Questions you are asking in interviews

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krishna.reddy20072000
krishna.reddy20072000 Member Posts: 7 Seeker
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edited December 2020 in Digital CS (Engagement Programs)
Hello Community,

I would like to see what are the main questions you are focusing on in the interviews when you hire CSMs/Manager of CS.

Thanks.
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  • Kyle Milley
    Kyle Milley Member Posts: 1 Navigator
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    edited December 2020
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    Hi Krishna, 

    I have been interviewing for CSM roles for the past few months and I have been asked some interesting questions: 
    • Situtaional questions around times where I experienced team friction or failures and how I learned from them. 
    • How do you use data to identify churn indicators? Follow-up: What process was put in place to flag these indicators every time they appeared?
    • What actions do you take when you do not have alignment across internal teams?
    • And, my personal favorite: Teach me something for the next 60 seconds.
    Hope this helps! 

    -Kyle
  • Jarren Pinchuck
    Jarren Pinchuck Member Posts: 38 Expert
    edited December 2020
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    Hi Krishna,

    Many of the questions you'll need to ask will be dependant on your product and what you specifically need from a CSM.
    But, I always think about it in a few simple ways.
    • You're not hiring a developer or data technician so you don't need to test them.
    • CSMs will be handling your customers (biggest asset) but your customers are people. So you want CSMs that have people skills and abilities.
      • Ask some interesting life questions. See how well they communicate and express themselves.
    • Try to get to know them and see if the discussion flows. The ones that can develop deep relationships with your customers will almost certainly have higher retention rates and breed more advocacy.
    Lastly, I always give the final few applicants a short task. I send them an example of an email from an irate or unhappy customer. I ask them to respond to the email as if they were already a CSM and then give me an idea of how they'd solve the customer's issue.
    The main piece here is to actually assess their writing and communication ability through writing. Like it or now, we communicate mainly via text these days so for CSMs to express tone correctly and be able to solve problems via text is important.
  • Adam Pierce
    Adam Pierce Member Posts: 3 Navigator
    edited December 2020
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    Hi Krishna,

    I found personalising some of the questions listed in the article below quite interesting:

    https://www.custify.com/blog/customer-success-manager-interview-questions/

    Hope it helps!
    Adam
  • Jesse Brightman
    Jesse Brightman Member Posts: 2 Navigator
    edited December 2020
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    I would make sure that every interviewer is assigned a different competency in order to get the best shot at a 360-degree view of this person, followed by some sort of situational take-home and presentation.

    Competencies /interview themes tend to be around data analysis, customer leadership, technical aptitude, business value/ROI, commercial sensibility, and tough customer conversations.

    For the presentation, avoid a role play and have the candidate complete and present a case study that will dial in on business impact/value, while also showing that they can present and "defend" their thinking.

    Other specific questions I ask:
    - when have you been blindsided by churn, and looking back- hindsight 20/20- what would you have done differently?
    - tell me about your sales style/strategy (I ask this because whether it's a commercial role or not, someone needs to be able to sell the value, even if they aren't selling for dollars)
    - how have you operationalized the way you work, and what we're the outcomes?

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