Avishan Hojat of Centerfield On How to Build Lasting Customer Relationships
An Interview with Rachel Kline
Embracing Change: Oprah Winfrey once said that the greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude. I love that quote. Change is inevitable and, frankly, often out of our control. But attitude, how we react to change, is fully within our control. All companies must continuously evolve, react to competitive changes, and adjust to macroeconomic changes. Within our client success teams, it is our role to be the voice of change, to anticipate it, to adapt, and to effectively communicate to all constituents in the business relationship. And as leaders, we have a responsibility to bring along our teams and make a positive attitude towards change part of our culture.
Building lasting customer relationships has many benefits, including increased revenue, positive word-of-mouth recommendations, and saving on acquisition costs. But how does one do this? In this interview series, we are talking to Product Managers, founders, and authors who can share their “Five Tips For Building Lasting Customer Relationships”. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Avishan Hojat.
Avishan Hojat serves as Centerfield’s Senior Vice President of Client Strategy, leveraging the company’s unmatched products and value proposition to help its strategic partners grow and achieve success. She has over 20 years of experience in fast-paced internet growth sectors and online media, with a relentless passion for building strategic partner solutions and fostering positive client relationships. As a pioneer within the online marketing industry, she held multiple leadership roles at ValueClick (NASDAQ VCLK), DoubleClick (acquired by Google), MediaWhiz (acquired by Matomy Media Group) and , most recently, HigherEducation.com, driving all partner-facing functions, and ultimately helping the company to two successful exits (The Vistria Group and Red Ventures).
Thank you for doing this with us! Before we begin, our readers would like to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to this career path?
Growing up in Iran and moving to the U.S. at the age of 13, my childhood dream was to follow in my father’s footsteps and become an architect without putting much thought into what that might entail. As I started college, I was immediately humbled by the fact that I have absolutely no talent that lends itself to architecture. I did realize right away that I had a passion for business and building relationships, and gravitated toward Marketing (Sales & Product Management). Just as I was graduating, the World Wide Web was starting to brew. Companies like Amazon and eBay were the talk of the town. Through a referral from my brother, I secured an interview with DoubleClick, and the rest was history. Mid-career, as I was transitioning from ValueClick to MediaWhiz, I realized how pivotal building and fostering client relationships are to the success of any company. I decided then to put 100 percent of my passion behind strategic relationship development.
Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that has occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or takeaway you took from that story?
After 23 years, there are so many, but I’ll take you back to the beginning and what truly changed the course of my career. At my first job, I had been working as an Account Manager supporting the DoubleClick sales team. Within six months, two different promotional opportunities were presented to me. The first was within my existing team (reporting to the VP of Sales) with an attractive salary plus commission — a familiar position within a team where I had a proven track record. The second was working for the VP of Product Management in conjunction with the sales team, launching and presenting a new product to their agency clients. I had no idea what the compensation package for the Product Manager position would be — at the time, I was too young and shy to even inquire about it. However, based on the few interactions I had with the VP of Product Management, I truly admired and looked up to her and knew that I would learn a lot. It was a smaller team, and the head of that division was also someone that I looked up to.
With a short deadline to decide that day, I contemplated my decision as I went downstairs to grab some coffee and happened to see my checking account balance. It had exactly .87 cents. The only reason I had a positive balance was that I deposited the extra dollar I had remaining after my coffee! I still have the ATM receipts from that day as a reminder. I went back upstairs and despite knowing how much I was hurting financially, decided to take the Product Manager role. Itt was more important for me to work for someone that I could learn the most from, gain exposure to the broader company and their top clients, and ultimately, to challenge myself with an unfamiliar product and role. It was the best decision ever, and it turned out (as I learned after I accepted the position) that it was a better comp package!
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Through various programs and initiatives facilitated by our Sr. Director of Learning and Organizational Development, Centerfield has made it possible for me to participate in and actively work toward the growth of some of our top employees and the development of future leaders. It gives me great joy to be involved in helping my associates learn and grow, and I am constantly impressed to see the level of support and training our company is offering for such a highly talented group of individuals. This is exciting work for me, as it not only creates an environment where people thrive and recognize that we care about their future (which encourages both loyalty and retention), but ultimately it helps us become better partners to our clients through the investment in growth and development of individuals on our teams. I love that about Centerfield.
For the benefit of our readers, can you tell us a bit about your experience with building lasting customer relationships? Can you share an anecdote or two that illustrates your experience in this area?
One of my favorite business phrases is “Expectation Plus (+)”! The idea is that everything you are seeing, receiving, and experiencing exceeds your highest expectations. When I hear Expectation Plus (+), I think of greats like Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos. Having our clients think of us as Expectation Plus (+) is my ultimate goal as I work on building lasting customer relationships.
Another important factor in customer relationship building is that you cannot have a winner and a loser. If your company has an advantage over a customer and is always the “winner” in the eyes of your customer, that puts a strain on the relationship. At some point (e.g., when someone new or seemingly better comes along), you will be at risk of losing that customer. However, if you can create a balance where both parties can win and feel positive, then you have created trust and a lasting partnership.
