Consider how you feel when a colleague asks about your day. A simple question about your weekend or a supportive check-in on your quarterly goals can elicit feelings of camaraderie and warmth.
So affirms a recent neuroscience study published by Taylor & Francis.
MRI scans revealed that, when a person recognizes signs of active listening in their conversation partner, the ventral striatum and right anterior insula — neural centers for positive emotional reward — are activated. Subjects also reported positive feelings toward actively engaged listeners.
This scientific epiphany affirms a rule that many customer success managers already live by: Active listening is a cornerstone to productive social interaction.
Built In Seattle sat down with leaders from Center and vcita to learn more about how carefully listening to customer needs builds steadfast, authentic customer relationships.
Center strives to shape the future of spend management with a more configurable, extensible and intelligent solution.
What steps do you take to better understand the needs, goals and expectations of your customers?
It's important for customer success to get a deep understanding of each and every one of our customers. We accomplish this by focusing on the following steps:
First, we ask the client for their top three expected values and outcomes they are looking for from Center. This helps us understand what the customer rollout strategy will look like and if they need a full rollout to cardholders or a phased approach.
Second, we ask about the customer’s business requirements so we know how to configure our software to support their needs.
Next, we have a close relationship with our sales team to understand conversations that have been had with our customers to align at the time of the sales handoff to the dedicated deployment manager.
We then have a consistent, repeatable deployment process that we share with our customers, so they have complete transparency on what to expect during the deployment phase of their journey.
When applicable, we join pre-sales calls to help talk through any potential roadblocks. We analyze call recordings and leverage AI to identify specific keywords so we can quickly digest previous conversations.
What training is in place to help CSMs in your organization become experts on your products and industry? What impact has that had on the relationships CSMs have with their clients?
We look to hire individuals with experience in the SAAS industry and strong customer service backgrounds.
Our new hires undergo a five-week mentorship program where they work with a tenured deployment manager to learn our processes and products in depth. We also pair new hires with mentors across all CX functions to get a holistic view and understanding of our entire customer journey.
We work closely with our product team to stay abreast of product enhancements, provide feedback on customer requests, and prioritize based on popular demand. Additionally, we hold monthly lunch-and-learns on various topics ranging from internal product learnings to industry/competitive insights.
We encourage real-time feedback sharing by monitoring Slack channels for peer shoutouts, feature and functionality requests, client quotes and so on. For example, we assess how we are doing through client feedback we receive or understanding how we won this client against this competitor once a deal closes. This helps us gauge areas we need to focus on.
What soft skills have you found to be particularly important when it comes to consulting your clients? How have you strengthened those skills over time?
Effective communication is essential to build strong relationships with customers. Not only does this involve the ability to convey messages clearly and concisely, but also the ability to understand the needs of our customers and relay them back in their terms.
Effective communication is essential to build strong relationships with customers.”
Listening is also critical — listening to really understand what customers are trying to get at. Many times customers aren’t sure what they want and every customer is unique, so listening and getting to the root of what they are truly looking to accomplish now and in the future, is the heart to the overall success of deployment. This also helps to provide a more consultative approach to our interactions with customers.
We focus on individual core competencies that we have prioritized in creating strong CSMs, these areas will in turn directly positively impact our customers. Our core competencies include strategic thinking, driving results, managing ambiguity, collaboration, teamwork, accountability, and empathy.
Vcita is an all-in-one business management platform designed especially for micro and small, service-based businesses, helping them build a business they are proud of.
What steps do you take to better understand the needs, goals and expectations of your customers?
A CSM at vcita uses proactively scheduled goal discovery meetings, intake surveys and session follow-ups. We initiate personalized conversations at the onset to delve into their business objectives, challenges, and desired outcomes. Some example questions we ask include: Why did you buy vcita? What business outcomes are you trying to achieve?
By actively listening and asking targeted questions, we gain insights into our customers’ unique requirements. This information is used to tailor solutions, provide guidance on feature usage, and offer best practices that align with their goals. Follow-up sessions and feedback scores help us gauge satisfaction, address concerns, and fine-tune our support. Our ultimate aim is to ensure customers derive maximum value from vcita by continuously aligning our platform's capabilities with their evolving needs.
By actively listening and asking targeted questions, we gain insights into our customers’ unique requirements.”
What training is in place to help CSMs in your organization become experts on your products and industry? What impact has that had on the relationships CSMs have with their clients?
The most beneficial training comes directly from our fellow CSMs. Together we have weekly meetings to fine-tune our onboarding processes, ask each other questions about the product and review best practices for building a trustworthy and effective relationship with our clients. Positioning ourselves like business consultants ultimately shows that we are here to help the business achieve its goals.
Courses and webinars put on by CSM knowledge experts like Lincoln Murphy, Impact Academy, and Success Coaching show us how to be effective CSMs too. These experts give us a different perspective as we fine-tune our strategies for productive client communication and relationship building. Then we get to share this knowledge with our fellow CSMs.
Some of these knowledge-sharing initiatives include how to build a proper success plan with your client, best practices for ChatGPT prompt engineering and how to engage with clients via email effectively.
What soft skills have you found to be particularly important when it comes to consulting your clients? How have you strengthened those skills over time?
I’ve found that effective communication, active listening and empathy are fundamental soft skills when speaking to clients. Clear and concise communication ensures understanding, while active listening allows me to grasp their unique needs and concerns. Empathy fosters trust and builds relationships.
Over time, I’ve strengthened these skills through repetition, having discussions with my peers and internally reflecting on my interactions with clients. I’ve also gained feedback from managers on best strategies.
Continuously practicing active listening at every meeting has honed my capacity to pick up subtle cues and understand underlying challenges. Adapting these skills has been a journey itself as I continue to empower clients and drive their businesses toward success with vcita.
