CUSTOMERSUCCESSHIRING GUIDE

One

Seven Traitsto Hire for inCustomer Success

01/ Ability to simplify: helping customersunderstand a product often means breakingdown complex concepts to simple terms.

02/ Attention to detail: maintainingrelationships means thoughtful goal setting,execution, and follow up with customers.

03/ Ability to motivate: motivating meansgetting other parts of the company to takeaction on behalf of the customer, even ifthey're busy with other things.

04/ Ability to get to the root of the problem:fixing a problem isn’t helpful if you don’t fixthe right one. Customers’ solutions to theirown frustrations don’t always get at the realissue, and your CSM needs to investigate andidentify the true problem rather than takeevery customer suggestion at face value.

05/ Empathy: identifying a customer’sproblem is easier if you’re able to identifywith the customer.

06/ Technical aptitude: explaining technicalaspects of a product is hard if you aren’t ableto navigate it yourself. A customer successrep should be able to use your product insideand out, and if it’s a technical one, that maymean hiring someone with technical andinterpersonal chops.

07/ Desire to help people: helping peopleand wanting them to be happy should besomething that naturally drives yourcustomer success rep inside and outsideof work.

Two

Five GreatCustomer SuccessInterview Questions

What if anythingwould you changeabout yourself?

1No

Goal: This will help you get a sense of howintrospective the candidate is. Those whocan look inwardly in the process ofrelationship building and show empathy asa result -- who can put themselves in thecustomer’s shoes -- will form strongerconnections.

How would youdescribe the Internet

to your greatgrandmother?

2No

Goal: If your interviewee can’t explainsomething they use in their daily lives, howwill they help customers better understandthe use cases of your product? This questionwill help you judge your candidate’s abilityto explain something technical to a non-technical audience. You may want a morerigorous version of this question if yourproduct is extremely complicated, but formost people, this query works well becauseit’s background agnostic (you’re unlikely torun into a candidate who doesn’t know aboutthe Internet).

How would youdescribe the Internet

to an engineer?

3No

Goal: This question will help you see if thecandidate is capable of shifting the level oftechnical detail based on who they're talkingto. This isn’t about being an expert on theInternet but rather whether you’re an expertat catering to your audience. Customersuccess often has to interact with di�erentlevels of clients -- from engineers to VPs --and they need to be able to intuitivelyunderstand how to communicate with each.

Have you ever beenconfused by a customer’s

problem or request?What steps did you take

to fix it?

4No

Goal: You want your customer success repto be detail and process oriented; ahaphazard person isn’t going to make acustomer feel secure. You can replace“customer” with friend or family member,but the important thing here is the factthat the candidate shows that she can comeup with an organized process to addressan issue.

When have you goneout of your way to stand

up for a customeror a friend?

5No

Goal: This will help you get a sense ofwhether the candidate 1) has a naturaldesire to help people and 2) advocates forothers. The latter will be important when therep has to motivate others in the company topay attention to customers’ needs.

Three

Listen tothe Experts

Q: I have a technical product. How do Ifind someone who is skilled at bothrelationship building and engineering?

A: “I have found that those with consultingbackgrounds, preferably technical in somemanner, are often a good fit. My priorityhas almost always been to find people whoare great relationship builders and knowhow to manage a process with clients andthen train them on the technical parts ofthe role. If they are great communicatorsfirst, they can adapt.”

-Nils Vinje, Customer Success Consultantat Glide Consulting LLC

Four

Example Job PostingAbout the Job

Want to work alongside a smart, fun, hard- working team? Preact is a

predictive analytics startup in the SaaS space. Our platform uses behavioral

science and expert intuition to help companies see every move a customer

makes within their product, understand what those actions mean, and

predict what will happen next. You’ll be joining a close-knit group of people

who are defining what Customer Success means as the industry emerges.

We are looking for a relationship-savvy technical expert to help ensure the

success of Preact customers. The Customer Success Engineer must become

the trusted technical advisor to their portfolio of accounts, ensuring they

understand the parts of the product that are most useful to them and thus

get the most out of their investment in Preact. You will provide technical

best practices on how to configure, maintain and manage their Preact

implementation during pre-sale and through post-sale. You will also provide

technical support for your assigned customers and oversee the resolution

of unexpected issues, providing the appropriate business and technical

context to ensure resolution. This is a huge opportunity to become part of

an expanding team in one of the fastest growing segments of Software as

a Service (SaaS) companies. This position is strategic but, like any startup,

also requires “being in the trenches” as we build out the team to support

our rapid growth.

Say something about how great your team is.

Explain in clear terms what their day-to-day job will entailand how their success will be measured.

Responsibilities

- Manage and develop a portfolio of high-profile customer accounts and

ensure their use of our product is closely aligned with their business

strategies; drive incremental return on investment for each account

- Assist customer developers with troubleshooting their Preact API

integration and take responsibility for issue resolution

- Identify trends in adoption and utilization of our product and provide

guidance to customers

- Become an expert on customers’ implementations of Preact, understanding

top business goals and requirements

- Advocate customers’ product feature priorities internally within Preact

- Contribute internally to the Preact team, share knowledge and best

practices with team members, contribute to internal projects and initiatives,

and serve as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for specific technical or process

areas

Minimum Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent experience

- Knowledge of the software development process and of software design

methodologies

- Solid understanding of Object-Oriented design and core programming

concepts

- Highly motivated; comfortable in a fast-paced team environment and

readily adaptable to changing market requirements

Preferred Qualifications

- 5+ years relevant work experience in one or more of the following: technical

support, account management, project management or consulting -- ideally

with CRM or related applications in a SaaS environment -- and/or 3+ years

development experience

- Thorough familiarity with the database, application and network technologies

used in Cloud Computing (e.g. knowledge of network topologies and devices,

database concepts and SQL, multi-tenancy)

- Strong experience in both the front-end web tier (JavaScript, AJAX, HTML, CSS,

and cross-browser development) and back end (Java, .Net, SQL) software

development

- Experience dealing with large scale, technologically complex accounts, which

are constantly challenging product capabilities

- Experience navigating, escalating, and leading efforts on complex customer

requests or projects involving multiple parties and enterprise systems