It is also important to build relationships within all levels of your customer’s organization. Get to know everyone. Get buy-ins and establish synergies across multiple levels of an organization. There is a human being on the other side of every department you work with. Listen to them. Understand what their role is and how you can help them become more successful within their scope of responsibilities. Often companies think that if they have access at the CEO level, they can grow faster and with ease. In the big leagues (I have to use at least one baseball reference since I work for Centerfield), however, so many recommendations and strategic decisions are made at lower levels within an organization prior to even making it to the awareness of the CEO.
Last but not least, customer relationships will only strengthen if your entire organization (not just your Client Success Team) becomes customer focused — where everyone lives, breaths, and dreams customer needs. Within every division of Centerfield, we embody that passion.It is important that our clients know we are truly an extension of their marketing team, and across our company, we share their needs, concerns, wins, and losses.
In today’s fast-paced and constantly evolving landscape, what strategies do you employ to maintain a strong connection with your customers and anticipate their changing needs?
Focus on effective communication and maintaining close contact across multiple levels of our customer’s organization are critical strategies in Client Success. It is important that we understand our customer’s landscape, including nuances of their respective industry, and consistently educate ourselves to not only deal with changing needs but perhaps anticipate them prior to significant changes occurring. Change often means new opportunities. It is important that we, as a company, assist our customers in embracing change and do our part to help them succeed as they progress through the necessary stages. Any change within our customer landscape needs to be communicated fast, effectively, and efficiently within our entire organization. We then need to all come to the table with ideas to approach that change and help our customers identify, meet and exceed their new goals. Our technology platform Dugout allows our team to A/B test and hyper- personalize campaigns at scale, which also helps us stand out to our partners.
Can you discuss the strategies that companies can employ to strike a balance between driving revenue and profitability, and focusing on building customer relationships and loyalty?
Many companies focus on short-term revenue maximization and being able to squeeze an extra cent out of every dollar. When the focus is on short-term revenue, partnerships quickly become one-sided, and that leads to mistrust. Instead, I prefer to prioritize building a strong and strategic partnership with our clients with a focus on establishing early trust. It is important that our clients enjoy working with us, in fact, I want our clients to LOVE us! The economics of a deal must always work for both parties, of course, but I have found the key component of growing revenue to be building and fostering a strategic, amiable client partnership. I focus on the long-term potential and formulate strategies based on that. By doing so, I know more revenue and share of wallet will ultimately come to us.
Could you describe the metrics and measures you use to evaluate the success of your customer relationship-building efforts, and how you identify areas for improvement?
Companies that have the least client churn tend to have the highest valuation. Financial stability and the promise of recurring revenue is the ultimate measure. Together with the rest of Centerfield’s Senior and Executive team, we look at various KPIs as a measure of the effectiveness of our Client Success team. For example, we look at: year-over-year revenue growth, increase in the share of wallet (by winning business over competitors), client retention, and even referrals from existing clients. Key players in organizations often move from one entity to another within the world of online digital marketing. It is always a great testament to the work we are doing to receive a call from a former client contact who has joined a new company, recommending our services and product offerings in their new role.
Regarding customer-facing teams, what steps do you take to ensure they can deliver personalized, proactive, and efficient support, tailored to the needs of each individual customer?
First and foremost, I start with hiring individuals who are passionate. I believe that the highest ROI comes from passion, and that is something that cannot be taught; everything else can be. Our team needs to have a thorough understanding of our company’s value proposition and product offerings, followed by our customers’ products, our customers’ consumers, and their full-funnel product purchasing journey. Centerfield includes many different divisions and teams that all play a key role in the success of our service offerings to our clients. I believe in having a single point of contact managing each partner’s relationship. These individuals serve as the liaison between all the different internal divisions/teams and are our client’s primary point of contact daily. I want our clients to know that our Client Success team is their ambassador within Centerfield, and their needs and concerns will be communicated efficiently and effectively. This happens by establishing this critical relationship with a primary contact who can embed themselves in our client’s business and act as an extension of their team.
What tips do you have for responding to negative feedback from customers, and what steps can be taken to turn those experiences into positive outcomes?
Always listen to your customer’s feedback. Do not be combative or try to prove them wrong. A customer is always right. If I get negative feedback, I know that the customer truly cares about improving our partnership — otherwise, they would have just walked away and taken their business elsewhere. It is my job to truly evaluate any feedback and work together with our customers on solutions. I consider it a gift — a valuable opportunity and a second chance at proving ourselves. Their feedback needs to be effectively captured and communicated to the proper channels and senior leaders within the company. As we form solutions, we need to have the customer’s buy-in on any proposed solution. Once we have aligned with the client and mapped out a clear resolution plan, it all comes down to flawless execution and proper follow-through until we have a fully satisfied customer. If you are not hearing any negative feedback from your customers, do not just assume that they are happy. Be proactive, and seek feedback, but be prepared to address it right away.
