what this looks like for you particularly as you're starting a a new role how are they talking about this same experience I'll keep it simple this is

00:09:06    customer success not Ancient Aliens okay it don't have to do do all that stuff you know I was on a call today and it was one of my first uh actual zoom on camera on calls and key skill was listening identifying some of these opportunities right if I'm a CSM like the sales rep was also on the call so we have the luxury of already sort of knowing okay this is my CSM this is you know my sales DP this is who the account's being transferred from right so we have a clear distinction but you know I was able to even as someone new

00:09:48    with not much command of the product yet but understanding what our directives are that we want to know who is using our software I was able to pick up on you know something that the customer said and I was able to at the end of the call just sort of say Hey you mentioned these uh people were you know also using u sounds like a version of our service are they licensed users or not and that was the perfect thing to just open up the conversation a bit more because I know that it's as simple as when you get

00:10:20    time with that customer you got to maximize that time you get so even though sometimes it can feel a little bit like you know you want to respect someone's time and sort of like like get off the call and be CT it's like if you can get the most out of that call this would be getting the most out of that line because you got a you got a salty customer get the most out of that lime so you can stir that thing up and get the best taste in majito simple as that baby JP so that was your version of of concise we're going to have to we're

00:10:51    going to have to work on that I love it though I love it though so that's our time folks Ornella I want to thank you so much if you didn't know you are the very first guest for this new project and I think you did perfect so thank you so much um I'm so glad we finally got to connect I love seeing what you do on um on social media and uh we'll talk to you soon thank you for having me bye you've been listening to the Daily standup by lifetime value please note that the views expressed in these conversations are attributed only to

00:11:25    those individuals on this recording and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of their respective employers for all inquiries please reach out via email to Dylan at lifetime Valu media.com find us on YouTube at lifetime value and find us on the socials at lifetime value podcast until next time hey folks it's Dylan here thank you for tuning in as always now I've got a favor to ask of you if you've made it this far hopefully it means you like what we're doing with our program so I'm asking you to please give this a like

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