I don't care what you call it.
Just solve my problem.
30-second read
I don't care what you call it. I just care how it feels.
That’s how the customer views customer experience, customer support, customer success, or account management. And that's where the disconnect starts.
The customer just wants their problems solved when they need them solved and to be otherwise left alone.
Companies on the other hand spend hours strategically thinking about how to engage with their customers more—how to nurture them, educate them, expand their offering throughout the organization, and retain that revenue.
In practice, this high-level strategery often ends up looking like spam, micro-management, and neediness.
Success, support, experience, and account management need to stop building roles and functions that are based on assumptions. Because the echo chamber of ideas in those ridiculous meetings is nothing but activities designed to suck as much money as possible out of the customer’s wallet.
That feels like a backward way of thinking about the company-customer relationship. And nobody’s being upfront and honest about it.
Start with asking customers what they want. Then design these roles and functions from there.
P.S. My guess is that if you ask your customer what they really want, the truth might be less of you.
FTR, I think these can all be very valuable roles that enable connection, trust, and opportunity for the customer. My beef isn’t with the role. It’s with where many of them started from.
Customers everywhere are applauding right now!