Lastly, how do you use technology or AI to enhance your customer relationships, and what tools have you found to be most effective in building and maintaining them?
If AI can do what I do, I’ll be out of a job! Just kidding! We need to be at the cutting edge of technology and bring enhancements to the table (through AI or other work streams that we create) that make our client’s lives and their customer’s journeys better and easier. Reporting, consumer insights, and compliance monitoring technology are a few of my favorites that are always on our clients’ radars — our advancements in these areas help them be more effective and successful.
Here is the main question of our interview. In your experience, what are five key components of building lasting customer relationships?
1 . Trust and Transparency: The foundation of building a lasting relationship is trust. Trust is created when there is a mutually beneficial partnership when there is no concept of winners and losers, no “us versus them”. Focusing on trust and profitability are not mutually exclusive concepts. In fact, I would argue that trust drives increased profitability. After all, it is human behavior to gravitate towards people you like, respect, and feel comfortable with. A trusted business partner fosters loyalty and is open to testing new ideas and concepts while being forgiving when mistakes are made. Therefore, trust drives innovation. Tackling the delicate balance between transparency versus exposing the company’s “secret sauce”, many tend to gravitate towards significantly under-sharing. Companies feel the client will use the additional information against them. I think that is a mistake. Transparency is not about sharing proprietary information; it is about embracing a culture of openness and integrity, honoring previously agreed-upon information flows, about better equipping our clients so we can successfully grow together.
2 . Culture: As the external ambassador of Centerfield, I often talk about our company’s culture to strategic client partners. I occasionally even catch myself bragging about it. Yes, I am passionate about our culture, I live it each day, it frankly helped me become a better person. But equally important, I feel there is a business value in openly communicating culture and values to clients. You see, people may have different personalities, behaviors, priorities, and ways of tackling business problems. But in a world with so much perceived division, it always surprises me how much we are all the same, share the same values in life, and care about what we do and say, professionally and personally. This understanding of common values and culture creates synergies between companies, even when they are on the opposing side of the supply chain. And that creates sustainable long-term success. At Centerfield, we lead by example, we have no egos. Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) is at the forefront of everything we do. We care about diversity and inclusion, and we love giving back to the community. We respect our business partners as we respect our own families
3 . Embracing Change: Oprah Winfrey once said that the greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude. I love that quote. Change is inevitable and, frankly, often out of our control. But attitude, how we react to change, is fully within our control. All companies must continuously evolve, react to competitive changes, and adjust to macroeconomic changes. Within our client success teams, it is our role to be the voice of change, to anticipate it, to adapt, and to effectively communicate to all constituents in the business relationship. And as leaders, we have a responsibility to bring along our teams and make a positive attitude towards change part of our culture.
4 . Innovation: There is no sustainable growth without innovation. I strongly recommend reading the book “How the Mighty Fall” by James Collins, describing the five steps to companies faltering. Innovation is everything, it is the only way we can help our clients be successful, stay ahead of the game, earn that paycheck, and earn that business order. Centerfield has been remarkable at product and technology innovation, outperforming competitors in the areas that matter most to our clients and their consumers. And we are obviously proud of that. But we also believe strongly that innovation surpasses product and technology excellence, carrying over in how we serve our clients, how we develop our employees, how we can play a role in the community.
5 . Results: Here is the beauty of it all, the apotheosis if you will: when fostering trust and transparency, sharing values and culture, embracing change, and accepting there is no success without innovation, results become what they are … the result. It is the ultimate virtuous circle in a company. We are a massively results-driven company, we live and breathe data, we analyze every metric, we use artificial intelligence and machine learning. It is our DNA. But these results are not feasible without our clients trusting us to A/B test innovation that may fail, sharing data in a transparent way, be on the journey of innovation with us, not against us. What we learn from failure drives results for us as a company, and for our clients as trusted strategic partners. This virtuous circle does not only drive professional success, but it is also key to the pursuit of happiness as people. And that is the ultimate result we should all strive for.
How do you ensure that these ideas are implemented throughout the customer journey?
None of these key components are accomplished overnight — for some, it will take years to build. Most importantly, we must ensure the entire company is behind these principles and dedicated to the long-term value to have a meaningful impact. Building lasting client relationships starts internally before it manifests externally. Having a company full of individuals that approach business with a customer-focused mentality ultimately leads to consistency and satisfaction in our clients eyes.
We are nearly done. You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
If I could combine my passion for world travel with helping to elevate females in leadership roles across the globe, especially in third-world countries, that would be amazing! “A quarter abroad in female leadership”. By the way, Centerfield has established a “Female Leadership” program, initiated by our Sr. Director of Learning and Organizational Development! :)
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I think a better idea would be to follow Centerfield and the amazing work our team puts forward across all levels of our organization.
Thank you for the interview. We wish you only continued success!
