Delighting Your Customers in Unexpected Ways

Adam Joseph, Founder, CustomerSuccessManager.com

During my commute into the office this morning, I had a surprising, uplifting and unpredicted moment that really brought home to me the concept of delighting your customers in the most unexpected of ways.

To help set the scene, I am waiting alone at a busy bus stop on an extremely wet and blustery autumnal morning waiting for a bus to take me to my local train station.  The bus was running late and it was looking extremely unlikely that I was going to make my train.  After a couple of minutes, a taxi pulled alongside the bus stop, lowers the front passenger-side window and calls out to me, “Hello?”.  With a little trepidation at this unsolicited approach, I walked forward to his passenger-side window.  “Hello mate”, he begins, “I’ve dropped you home a few times from the train station and recognised you; I am heading back there now, jump in – I’ll give you a lift”.  Now at this point, I’m afraid to say the cynic in me immediately thought, “what’s the catch?”, “is this free?”, “what’s he after?” but feeling completely in shock at the generous offer, I put those feelings aside and jumped in the taxi.

He then proceeded to drive me the ten-minute journey to the station and we chatted merrily along the route, engaging each other and discussing our plans for the day ahead.  When we arrived at the station, I thanked the driver profusely for his extremely kind act of generosity and just about made my train to continue my commute which otherwise, I would have missed.

What really struck me on the rest of my journey was how that experience left me feeling.  Even in the grand scheme of things, it may have seemed relatively trivial (and of course it is) however this small and completely unexpected act rekindled my belief that even the smallest of actions can have a profoundly positive effect.

In the same way that this relatively small gesture from a taxi driver had such a positive effect on my day, a similar low-resource approach (alongside your strategic plans) can be applied to your customer base to help strengthen your relationship in the most unexpected ways.  Here are some recommendations as to how you can put this into action:
 

• Connect with your Customers Differently:
  • Hand-written Note: In today’s world of emails, calls, texts and even emojis, the simple art of the hand-written note seems almost archaic, however it can allow you to connect with a customer in a personal way that other mediums cannot.  Whether you write a simple “thank-you” note or congratulating them for a professional or personal achievement, it can really help build and strengthen a relationship.  To help illustrate the point, I received a hand-written note (approximately six months ago) from another software provider thanking me for working with them and it still has pride of place on my desk and is a constant reminder of them.
  • Video: Many CSMs will never meet their customer face-to-face; this is especially true if you have a high number of accounts to manage or if your customers are in a different region/country.  You can communicate in a multitude of ways over several years but you have no idea what they actually look like (and vice versa).  People do business with people and being able to put a face to a name helps humanise the whole relationship.  There are several software providers (e.g. Vidyard / Vimeo) who can embed a video of the sender directly into an email so that your customer can actually see who is sending it which helps ensure that they actually read and respond to your key messages.
    • This is as important internally as it is externally and was brought home to me during a recent company “Kick-Off” event.  Two colleagues who had worked together for many years but were based in different countries had never met and had no idea what each other looked like.  After meeting personally, their working relationship strengthened considerably and a new level of trust was built.
• Utilise Company Intelligence:
  • There is a huge amount of free intelligence on the internet that can tell you the significant events that are happening within your customer’s business (in some ways there can be too much information!).  Harness this information by using tools such as Google News Alerts to keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments and then reach out when you believe that you can add something of value.  For example, a key executive change might be the perfect time to send an introductory email explaining what you (and your business) do.
• Follow-up on closed Support Cases:
  • Once a Support Case has been closed, call (rather than email) the customer to follow-up after a short period of time.  This is not simply to get their feedback on how the Support Case was handled but also whether the resolution got them to their desired aim?  Very often a Support Case focusses in on resolving the specific question being asked and it doesn’t look at the underlying reason as to why it was raised to begin with.  Your follow-up call can accomplish this and also make sure that the Case was resolved to their satisfaction (which is great intelligence to pass to your Support Team as well).
• Customise Release Notes:
  • During a recent User Forum, the host asked the large group of customers present “who read our recent company email announcing our latest product update?”  There are no prizes for guessing how many people raised their hands, but I am sure that you know the answer without me telling you!  These types of announcements (in many cases) go unread or deleted entirely because customers don’t get “what’s in it for me?”  I would always recommend forwarding/calling a customer who I know is going to benefit from newly released functionality and telling them why.  This ensures that the key messages are completely relevant to their business and culture.
• Leverage Usage Statistics:
  • Product usage data provides a wealth of analytical information on exactly how your customers are adopting your solutions.  Although there are numerous practical applications, one data-point that can be over-looked is seeing who your “power users” were a year ago (or shorter if appropriate) and then investigate if they are still utilising it today.  
    • ​If they are, reach out to understand more about how your solution fits into their day-to-day workflow and build a close on-going relationship; they can be your “eyes and ears” inside your customer and also be a great potential fit for a Case Study.  
    • If they no longer use the product, what caused this change?  Do they now no longer believe it is fit for purpose, are they using a competitive product, are they now working on a different project, changed roles or even left the company?  Finding out the reasons why will help ensure that your knowledge of your customer increases and that your solutions continue to be relevant.  This could also help signify a new commercial opportunity; if a previous power user has left for a new company, utilise professional networking sites (i.e. LinkedIn) to find out where they are now and pass this onto your Sales Team as a new lead.  This type of commercial “savviness” helps build relationships internally between Customer Success and Sales.