🔥 Burned out with Customers 🔥
Recently, a fellow Customer Success Manager (CSM) shared their frustration with me:
“I’m tired of dealing with lazy customers. They miss the training sessions, they don’t attend my calls, and they show no interest in the success plan or any strategic conversations. Despite my leader’s constant push to engage with these customers, I am exhausted from trying to ‘lead a horse to water.’”
I can relate. It’s disheartening when we care more about the success of a project than our customers do. There could be various factors contributing to this situation.
Here are a few things that I did in the past to help me out.
🎯 Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) 🎯
Perhaps your company needs to start selling to the right customers.
Be proactive, and take the time to identify your best customers who genuinely care and succeed under your guidance.
Share this customer profile with your Go-To-Market (GTM) leaders to improve sales strategy and alignment.
🔄 Change Management 🔄
Do your customers fully understand what is expected of them even before the deal is closed? For example, do they know about the training required to achieve their desired outcomes, the resources needed, and the processes to be established?
Changing management is no easy task, but the sooner you start working towards it, the better.
Provide them with a comprehensive onboarding plan outlining what is needed and the achievements they will gain upon completion. Set them up for success from day zero.
🔥 Don’t keep it to yourself 🔥
Avoid burnout by talking to your leader. If you don’t have a leader, there are plenty of CS communities where you can interact and seek advice from your peers. (Gain Grow Retain, Customer Success Leadership Network, Women in Customer Success, Comunidade CS Portugal, and many others)
Just don’t keep it to yourself until you reach the breaking point.
💡 Other Tips 💡
Instead of imposing your process on them, engage with your customers to understand what would work best for them.
- Are you meeting them where they want? Do they prefer offline training instead of 1:1 live sessions?
- Are you meeting them when they want? Is their timeline aligned with yours? What other priorities are preventing them from moving the project forward?
- Are you partnering with the right champion? Is the person you’re engaging with the best champion for this stage of the journey?
🤝 Let’s Discuss! 🤝
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Have you experienced similar challenges with customers? How did you overcome them?
Please share your insights, and let’s start a meaningful discussion in the comments below!
#customersuccess #customersatisfaction #engagement #changemanagement #discussion
