#14: Scaling Your CSMs Autonomy To Solve For The Customer

The surest way to fail as you scale your CS team is to create so much process rigidity and red tape that your team doesn't have the autonomy to solve for the customer.

Good processes are required if you want to scale and drive consistency. But, over-engineered and rigid processes can have the opposite effect. They slow down your team and hinder their ability to deliver a great customer experience.

If you are looking to get the right balance between process and autonomy, then let's dive in!

 🤦🏻‍♀️ When Processes Fail To Solve For The Customer

Earlier this week I landed at Grenoble Airport for a snowboarding holiday.

Unfortunately for me, my landing coincided with a countrywide transport strike in France. With all trains stopped for the weekend, finding a transfer bus was the only option to get to the ski resort.

Outside the terminal, I found a half-empty private bus taking off to my resort in the following 15 minutes, the last one of the evening. I thought it was my lucky day, but when I approached one of the staff members to purchase a seat, I was met with a big NO.

If the bus was half-empty, why couldn't I buy a ticket?

"It's not the process" was the answer I got. 

The route coordinator explained to me that they only sell the tickets online and you'd have to buy them 24 hours in advance.

No matter how much I insisted on buying a seat, she wasn't budging. With 10 minutes to go, she gave me her boss' email and told me good luck on trying to reach out to him. 

This lady preferred to watch the bus depart half full and to leave a fellow human behind with no prospect of getting to her destination than to find a way to sell a ticket. 

As it turned out, her manager was a few meters away, on the other side of the terminal. I managed to grab him completely by chance as I walked around trying to find another solution.

In the end, the manager let me get a ticket and I was onboard with a few minutes to spare – and on the verge of a heart attack! The staff that refused me multiple times smiled and waved me in.

A version of this story is repeated over and over again inside our companies.

Customers have a request or complaint. The CSM listens but feels disempowered to solve for the customer because the most suitable solution would go against the prescribed process.

As soon as the situation is escalated to leadership, it gets solved by a manager that has the confidence to pursue an alternative path.

The CSM is happy that the customer got a solution and doesn't feel like they could have done anything differently. Meanwhile, the customer lost all trust on the CSM.

Why does this happen?

❤️ It Starts With Your Culture

An increasing number of escalations that can be solved simply with creativity, it's a red flag that your CSMs are afraid to deviate from prescribed processes.

It tells you that your culture tipped too far towards rigour and internal metrics, away from agility and customer-centricity. 

To solve this, you have to start by creating the space for CSMs to make decisions that are better for the customer. How?

By making it explicit that if a process is preventing a CSM to create a

"win-win" situation, they have permission to deviate. 

This level of autonomy will make CSMs take much more ownership of their customer's success and foster a sense that their roles are meaningful. 

Successful solutions can be scaled and become processes in the future.

CSMs are not always going to get this right. But if you want to foster a culture where creating Win-Win scenarios is the norm, you have to celebrate the attempts, dissect what could have gone better and share the lessons widely inside the team.

🏂 A Process for Going Off-Piste When Solving For The Customer

This is going to sound counter-intuitive, but having a process to deviate from a process is helpful. 

A thinking framework to help CSMs get this right looks like this:

1. Can this problem be solved using an existing lever? 
2. Why not? What's unique about this situation?
3. Is this preventing the customer from seeing value? 
4. Is there a way to solve for the customer, while solving for the business? 
5. Are there downsides to this option? What are they?
6. Who needs to buy into this solution in order for me to act on it? 
7. What are my next steps? 

If you can coach a CSM to use these 7 questions, you are developing the muscle and leadership that your CSMs need in order to drive customer centricity at scale.

 TL;DR

1. Foster a culture of creating Win-Win scenarios.
2. Use this thinking framework to guide your CSMs to make good decisions.
3. Watch the escalations you are receiving. If you find that there is an increased number of cases that could be solved with creativity, double down on communication and coaching.

I firmly believe that using those 3 steps, any CS team can scale while solving for the customer with agility.

See you next Friday.