What's a Top (Underutilized) Customer Success Strategy?

As one of 10 million people who watched Adele's concert and interview in November, I was elated to hear about her Las Vegas residency announcement, and I felt the disappointment of fans who learned of her abrupt cancelation just before her concert was set to kick off on Friday.

As thousands of fans were taking to different channels to express their anger and heartbreak, Adele and her team deployed one of my foundational elements of customer success - Caring.

Caring as a Powerful Differentiator in Your Strategy

I am often asked about metrics to measure Customer Success and there are a litany of popular metrics and strategies to create higher gross and net retention performance (great article by Samma Hafeez), the one I notice companies (of all sizes) struggle with the most is how to measure Caring.

What did Adele do following this last-minute cancelation? She posted a sincere and tearful video with extreme transparency into the events that led to her decision. But, she did not stop there. She also had her team gift upset concert-goers with over $125+ worth of items from the merchandise store and even arranged to FaceTime directly with one of the devastated fans. The result?

The simple and swift actions amplified her impact to over 120,000 shows of support and connections to her fans as well as future fans (aka loyal customers and prospects).

The Risks of Not Caring or Not Caring Enough

Fear is a powerful motivator and is often why I've seen companies and employees avoid their initial empathetic (human) instincts. Unfortunately, Caring is often undervalued until it is too late whereas Stoicism, enduring without displaying feelings, is a popular approach across many industries and cultures. But, blindly choosing Stoicism as a strategy has its share of risks.

A recent example that comes to mind is Liz Giorgi's heart-wrenching ordeal with her dog and Wag.

She detailed this unimaginable experience with her Wag sitter losing her dog, Fran, on Jan 4th while she was on a trip to honor her late father. As of Jan 18th, she was still waiting to hear I'm sorry. This story also touched Arlan Hamilton, whose followers include many top investors and celebrities. Rough estimates of her reach are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people.

How would you react to this response if you were Liz and your dog was missing for weeks?

I'm calling to report we have news on your pet...She has passed away. These instances are incredibly rare, but do happen. Do you have any questions?"

How to Track, Measure, and Improve Caring

Improving your organization's and team's EQ (Emotional Quotient) starts with understanding how your customers need you to show up. In other words, what is your customers' Love Language?

Once you have a clear understanding of the outcomes you are looking to achieve, tracking and execution are where the rubber will meet the road. Some of how I've tracked and improved my team's and company's EQ are:

• Product Roadmap & Enhancements: How many of the items that we prioritized and completed came from existing customers and employees on behalf of customers? The ratio (in number and effort) of customer vs sales/marketing/prospect driven items will be a key indicator of you how much you prioritize your customer and team's input, desires, and struggles.
• Process Changes: How often are you making adjustments to your processes for employees and customers? Where are you capturing the feedback of better ways to do things or acting on your Employee Effort Score (EES)/Customer Effort Scores (CES) highlighting pain points when it comes to getting things done? Have you assigned the appropriate resources and attention to maniacally focus on making these improvements?

Tracking these changes also gives your organization (Marketing, Sales, CS, etc) great content to share with employees and customers to show that you listen and inspire higher levels of loyalty and engagement.

Final Thoughts

The tides have already shifted and will continue to rise as Customers and Employees realize and exercise their growing power through choice and influence.

I used to cringe when folks would say that I am so "nice" or "kind" or "thoughtful" because I did not see those as characteristics being valued in Tech and Startup spaces. Maintaining a core of caring for colleagues, customers, and the broader industry has not been easy, but is now an effective and enduring strategic differentiator for today's businesses. I optimistically hopeful to see Caring gain more ground in the places we choose to do our best work.