Enthusiasm and Interest: The Core of Customer Success

What qualities make a natural Customer Success Associate?

Excitement as a catalyst

If you’re like me you’ve probably experienced what it’s like to be interested and excited about a product or service and be bursting with desire to share it with a friend and have them be just as excited about it as you are. You want to give your friend everything they need to be successful with that product so that they can see why you’re so interested in it.

You’ll probably also be happy with helping them if problems arise in the future, but your main focus is setting them up for success. That way there are fewer hurdles for them to internalize their interest in it. Besides, if they have to keep coming to you for help then they probably won’t be too jazzed about it.

I think this kind of experience provides some really good insight on what it takes to provide good customer-success. If you’ve ever had to give a talk about something you’re not interested in, then you know just how excruciating it can be. My mouth is getting dry just thinking about it. When you’re excited about something, you want to share that enthusiasm which naturally brings out nurturing qualities in yourself. We intuitively understand that those nurturing qualities catalyze successful habits in others. People can sense this and, in my experience, are often looking for a reason to be excited about something.

Interest begets experience

So, being enthusiastic about and believing in a product is critical to your ability to naturally provide customer-success, but what’s also critical is your interest in and experience with the product. You can be super enthusiastic about something, but if you don’t know much about the product, then you’re going to be lost for words when confronted with a nuanced question or problem. That dry-mouth is coming back.

You see, people don’t know what they don’t know. But if you’ve gone through the process of figuring it out yourself, then you’ll be better equipped to circumvent the customers need to go through that same trial-and-error.

Said differently, experience makes you in-tune with the potential pitfalls and hurdles one might encounter which gives you insight on how to proactively address potential problems. That, in the abstract, is what customer-success is all about.

Would-be-employees should apply for customer success roles for products they’re genuinely excited about and interested in. The process of filling that Customer Success role would come naturally if you play around with the product and accrue experience from which to draw off of. If you’re easily excitable and inquisitive like me, this should be a piece of cake.

Gauging excitement, experience, and interest in a product are without a doubt critical metrics for determining whether customer-success is the right role for any given person. You want that naturally-confident, excited, knowledgeable person to be there with you when you’re just starting with something and you want that same person working for you when you’re looking to ensure customer success.