Hug Your Haters (They Just Might Hug You Back!)
A while back a Tailwind member — let’s call him Ken — reached out, extremely frustrated:
Ken’s web browser was grinding to a screeching halt every time he attempted to view our app’s dashboard.
By this point, his frustration had broken out into a flurry of disappointment and fury.
Now… It was my turn to help — no pressure! 😅
As a member of Tailwind’s Customer Success team, I get to help members like Ken work through roadblocks they encounter in our software and become marketing masters who can stand on their own.
Is championing our members rewarding? Absolutely! But to engage with every member, especially in challenging situations, requires a certain level of discipline.
Here’s the deal…
I believe it’s impossible to avoid burnout as an advocate for your customers if you don’t first learn a fundamental truth: If your customer isn’t successful, neither are you.
Helpless & On-Hold: Your Worst Nightmare
Look… Sooner or later, everyone runs into their own impossibly frustrating customer service experience.
We’ve all felt that awful, helpless feeling while waiting to hear back from a company, right?
The red-hot frustration starts slowly. A seemingly simple phone call balloons into an epic waiting game. Ten minutes pass. Then thirty. Maybe more!
And then… Sometimes the customer service team doesn’t meet your expectation. The problem was messier than anticipated and tensions can flare hot.
But what if it’s your job to help?
Why Most Businesses Fail to TRULY Empower Their Customers (Hint: Everyone’s Afraid…)
Every good company wants their customers to feel heard and valued… but this isn’t always the message that gets clearly received.
In the absolute worst cases, a bad support experience broadcasts something more like this: “You’re seriously bringing me another problem? I’ll get back to you… When it’s convenient. And only because I HAVE to.”
Of course… No self-respecting person would say those exact words out loud, but they don’t have to. Inaction speaks louder than words.
Every message that doesn’t lead to a solution, lackluster phone call, and didn’t-address-my-problem email drives home a painfully clear message. It’s just not the message you wanted to communicate to your valued customers.
Conversations with your customers should never feel just transactional. But it’s not helpful to blindly shower everyone who reaches out with fluffy, motivational quotes either.
Actually, there’s an opportunity to step forward and listen with courage.
Solution: Breathe, Empathize, Help
When you help customers, you’ll run into super frustrating situations. It’s inevitable, but it’s tough to be fully present when emotions run hot.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” right? Mike Tyson understands.
You need a fallback. A system of tried-and-true defaults you can rely on to fight the urge to get short, check out or lose sight of why you’re having this conversation in the first place.
I’m a fan of a simple, three-step process:
- Breathe
- Empathize
- Help
Breathe. Easy, right? It starts by taking a breath and staying calm. Most of the time the person on the other end of the conversation has a dozen stressful fires burning that you don’t know about. So…
Don’t take everything personally! It’s near-impossible to help someone if you’re taking a defensive stance. Making calm your default state of mind frees you up for next-level compassion and understanding. Which leads us to…
Empathize. I find it’s critical to remember the role that Tailwind plays in our members’ lives if I want to “show up” and bring 100% empathy to the conversation. Our members are smart, creative and passionate. Oftentimes, their livelihood depends on great marketing — and keeping that in mind makes it easy to course correct throughout a conversation.
Help. Be genuine and show your customer that’s listening to their pain. Really listening — not just lip-service. Provide as much immediate, actionable help as possible. Then, give them the resources they need to be successful with your product long-term.
Back to Ken, remember him?
All he really wanted was to feel heard and understood. When you slow down to breathe, empathize and help a customer — I’ve often found this to be the game-changing difference.
We found the culprit of his painfully slow dashboard: A jaw-droppingly high number of pins scheduled out to infinity (or at least, that’s how it felt.)
I told him that I understood how frustrated he must be when his dashboard stopped working. Totally understandable.
After getting his dashboard up-and-running again, I let him know how delighted we were that he’d tackled Pinterest scheduling with enthusiasm. I included a few links to resources that could help avoid this problem in the future with a more balanced strategy, too.
The main lesson? Everything changed once Ken felt understood. And that makes sense. I would too.
Always Remember to Hug Your Haters (They’re Probably Just Having a Rough Day)
Honestly, most customers just want to feel heard. (In a real way, not an I’d-rather-be-anywhere-but-in-this-conversation way.)
There’s nothing sweeter than ambushing your customers with kindness. You’d be surprised how many conversations can flip from hair-pulling despair to pump-your-first-in-the-air celebration in the span of a few short minutes.
Your customers need you to listen. But honestly, they’re afraid you won’t show-up bringing your A-game. After all, it’s their business, dreams and livelihood at risk.
Breathe. Take hold of all the emotional courage you can muster, then take a flying leap into courage-filled listening.
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Interested in joining our team at Tailwind to make world-class marketing easy for everyone? Check out our open positions now.
