Anyone implemented or thinking of implementing special training because of the pandemic?

Anita Toth

I'm wondering if anyone has implemented or thinking of implementing empathy or sensitivity training for their team as a way to better understand and support their customers because of the pandemic? 

If you did or are thinking about it, I'd love to find out more.

Thanks! 

 

Thomas Seelbinder

While we haven't implemented a training course, we have had many internal discussions on how the pandemic is altering how we do business and how our partners are making money. We have to adapt to those changes. 

Our Sales team, for instance, is now extremely focused on more relationship building aspects of their process. Spending is naturally down and that provides opportunity to nurture relationships versus trying to move forward into the funnel quicker. If that makes sense? 

Another example is on the Success side we are very sensitive as it relates to account expansion. We are more inclined to provide access (a new user seat) or additional resources to help the client in the short term. "We can discuss billing later" would be a fair way of describing that attitude. 

But before we can do any that we have to have meaningful conversations with our partners. Some are having record breaking months, some are feeling the pain. All of our teams are focused on having as many conversations as we possible can to get a pulse on what's happening, how it's evolving and what we can do to help. 

Will Pagden

Great point you raise.

We have done lots internally around adapting to the times and given advice and guidance around how best to serve our customers.

Its important we keep listening to our customers and then adapt our approach based on their circumstances. Some customers we are sitting back with as they have reduction in staff, others we are approaching more as our product can help with the issues they’re seeing as a result of this. 
 

Like most things CS related, open conversation and empathy is key. 

Anita Toth

Thanks for sharing this @Thomas Seelbinder. It may be a hard question to answer but have the customers noticed the changes as a result of those internal discussions?

Anita Toth

Thanks for sharing this @Will Pagden. I so agree that open conversation and empathy are key. With the customers that have reduced staff, are you waiting for them to reach back out or is someone loosely keeping in touch with them?

Will Pagden

We are keeping in touch, we are big on supporting our customers where possible. Flexibility and adaptability and critical skills for my team right. No 2 scenarios are the same. 

One thing I have been hard on is not providing freebies in this time. Our product is a pay monthly but also can deliver huge value with little to no input from end users. 
What I have offered however in support of certain customers Is some hand handling and support configuring their systems so it’s in more of an “autopilot“ mode and interaction isn’t needed. 

Thomas Seelbinder

It's a bit hard since we don't. have a large sample size yet. My gut feeling is that they have. We've been able to save a number of accounts that were pulling back (many of those have billing turned on now), while others are more willing to share insights. 

Matt Myszkowski

Hi @Anita Toth  - great question.

Yes, at SAP I introduced a survey & then personalised resilience training. So we have just completed the 2nd survey measuring the teams resilience. With the 2nd survey we measure the "gap", and then offer support, guidance & ideas around how to address these results & findings. It has been very insightful and quite scary at times/locations.

Willow Moellering

@Matt Myszkowski, would you be willing to share that survey?

Willow Moellering

I love all these ideas, I have found that this is a great time to lean on your traditional remote folks for training and team tips. & tricks.  We all know those team members struggle to feel included, so using them to do team bonding and quick training could be a great opportunity to make them the "expert". 

In my experience, a formal training is sometime unnecessary.  I work with my senior team members (one a month) to development a "tips & tricks" training they can give at the end of a team meeting.  This strategy works great for not only training, but also for career development.

Matt Myszkowski

Hi @Willow Moellering - I actually used an external company to do this so do not have a copy of the questions. Take a look at https://www.theresiliencefactor.com/ 

Anita Toth

Will -- you're the second person I've conversed with in as many days to push for no freebies or discounts (paused accounts and downgrades--yes). I'm writing an article for other CS teams about the training for empathy while balancing the customers needs and the company's needs.

Would you be open to a further discussion to see if you'd like to be included in the article?

Will Pagden

@Anita Toth of course! Feel free to stick some time on my calendar to go through further https://calendly.com/willpagden

Anita Toth

Thanks for sharing this. Happy to hear that this new approach has saved some accounts and that it sounds like it's strengthened the relationship with others.

I'm writing an article for CS Leaders about this topic and am looking for examples of some of the approaches different teams have tried.

Would you be interested in chatting with me about your experience?

Anita Toth

Awesome! Thanks @Will Pagden . I'm booking now. ??

Anita Toth

Thanks for sharing this @Matt Myszkowski. Wow!  This is great stuff.

3 questions:

1) what did the customers think of the survey?
2) did you need to educate them a bit to increase responses?
3) how did the 'scary' times/locations handle the outcome of the survey?  

Anita Toth

Thanks for sharing this @Willow Moellering. I agree formal training sometimes isn't the most appropriate. I like that you're leveraging the knowledge of the remote workers to help those new WFH members get comfortable faster. It's a huge shock suddenly being isolated.

Love the idea too of working with senior team members to tap into their experience as a way to informally mentor and support. I really like this idea a lot. 

gurd3v

This thread is full of good stuff! Thanks for starting this conversation. 

We work with private medical practices. Our doctors haven't always built a sustainable business model to weather storms like we're seeing now. Some practices have never been busier, while many have had to shut their doors. 

I've individually started all my calls asking how things are going, checking in on the human first before diving into the purpose of the call. This allows me to tailor my approach based on the practices situation. While we don't have specific training around this, it's something many other individuals in our org have started doing as well. 

Willow Moellering

So cool!  Thanks Matt!

Anita Toth

Thanks for sharing this @Gurdev Anand. Sounds like your customers are benefitting from this more personalized approach. Could you do something like @Willow Moellering suggested and share what you've discovered so far with your CS Leader and the rest of your team?

gurd3v

Overall, customers are realizing that business isn't just as it usually is - we're humans going through a (what seems like) once in a lifetime experience. Because of this, I've prioritized putting the human first, and doing what we can to support our practices on a case by case basis. 

Our leadership team has enabled us to lean on providing relief where appropriate, and this type of approach further enforces our culture of "helping practices thrive" not just when things go well, but also when the going gets tough. 

We're taking this opportunity to build customer loyalty and reinvest back into the practice because they need that.

Hope this answers your question!

Matt Myszkowski

Let me clarify - this was surveying my team of CSMs & then training them to ensure they were best placed and skilled to support our customers through an obviously very testing time. The conversations we are having with customers are some of the most challenging & demanding ones we have ever had, so the team needed to be comfortable with this.

Sorry if I mislead you.

Anita Toth

No misleading at all. ? I checked out the resilience factor and think there's some value in checking a team's resiliency, esp with the upheaval.

What was the team's response, esp those that identified with significant challenges?

Anita Toth

I love it @Gurdev Anand. Customer loyalty is a critical foundation to lay at any time, but particularly now with so much uncertainty around us and coming at us. Really good to hear that leadership is onboard and supporting the approach. That makes it so much easier.

Matt Myszkowski

The responses were varied but generally we had strong response rates (80%) and most CSMs wanted help & support with improving their resilience. We also identified and reinforced identification of CSMs who are struggling with the "new normal". 

As a massive advocate of managing mental health issues at work by preventative methods, this is a signifcant way of doing so,

The way the survey is structured, it looks at 7 pillars and therefore you can identify where the issues are but on the flip-side, provide very specific guidance to improve aspects. 

Anita Toth

Sounds like this was a very valuable approach to help CSMs individually and then as a team. 80% response rate means your CSMs were very invested in the results. I really like this example of pro-active support of team member's mental health.