Interview Q&A for Customer Success Management Role
1. Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer.
2. How do you manage your time?
3.How did you handle an angry customer and what was the outcome?
4. Tools you use to measure success, and process to generate your reports?
5. How do you fight churn?
These are popular CSM interview questions, it would be great to know how to answer these with real-world examples. Thanks.
#career #interview #work #job #customersuccessmanagment
7 answers
Kim’s Answer
Use the STAR approach when answering situational questions.
S: What was the SITUATION
T: What TASK did you need to accomplish
A: What ACTION did you take
R: What was the RESULT
Try to pick examples that will showcase your ability as a supervisor/manager. This would include correcting others, giving them coaching/training, delegating, apologizing to the customer, etc.
#1. "I try to do everything I can for each and every customer. I do not consider anything to be "Above and beyond" when it comes to customer service - my job is to be able to "connect" with each and every one of them, even if it is a difficult situation. I used to work at a state workforce office. I was required to give job referrals to my customers. I met with one who apparently perceived a wide racial/cultural gap between the two of us. Rather than being yet another "social worker" telling her how to successfully run her life, I opted to NOT give her any referrals on our first appointment. I told her it was more important to me to get to know her marketable skills and make sure she had a resume which showcased those skills in a way which would help her to get interviews for the types of positions she wanted. When she got up to leave, she reached out to shake my hand. (I advised my supv. of the situation, because I had deviated from procedure.) I worked with her through several subsequent appointments, which in fact included job referrals, and she was hired into a position she was seeking. <span style="color: rgb(93, 103, 106);">She wrote a letter of commendation to my manager, saying how she had dealt with "the system" for many years, and this was the first time she had been treated as a person rather than a number."</span>
<span style="color: rgb(93, 103, 106);">#3: the Angry customer: </span>
<span style="color: rgb(93, 103, 106);">You want to include such things as first: Listen. Most people want to be heard. Don't shout over them. If possible, remove them to a private office area. This removes the "Audience" as some of them are performing for the crowd. It also shows them some respect. Lower your voice rather than raising it. Watch your body language. No hands on hips, finger pointing, towering over them. If sitting at a desk, try sitting beside them rather than across from them. It projects that you see them as an "equal" rather than talking down at them. Let them know that you understand why they are upset. Repeat their issue back to them (using active listening skills). Ask them what they feel is a fair resolution. If they are so mad at you that you won't be able to resolve it, try to have a co-worker handle it (not a supervisor ---first comes the coworker!) If you are going to have to "look into it" let them know when they should hear back from you by, give them a way to contact you. Whatever example you use, use the STAR approach.</span>
2,4, 5 I don't know. There are articles available if you search "churn". Here is one.
https://www.snapagency.com/blog/churn-and-how-you-reduce
Good luck!
Heidi’s Answer
How do you communicate with customers if you can't resolve a problem right away?
What's the most challenging customer escalation you've handled?
How do you collaborate with product and sales teams?
How would you demonstrate value of our product in the first customer meeting?
Why are you interested in customer success?
How do you measure success in your current role?
How do you handle a frustrated customer?
How do you prioritize multiple urgent tasks?
Brett’s Answer
Hi Robert, Great to see your interest in Customer Success. It is a rapidly growing profession and can be an avenue into many other career paths. I've had the opportunity to lead CS organizations and in doing so, I've participated in many interviews. While the above question may be used in an interview, it is likely that conversation may go in a different direction. Customer Success is about how to build loyalty and trust with customers. At the end of the day, a company is hiring CSMs to ensure customers gain value from their service or solution and stay a customer. If you have experience doing that, I would spend time writing down a few good examples that you can relate to when an interviewer asks. If you have not done CS before, I would spend time researching their service and be able to speak to what you believe customers want to achieve and how you would help them. It is very important going into a Customer Success interview to be able to clearly differentiate a CS role from a support role. Support is break fix, Customer Success is about the customer achieving value from the solution. Hope this helps.
Kacie’s Answer
Proactively identify items and resources that the customer needs that they aren't even asking for - like bringing professional services and consulting in to help tackle problems and technical challenges they may not have the resources or capacity to address. Workshops are key.
2. How do you manage your time? Ensure regular cadence, documentation of open items, and communication both internal with your account team and external with the customer - along with prioritization of those initiatives and dividing and conquering so one person isn't doing all the work.
3. How did you handle an angry customer and what was the outcome? It is most important that the customer feels like they are being heard, that you are taking their concerns seriously, that they understand the escalation path you are pursuing regarding their challenges, and there is consistent and proactive communication and follow up with the customer on the status. All these steps will help to diffuse the situation and tension while the issue gets addressed - and will build your credibility in the process.
4. Tools you use to measure success, and process to generate your reports? Gainsight, Atlas, Tableau, Salesforce.com
5. How do you fight churn? You want to make sure you have as many relationships across the customer organization (admin to exec), be more proactive in assessing risk and paying attention to product adoption, continuously communicating the value of their investment, and escalating to your leadership early and often.
Letitia’s Answer
It is very important to show your communication and organization skills. You want to give examples on how you have achieve success with these important skills.
Gemma’s Answer
S: Situation: Describe the context or background of a specific situation you faced. Provide enough detail to help the interviewer understand the scenario.
T: Task: Explain the challenge or responsibility you had in that situation. What was your specific role or goal?
A: Action: Outline the actions you took to address the task or challenge. Focus on your contributions and decision-making process.
R: Result: Share the outcomes of your actions. Highlight what you achieved and any lessons learned, ideally using quantifiable results if possible.
With your first example "Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer" you could work backwards to explain the Situation you encountered before describing the task of going above and beyond, the action you took to do this and the result it created. Part of the CSM role is proving value and ROI, so try to be as data led as possible with your examples, using numbers to provide context where possible.
If you use the STAR template, you'll find that you can speak much more authentically and show transferrable skills which is helpful when you don't have years of CSM experience behind you. I've personally hired hundreds of CSMs across the globe and +20% had no prior experience in the profession. They got hired because they did great research on the company and showed transferrable skills around curiosity, empathy and problem solving which are attributes that make great CSMs.
Good luck out there and if you need help finding open CSM roles, check out https://talentway.io.
Edgar’s Answer
2. How do you manage your time?
3.How did you handle an angry customer and what was the outcome?
4. Tools you use to measure success, and process to generate your reports?
5. How do you fight churn?
These are very popular questions and you are smart to be prepared for them.
1- Always think back to a personal experience not a story you heard or something you "assisted" with. Rather, find a time when you saw the problem, handled it, solved it and made folks happy!
2-This is critical in todays uncertain world. With more work being "off hours" and remote, how you handle your time is important. Be prepared to talk about tools you use, both tangible and mental to go about your day, manage your load and work effectively.
3- Similar to #1 think of a time when you were there, when you had the issue, when you solved it and just talk about it comfortably.
4- There are many tools out there, be prepared to understand the metrics of the industry you are interviewing within and how those metrics stack up against each other for decision making purposes.