Here’s my favorite question I ask people at Customer Success networking events.

Kevin Mitchell Leonor
Kevin Mitchell Leonor Member Posts: 249 Expert
100 Comments Second Anniversary Name Dropper
edited August 10 in CS Conversations

How do you explain to friends and family what you do in your job that doesn’t end in them saying

Oh so you are a....

tech support agent

account manager

marketing specialist

renewals manager

customer support rep

 

the list goes on..

 

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  • Kevin Mitchell Leonor
    Kevin Mitchell Leonor Member Posts: 249 Expert
    100 Comments Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited April 2020

    @Melissa Logothetis @Shane Correa @Scott Smith how do you usually explain your job to your friends and family?

  • Melissa Logothetis
    Melissa Logothetis Member Posts: 23 Thought Leader
    edited April 2020

    I tell my friends that I help customers after they buy a product to set it up, use it, and get the most value out of it to solve their companies problems. 

  • Kevin Mitchell Leonor
    Kevin Mitchell Leonor Member Posts: 249 Expert
    100 Comments Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited April 2020

    I use that and I get a, oh so you are a software consultant. yea in a sense. Maybe explaining to people outside of SaaS is a losing battle. 

  • Scott Smith
    Scott Smith Member Posts: 15 Thought Leader
    Third Anniversary Photogenic
    edited April 2020

    Love the question and made me laugh at bit as I don't think I have ever been successful in the person not asking me if it was one of the listed roles. 

    Sometimes I will use common household names such as Netflix and Amazon Prime to explain the shift to the subscription economy and that seems to make sense to most. However, If I start discussing the SaaS business model then I start to see confusion set in and its usually down hill from there. So I will typically delineate success from support and explain that the role is essentially to ensure the customer receives the most value from their purchase. 

  • Kevin Mitchell Leonor
    Kevin Mitchell Leonor Member Posts: 249 Expert
    100 Comments Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited May 2020

    I tried that same idea. @Scott Smith 

    I said, my goal as a CSM is to get you to keep buying our product monthly like spotify that you pay monthly for. I need to make sure you like it enough by recommending music, curating a playlist for you, introducing you to more music you might like, getting you to share your spotify stuff in your social media, By helping you consume more, you are likely to come back.

    The response I got: Oh you are in marketing.

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